Carlos Villanueva and Jesús Soto, at Villanueva’s, Caracas, around 1973. Photo Paolo Gasparini © Archives Soto / All Rights Reserved
In the fifties, Jesús Rafael Soto began a large collection of abstract-constructivist art, which led him to the idea of founding a gallery in his native town of Ciudad Bolívar in Southern Venezuela.
The project for the Fundación Museo de Arte Moderno Jesús Soto was launched on 27 October 1969. The building itself was to be designed by the Venezuelan architect Carlos Raúl Villanueva, and the project was state-funded.
Museo de Arte Moderno Jesús Soto, Ciudad Bolivar, Venezuela. Photo Henry E. Corradini© Archives Soto / All Rights Reserved
The first part of the Foundation was inaugurated on August 25, 1973: five buildings housing offices, administrative departments and the first exhibition areas. Though he was unable to complete the detailed plans for the whole gallery on that year, Carlos Raúl Villanueva left precise instructions regarding the different stages to come, and this made possible to undertake the second part of the construction of the building in 1978, under the supervision of architects José Carlos Villanueva and Edgar Parra.
The second part of the project was opened to the public on November 22, 1987 and included the library, a multi-purpose room, a restoration workshop, storage facilities and a new exhibition space.
The permanent collection consists of the work of major abstract-constructivist, kinetic and new realist artists, from Venezuela and abroad.
It also includes a large number of important works by Jesús Rafael Soto, made throughout all his artistic life.
Museo de Arte Moderno Jesús Soto, Ciudad Bolivar, Venezuela, 1994 © Archives Soto / DR
Museo de Arte Moderno Jesús Soto
Avenida Germania
Ciudad Bolívar, Venezuela
