The Ella Fontanals-Cisneros Collection, which dates back to the 1970s, embodies Ella Fontanals-Cisneros’s vision of building a cultural legacy for the benefit of the public. This vision has guided her role as an institutional collector, shaped by two key principles: a deep commitment to research—understanding the scope and key figures of specific artistic movements—and an intuitive, rigorous approach to selecting essential works from the art market.

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Beyond her personal dedication as a collector, the Collection’s growth has been driven by rigorous research conducted by professional teams, particularly curators who have contributed to the Collection’s evolution. Notable curators over the past two decades include Rina Carvajal, Cecilia Fajardo-Hill, Jesús Fuenmayor, and Eugenio Valdés Figueroa. Their historical and critical perspectives have set remarkable standards, leading to both quantitative and qualitative expansion.

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This curatorial approach has shaped the development of distinct thematic sections within the Collection, each with a clear curatorial focus:

 

• Digital Art and New Technologies

• International Contemporary Art

• Latin American Geometric and Expressionist Abstraction

• Conceptualism

• Latin American Modernist Photography

• Video Art and Performance Documentation

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