Museums

"Open to all since 1793": From the outset, the Louvre has embodied the concept of a truly "universal" institution. Universal in the scope of its collections, it is also universal in its appeal to some 6 million visitors every year: a 21st-century museum rooted in 200 years of innovation.

The history of the Museum of Contemporary Art (MACBA) goes back to 1959 when art critic Alexandre Cirici Pellicer championed the idea of creating a museum of contemporary art in Barcelona. Cirici and Cesáreo Rodríguez Aguilera headed a group which began to gather together a collection which would serve as the foundation of the future museum; an active platform for irradiating contemporary art. As various willing parties united to decide upon a definitive location for the new museum, the aforementioned group began a series of exhibitions - twenty three in total - of contemporary artists such as Moisès Villèlia, Antoni Bonet, Àngel Ferrant, Jean Fautrier, Albert Ràfols Casamada, Romà Vallès, Jordi Curós, Josep Maria de Sucre, and August Puig, among others. However, in February of 1963 the inauguration of the exhibition “Art and Peace,” which had clear political motives, made evident the existing limits of permissiveness, ending Cirici and Aguilera’s venture. A portion of the collection remaining in the museum was sent to the Victor Balaguer Museum in Vilanova i la Geltrú.