BARCELONA.- Desires and Necessities. New Incorporations to the MACBA Collection presents 86 works including new acquisitions made in the last three years – over half of which are exhibited here for the first time – together with works already belonging to the Collection. The title of the exhibition is inspired by Some Objects of Desire, the work of Lawrence Weiner that has presided over the atrium of MACBA since 2009. The exhibition is dedicated to the memory of Richard Hamilton, one of the most important artists to the understanding of art in the twentieth and twenty-first centuries, and a great friend of MACBA. Exhibited here is his emblematic work Growth and Form, created by the artist and presented at the ICA, London, in 1951.

Desires and Necessities revolves around a series of chapters focusing on groups of works that cover a wide chronological range of over six decades. The MACBA Collection, with over 6,000 pieces, contains works with very different characteristics: from attention to our ‘classics’ of contemporary art – the abstract painting of the fifties and sixties, wherein must be placed the work by Esteban Vicente – and the rational and non-expressionist abstraction, inspired by mathematics and Minimalism, of the works by Esther Ferrer and Néstor Sanmiguel, to significant works by artists who are central to the discourse constructed by the Museum during recent decades, such as John Baldessari, Richard Hamilton, Pablo Palazuelo, Joan Brossa, Marcel Boodthaers, Öyvind Fahlström, Dieter Roth and Muntadas.

Also included are younger artists such as and Patricia Dauder, Francesc Ruiz and Mireia Sallarès, and more established artists such as Gego, Antoni Llena, Dora García and Francesc Abad. The creativity of North Africa and the Middle East is manifested in the works of artists such as Younès Rahmoun, Sigalit Landau, Walid Raad and Wael Shawky, while artists such as Ali Cherri and Adrian Melis invite us to consider the validity of the media as the major writer of history. The works of Richard Hamilton and João Maria Gusmão & Pedro Paiva reflect modern art’s fascination with scientific innovation. On the other hand, the cultural and social changes imposed by the global economy on our society are represented by the work of Octavi Comeron and Marc Pataut. The role of photography is also present in the works of Allan Sekula and Jorge Ribalta.

The MACBA Foundation was created in 1987 with the sole aim of contributing to the project of the Museu d’Art Contemporani de Barcelona. Its mission was, and continues to be, the creation of the MACBA Collection, formed by donations from over one hundred individuals and fifty private companies. For twenty-five years, its collaboration has allowed the Museum to build a prestigious collection of public interest and a renowned national and international projection. In the last ten years MACBA has contributed over 3,800 loans to national and international museums.