The mechanisms through which museums receive works for their collections are diverse. In the past 2022, works of different typologies were added to the Morera collection through, mainly, two media. One of them was the transfer by the National Art Collection of Catalonia , managed by the Generalitat de Catalunya which, a few days ago, presented the latest acquisitions in the rooms of the current museum, in the Casino de Lleida building. In terms of paintings, thanks to this public mechanism, this year the museum has acquired the work of Jordi Jové (Seròs, 1961), Ok Corral II (1989). A work that is complemented by another piece from the same series, Ok Corral (1988), which has also entered the museum collection thanks to the other mechanism used to acquire works: the donation of the artist himself. In this second case, it is the will of the creator, or his representative, and the agreement with the institution that establishes the entry into the fund, without any economic relationship. The artist donates his work to a specific institution that is responsible for its custody, preservation, conservation and dissemination.
This 2022, another artist who has also opted for the direct donation of work has been Albert Bayona (Lleida, 1954). The artist wanted to expand the collection of the Morera with two works from the A sangre fría series made in 1989: Cuba and Lunes de pascua . A donation that expands the number of works that the museum holds by the artist, where we mainly find audiovisual works, linked to his most recent productions.
Jordi Jové and Albert Bayona are colleagues from the artistic generation. Both belong to the group of painters linked to the Lleida Municipal School of Fine Arts which, in the late 80s, became a very important focus of cultural and artistic activity . The works that have entered the Museum this year are very representative of this era, linked to this new generation of painters from the 80s and 90s in Lleida and Catalonia. These are four works that were exhibited together in the A sangre fría exhibition, organized in 1989 by the Sebastià Petit Gallery in Lleida. An exhibition that collected, precisely, this link between both authors and its importance in the new cultural and exhibition spaces that emerged in the city. Jové and Bayona showed their most playful and ironic side, with constant references to cinema and Hollywood’s own iconography.
