The Jaume Morera Art Museum of Lleida has seen its collection grow thanks to the deposits of work from the Generalitat de Catalunya which correspond to the latest purchases of the National Photography Plan and the Integral Plan for the Visual Arts.

The museum’s collections were also expanded by deposits of works by private individuals and institutions of great relevance to its stories, themes and heritage materials. In recent years, the Museum formulated and participated in proposals for acquisitions in calls arising from the implementation of the National Photography Plan and the Integral Plan for the Visual Arts in order to bolster and enrich the

national collections.

Both had very similar objectives: the first was to conserve and enhance the contributions made by the country’s finest authors in the field of photographic creation and photography as a means of reflecting on Catalan culture and society, while the second was to reactivate and bolster the National Art Collection with works produced in the second half of the 20th century by contemporary Catalan artists.

The museum ensured the inclusion of relevant artists from the Ponent region, enriching the heritage of both national collections and providing a plural and

broadened vision of contemporary creation in Catalonia. At the same time, thanks to the Generalitat’s commitment to Catalonia’s museums, all the acquisitions deposited in the region’s museums – including the Jaume Morera Art Museum – helped to shape and complete their respective collections.

In the field of photography, six acquisitions from authors with roots in Lleida, all of which were purchased over the last three-year period (2019-2021), were also presented. These included photographs by Palmira Puig, Toni Prim, Jordi V. Pou, Santi Iglesias, Espe Pons and Paula Artés.

In the field of contemporary art, acquisitions from the National Contemporary Art Collection that were deposited in our museum in 2018 were also presented. This collection included 39 works by Lluís Trepat, Albert Coma Estadella, Àngel Jové, Carles Hac Mor, Antoni Abad and Albert Bayona, Olga Olivera-Tabeni, Martin Llavaneras, Pol Merchan, Joan Pallé and Antoni Pinent, Nora Ancarola, Carles Pujol, Mar Arza, David Bestué, Enric Farrés Duran, Núria Güell, Pere Llobera, Marina Núñez and Rubén Verdú.

This important collection of contemporary Catalan art would go on to be included in the collections of the new Modern and Contemporary Art Museum of Lleida.