Beulas-Sarrate collection

José Beulas focused his passion for collecting on 20th-century Spanish art, with particular emphasis on Spanish and Aragonese artists w hose careers have crossed paths with his own.

The collection began to take shape in the 1950s and has grow n gradually since, with the couple dedicating greater attention to this activity from the 1980s on.

As generally occurs in such cases, the aesthetic preferences embodied in the collection reflect the initial character of its owners. Their personal encounters w ith other artists have also played a significant role in shaping the collection. Most of the works in the collection are by artists w ho studied with José Beulas at Madrid’s San Fernando School of Fine Arts or at the SpanishAcademy in Rome, w here the artist received a grant to study in the 1950s. The majority of them w ere involved in taking the first tentative steps in a renew al of the plastic arts, primarily through their approach to landscape.

The collection focuses on the individual w ork of significant artists, represented in each case by one or tw o of their works. It encompasses early landscape painters, Expressionists, Informalists, Abstract Expressionists, and artists associated w ith the New Figuration movement. Many have made major contributions to contemporary art; others did not achieve the national and international acclaim they aspired to. All, how ever, found a place in this general collection and gained greater recognition as a result of having their work purchased by the collector.

Mir, Redondela, Bores, Juan Gris, Ortega Muñoz, Benjamín Palencia, Zabaleta, Saura, Tàpies, Feito, Millares, Viola, Canogar, Rivera, Pablo Serrano, Broto and Víctor Mira all form part of the roster of artists. Víctor Mira merits special mention as the only artist represented by more than 20 of his w orks.

In recent years Beulas’ position on art, his inner life, and his creative w ork have all led him to the conclusion that he needed to share the works that are a link to his ow n passion for painting.

The decisions made by the collectors have been guided by personal and aesthetic motivations of a subjective nature: some contributors happened to be taking part in exhibitions where Beulas w as presenting his w ork; others are friends from his studies; others share his preferences in terms of the way they pursue and investigate approaches to pictorial language. In other cases the choice of a particular artist’s work is a sign of friendship or a recognition of the creator’s importance in the art market. A range of reasons and nostalgic impulses have driven the creation of this collection, which w ith the passing of time has proven to reflect a single goal: the determination to contribute to the dissemination of contemporary Spanish art by making a donation for the future.

The CDAN’s main objective is to study and rigorously document the Beulas-Sarrate collection, and, as the foundation’s objectives state, to conserve, exhibit and promote the dissemination of the collection donated to Huesca. Making the collection public transforms the CDAN into an educational and leisure institution. As such its mission is to draw the attention of society in order to exert an influence that is no less effective for being invisible.