Uruguay to welcome country’s first contemporary art museum

Renowned Uruguayan sculptor Pablo Atchugarry is building Uruguay’s first contemporary art museum, in the coastal resort town of Punta del Este. Designed by Carlos Ott and slated to open January 8, 2022, the Museo de Arte Contemporaneo Atchugarry (MACA) will comprise 75,000 square feet and house the Atchugarry family’s collection, which comprises more than five hundred pieces, including works by Wifredo Lam, Vik Muniz, Louise Nevelson, Frank Stella, and Joaquín Torres-García, among others, and which notably includes Atchugarry’s first marble sculpture, made in 1979. The museum, which is to offer free admission, will also host and display works on long-term loan from private collections in Uruguay, Latin America, and Europe; an acquisitions committee will be put in place following MACA’s opening.

Constructed of red grandis eucalyptus wood, the curving structure will boast five galleries and a terrace overlooking a ninety-nine-acre sculpture park displaying about seventy works. MACA occupies the grounds of the Fundación Pablo Atchugarry, which the artist established in 2007 to promote Uruguayan art and culture. Already present in addition to the sculpture park are galleries, an auditorium, an open-air stage, and a heliport.

Atchugarry has said that the museum, which he is funding privately and through donations, is meant to attract international visitors and thus draw attention to the Uruguayan art scene, in contrast with the nation’s more traditional museums in the capital of Montevideo, which tend to draw mainly local audiences. “[The museum is] a way to integrate nature and art,” Atchugarry told |v|Artnet News|. “It’s going to be a real revolution for Uruguayan artists because it’s a tangible example of the transformative power of art.”

MACA will open with a show featuring the work of Christo and Jeanne-Claude, much of which is being seen in Uruguay for the first time.

Nota completa en este link.