Record Support Marks Malba’s 25th Anniversary as Eight Works Enter the Museum’s Collection

The Malba museum is marking its 25th anniversary with eight new additions to its collection, following a record year for its Acquisitions Committee.

The museum bought works by two important Argentine artists, Juan del Prete and Líbero Badíi. The committee’s fundraising total was not disclosed, but it exceeded the more than 350,000 dollars raised throughout the previous year. Six other works were donated by Mario Testino, Paksa’s children and Patricia Phelps de Cisneros.

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This settles a debt with one of the Argentine artists who actively promoted Latin American art.

Badíi, who died in 2001, enters the museum with the 1973 sculpture “Sinister Knowledge No. 4: The Being.” Chief curator María Amalia García called the acquisition a way to address a longstanding gap involving an Argentine artist who actively promoted Latin American art. She said Badíi engaged with the continent’s ancient cultures and brought a distinctive sensitivity to color in American artistic production.

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He is a central link in the account of abstraction that Malba proposes.

Del Prete is represented by “Abstraction with Material,” a 1934 painting. García described him as central to Malba’s account of abstraction, linking the work with Emilio Pettoruti’s 1914 abstract charcoals and the museum’s larger holdings of inventionist works and cut-out frames. The additions, she said, allow the museum to present broader and more plural views of those developments.

More than 80 members of the Acquisitions Committee voted on the works from a selection prepared by Malba’s curatorial team. Development director Elena Nofal said the committee’s commitment had grown steadily since its creation in 2012, with the goal of strengthening the museum’s collection of Latin American art.

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As the museum celebrates its 25th anniversary, we are delighted to continue counting on such a committed group for the acquisition of Latin American art.