Art Collection

Obra 'LA DISTÀNCIA MÉS CURTA' - ('THE SHORTEST DISTANCE') artist Perejaume. First work acquired collection

The Moll de Costa dock was opened in the city of Tarragona in June 1986.

To make this possible, the old sheds on this dock had to be restored, with these eventually coming to be used mainly for cultural, social and leisure activities. Urban development work was also carried out on the Moll de Costa dock, and over the years the warehouses known as ‘refuges’ were also added.

From 1988 onwards, Shed 2 on the Moll de Costa dock began housing a series of exhibitions with a very clear and groundbreaking approach that has led to the Port of Tarragona and our city becoming well-known and recognised all over the world. The works shown have always been benchmarks in contemporary art with marked conceptual lines.

In fact, it was with the first group exhibition entitled "Culmination of an environment" that the Port of Tarragona’s Art Collection really got under way, with the donation of the piece “The shortest distance” by the artist Perejaume.

In recent years, the Port of Tarragona has been managing these areas, endowing them with an intense cultural and social activity that has earned the recognition of the public and of the critics.

Over the years a great many artists have donated their works and efforts, and day by day this collection has grown until it now contains some eighty pieces.

It should be noted that a variety of disciplines are represented: sculpture, photography, engravings, etc., but above all paintings. The collection also embraces a variety of styles, both figurative ones and those that can be considered as examples of lyrical or geometrical abstraction.

Throughout this period a great deal of effort has gone into cataloguing, classifying and conserving all the pieces that form part of the Collection.

1988-2023 35 YEARS PROMOTING CULTURAL INITIATIVES AND PROJECTS

2013 marked a quarter of a century since the Port of Tarragona decided to convert the dock sheds into cultural facilities open to the city, to art and to culture in general.

A great many artists have passed through these one-time sheds, converted into excellent exhibition galleries.

The Port has works by a good many of these creators in its collection; making it a highly varied compilation, as corresponds to the artistic expressions of recent years and of course to the orientations of the sheds themselves.

Download the catalogue for the 35 years

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In order to make our Art Collection visible, a new exhibition format has been created in the lobby of the Port of Tarragona building, and this can be visited in office hours.

We will be changing the works on show on a quarterly basis so that people can gradually get to know our collection. Come along and visit us!

LAS HADAS, undated. Gouache, ink, pencil and pastel on paper

Between 1941 and 1959 the artist drew tirelessly, taking advantage of the nights of insomnia. She has left us a hundred or so drawings, notebooks full of texts and illustrations and shawls embroidered with an exquisite ornamental technique.

This exhibition in Tarragona brought together a very important part of her work and introduced several unpublished works, such as the magnificent drawing entitles Las Hadas (The Fairies). She always said that "I only feel at peace when I am drawing", and her creativity springs from the strength of a reincarnation in life. Her works currently form a part of three international museums of contemporary art, and a collection of drawings will be incorporated into the collection of the Prado Museum in Madrid.

With pop iconography figuring in much of his work and the presence on the public scene as a modus operandi, Antonio de Felipe has signed works that have been exhibited in national art centres such as the Reina Sofia in Madrid, the Picasso Museum in Barcelona or the IVAM in Valencia; as well as in prestigious international centres such as the Levy galleries in Hamburg, Terminus in Munich or the Andipa in London.

Some of his most recognised works remain in our collective imagination, and among these we cannot fail to mention his peculiar and iconoclastic vision of the icons Audrey Hepburn and Marilyn Monroe, the historic album covers of groups that the Valencian artist reinvented, and of course his "Cows" series - one of his most interactive works that had a great public impact. Without of course forgetting the famous Cibeles painting that disappeared from the municipal offices....

Works that always ended up having a dual status as a collector's piece and advertising message at the same time; a dual source which the author has always drawn on, and which has made him internationally renowned.