Interview to María de Corral by Agustin Perez Rubio
Maria de Corral, Art Critic, Consultant and Independent Curator, Madrid, Spain by Agustin Perez Rubio, CIMAM Board member, Independent Curator, Madrid, Spain.
Agustin Pérez Rubio: Dear Maria, you have been one of the most important women in the art world, both in Spain and internationally. Together with Rosa Martinez, you were the first woman to curate a Venice Biennale, yet not everyone knows the importance of your long-standing relationship with CIMAM. How did you discover CIMAM, and why did you decide to join it as an individual member in 1986? What history and importance did it have that made you want to be part of it from Spain?
Maria Corral: At the beginning of the eighties there were two international institutions that brought together the curators of exhibitions and curators of museums. The IKT made up of people and institutions that organized exhibitions and artistic activities but did not have a collection. The other organization was ICOM/CIMAM, which included museums and institutions with collections and whose members could be either institutional or individual.
In 1983 I was appointed a member of IKT for my work at the Fundación “la Caixa” and in 1986 I was invited by the CIMAM Board to attend a meeting in Buenos Aires. At that meeting, I was proposed as an individual member and was accepted.
My membership of CIMAM was important for me and also for the Fundación “la Caixa”, which, under my direction, a year before had started its Collection, with important acquisitions. In addition, it continued its program of exhibitions in Madrid and Barcelona and I thus participated in its annual meetings dedicated mostly to the role of museums and the life of their art collections.
At the 1989 meeting in The Hague, Margit Rowell was elected President and I was elected Secretary-Treasurer.
→ You can find the complete interview and go deeper into the subject in the book: Museums from the Inside: 60 Years of CIMAM.
Available on Hatje Cantz website. CIMAM members can purchase the book directly through the office at a special price of €20 + shipping expenses. If you are interested, please contact: members@cimam.org
Museums from the Inside: 60 Years of CIMAM
On July 5, 1962, the International Committee for Museums and Collections of Modern Art (CIMAM) was founded by 23 European members at the Gemeentemuseum in The Hague (The Netherlands) under the original French acronym CIMAM – Comité de l'ICOM pour les Musées d'Art Moderne (ICOM Committee for Museums of Modern Art).
Sixty years later, this organization celebrates its anniversary with the publication of this book, in which Saskia Bos has conducted extensive research on the 60-year history of CIMAM, highlighting the historical context, the actors, and the most relevant topics discussed during the first half of the 53 editions of the CIMAM Annual Conferences. Mami Kataoka has analyzed and commented on the last 30 years highlighting how CIMAM has become a truly global international committee. This research, accompanied by a series of 21 interviews with former board chairs, donors, and curators, is now available on Hatje Cantz website.
CIMAM members can purchase the book directly through the office at a special price of €20 + shipping expenses. If you are interested, please contact: members@cimam.org