The French art collector Philippe Méaille has lent the Museu d’Art Contemporani de Barcelona (Macba) a substantial group of 800 pieces by the English-American collective, Art & Language, for a period of five years. “The deposit of the collection of works by Art & Language is a major qualitative and quantitative leap for the museum”, said Bartomeu Marí, the museum’s director.Méaille has been buying the collective's work for 15 years, and displaying them at his home, the Château de la Bainerie in the French Loire region. He started to collect when he was a 21-years-old student (he is now 36). The collection includes the most representative pieces made by the conceptual group including documents, texts, magazines and books as well as more conventional works of art.
Méaille was advised by collective members Michael Baldwin and Mel Ramsden. The French collector's holding include pieces from the group's inception, in the late 1960s, including 100% Abstract, 1968, to Flags for an Organisation, 1978, and more recent works, such as Tell Me, Have You Ever Seen Me?, 2003. The collective has included, at various times, the American conceptual artist Joseph Kosuth and the Oscar winning film director Kathryn Bigelow.
“This is an unique archive”, said Marí, "and this loan has made [Macba] the international museum with the largest number of works by the collective."
The Macba study centre will make accompanying documentation available to researchers, with a major exhibitions planned for 2014, curated by Art & Language expert Carles Guerra.
Published at Museums (20), The Art Newspaper - International edition Vol. XX No. 224, May 2011
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