{"id":2060900,"date":"2026-07-24T18:00:28","date_gmt":"2026-07-24T15:00:28","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/?p=2060900"},"modified":"2026-07-24T18:00:28","modified_gmt":"2026-07-24T15:00:28","slug":"controversial-gelman-collection-to-inaugurate-spains-new-faro-santander","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/?p=2060900","title":{"rendered":"Controversial Gelman Collection to Inaugurate Spain\u2019s New Faro Santander"},"content":{"rendered":"

[analyse_image type=”featured” src=”https:\/\/www.artnews.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/Faro-Santander-view-over-the-city.-Credit-Juan-Baraja.jpg?w=1024″]<\/p>\n

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\n\tThe Banco Santander Foundation announced September 8 as the new opening date for its forthcoming art center, the Faro Santander. The news was first reported by El Pa\u00eds<\/em>.<\/p>\n

\n\tThe space\u2019s three inaugural shows include a Leonora Carrington solo, an exhibition looking at the Banco Santander\u2019s previously unseen collection of masterpieces, and \u201cModern Mexico in the Gelman Santander Collection,\u201d drawing from the holdings of the Gelman Collection, which has been mired in controversy since January when the foundation revealed that it now owned 160 of the 300 works that had been assembled by Jacques and Natasha Gelman between 1941 and 1998. They were originally to go on view at the Faro Santander in June. \u00a0<\/p>\n

\n\tThe Gelman Collection is considered one of the most important holdings of Mexican art, with important works by some of the country\u2019s most influential 20th-century artists, including Frida Kahlo, Diego Rivera, Rufino Tamayo, Jos\u00e9 Clemente Orozco, and David Alfaro Siqueiros. Many of the works in the collection are categorized as \u201cartistic monuments\u201d under Mexican law, meaning they cannot be permanently removed from the country.<\/p>\n

\n\tOver 200 artists and art professionals in Mexico signed an open letter decrying the works\u2019 exportation to Spain, saying that the government had committed an \u201cinstitutional blunder\u201d by letting the works travel and not acquiring them for the national collection. The Instituto Nacional de Bellas Artes y Literatura had previously said that while the Gelman collection \u201cis truly an\u00a0extremely expensive collection,\u201d the government wouldn\u2019t be able to raise the \u201cpublic resources\u00a0would not necessarily be sufficient for an acquisition of this magnitude.\u201d<\/p>\n

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\"A<\/div>\n<\/div>
Diego Rivera, Retrato de Natasha Gelman<\/em>, 1943. <\/span>\u00a92026 Banco de M\u00e9xico Diego Rivera & Frida Kahlo Museums Trust<\/cite><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n

\n\tIn response, the Santander Foundation said that it did not plan to permanently remove the works and quickly organized an exhibition \u201cRelatos Modernos. Obras Emblem\u00e1ticas de la Colecci\u00f3n Gelman Santander\u201d at the Museo de Arte Moderno in Mexico City in February; that exhibition was organized by MAM director Marisol Arg\u00fcelles. The Faro Santander exhibition, also curated by Arg\u00fcelles, will be \u201ca new presentation of the collection\u201d and include an \u201coutstanding body of photography,\u201d according to a release, and be on view until January 10, 2027.<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cThis exhibition will offer multiple perspectives on Mexican modernity, bringing together leading muralists as well as artists who pursued alternative paths within the country\u2019s art scene,\u201d Arg\u00fcelles said in a statement, adding that Kahlo\u2019s art \u201coccupies a central place in the collection, which includes an outstanding group of self-portraits tracing the artist\u2019s personal and artistic development.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tWorks that will feature in the exhibition include Kahlo\u2019s Diego en mi pensamiento<\/em> (Diego on My Mind) and Autorretrato con monos<\/em> (Self-Portrait with Monkeys); Rivera\u2019s Portrait of Natasha Gelman<\/em> and Vendedora de alcatraces<\/em> (Woman Selling Calla Lilies); Tamayo\u2019s Portrait of Cantinflas<\/em>, which the foundation described as \u201ca testament to the friendship between Jacques Gelman and [Cantinflas], one of Mexican cinema\u2019s best-known figures\u201d and Francisco Toledo\u2019s watercolor Perro con escoba<\/em> (Dog with Broom), one of the last works acquired by Natasha Gelman.<\/p>\n

\n\tFaro Santander\u2019s \u201cModern Mexico\u201d exhibition will also be accompanied by live programming, including \u201cfilm screenings, music, talks and guided tours that bring out the many stories contained within the works, with a special focus on D\u00eda de Muertos, one of the most cherished festivals in the Mexican calendar,\u201d per a release. These programs are presented in collaboration with the Fundaci\u00f3n Casa de M\u00e9xico and the Cultural Institute of M\u00e9xico in Spain.<\/p>\n

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\"A<\/div>\n<\/div>
View of the interior of Faro Santander.<\/span>Photo Juan Baraja<\/cite><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n

\n\tThe Faro Santander will be housed in the bank\u2019s former 108,000-square-foot headquarters, which has undergone a renovation by Pritzker Prize\u2013winning architect David Chipperfield. The new art center will have six floors dedicated to exhibition space, as well as a technology hub, a family space, an auditorium, a restaurant, and a rooftop observation deck that overlooks the Bay of Santander.<\/p>\n

\n\tThe Faro Santander will dedicate an entire floor in the forthcoming building to the Banco Santander collection, which has been assembled over the past 160 years and has rarely been shown to the public. \u201cMasterpieces from the Banco Santander Collection\u201d will be the first iteration of this rotating display.<\/p>\n

\n\tCurated by art historian Mar\u00eda Dolores Jim\u00e9nez-Blanco, the exhibition will feature works from across five centuries by some of Western art history\u2019s most essential names, including Lucas Cranach the Elder, Titian, El Greco, Peter Paul Rubens, Francisco de Zurbar\u00e1n, Jusepe de Ribera, Diego Vel\u00e1zquez, Anthony van Dyck, Canaletto, Francisco Goya, and Joan Mir\u00f3. The exhibition will also feature postwar contemporary Spanish artists, like Antoni T\u00e0pies, Soledad Sevilla, Juan Usl\u00e9, Eduardo Chillida, and Cristina Iglesias.<\/p>\n

\n\tJim\u00e9nez-Blanco has also edited an accompanying volume titled Nuevas miradas<\/em>, which will feature \u201c14 specialists from different cultural fields offer their personal reflections on a selection of the collection\u2019s most significant works,\u201d per a release.<\/p>\n

\n\t\u00a0\u201cThe Symptomatic Surreal: Leonora Carrington\u201d focuses on the art she made in Santander, while staying at a sanatorium during World War II. It travels from the Freud Museum in London, but the Santander iteration will feature of the recently discovered painting Villa Pilar<\/em>, which Carrington had gifted to her doctor.<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cWe open Faro Santander with three great exhibitions,\u201d a Faro Santander spokesperson told ARTnews<\/em> in an email. \u201cEach exhibition has its own narrative, and together they reflect a shared commitment to bringing art and culture closer to everyone by creating new spaces for discovery, participation, and connection. Through this diverse exhibition program, the center aims to strengthen the position of Santander and Cantabria as one of the leading cultural hubs in northern Spain and to consolidate its presence on the international art scene.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tSee images from the inaugural Faro Santander exhibitions\u2014\u201cModern Mexico in the Gelman Santander Collection\u201d and \u201cMasterpieces from the Banco Santander Collection\u201d\u2014below.<\/p>\n