Turn left at the Matta, then walk past the Tamayo

Turn left at the Matta, then walk past the Tamayo

The halls at IDB headquarters display a treasury of Latin American art

Do you want to visit the IDB Cultural Center?

By PAUL CONSTANCE

Visitors to the IDB’s Washington, D.C., headquarters often find themselves lingering in the hallways.

What catches their attention are works of art of all styles and subject matter from artists famous and unknown from across Latin America and the Caribbean.

"Sueño" (1932), por Diego Rivera, México

In all, nearly 1,500 paintings, sculptures, drawings, graphics in all techniques, ceramics, textiles and photographs grace the Bank’s two neighboring buildings on New York Avenue.

Represented in the Bank’s collection are artists from 40 nations, most of them from the 24 Latin American and Caribbean countries and Puerto Rico. According to Félix Angel, who oversees the collection as head of the IDB Cultural Center and curator of its visual arts program, the works were acquired by the Bank over the years as part of an informal effort to create a stimulating work environment. But eventually, they became something more.

"Kamanita" (1989), por Roberto Burle Max, Brasil

In an effort to bring the Bank collection to a wider public, the Cultural Center last August mounted an exhibition in its street-level gallery of choice works by 45 artists. The showing won praise from reviewers at the Washington Post and the Washington Times, the city’s largest newspapers.

“It is logical that if you walk into an institution that represents Latin America and the Caribbean, you should find artworks that display the creative talent of the region,” says Angel. “The collection is a reminder that the region is extremely rich artistically, and that the ‘cultural workers’ who produce this art need the means to develop their own skills and have rewarding careers.

In this sense the collection is quite consistent with the mission and the role that the IDB plays internationally.”

Institutional art collections are not unique, of course. The Organization of America States, also headquartered in Washington, has amassed an important collection, and the World Bank has recently begun to catalogue its own holdings.

But Angel says the IDB has been trendsetting in its efforts to improve the quality of its collection so that it reflects the best that the region has to offer artistically. Although artworks were acquired largely ad hoc throughout most of the Bank’s history, since 1992 new acquisitions have had to meet a rigorous set of criteria. The 500 works considered to have substantial artistic and historical significance make up what the Bank calls its Institutional Collection.

Noteworthy artists represented in the collection include Diego Rivera, José Clemente Orozco, David Alfaro Siqueiros, Rufino Tamayo, Roberto Matta, Francisco Zúñiga, Alejandro Obregón, Enrique Grau, Carlos Cruz-Díez and Fernando de Szyzlo. Also included are a small number of important drawings by Dr. Atl, Joaquín Torres García, Carlos Mérida, Emilio Pettorutti, José Balmes and Enrique Sánchez, as well as a selection of pastels by Wilfredo Lam and Benjamín Cañas.

The most valuable canvases in the collection are by Miguel Gaspar de Berrío, Pedro Figari, José Sabogal, Benito Quinquela Martín, Antonio Seguí, Humberto Jaimes Sánchez and David Manzur. There are also noteworthy sculptures by Víctor Brecheret, José Zorrilla de San Martín, Juan José Sicre, Enrique Grau, Wilfredo Díaz Valdés and Edgar Negret.

The Cultural Center is now focusing on restoring valuable pieces and acquiring a small number of high-quality works by established and emerging artists that are not well represented in the collection.