If you are visiting Cáceres, in the province of Extremadura in Spain, do not neglect a visit to the Museum of Contemporary Art Helga de Alvear. Witty, provocative, challenging and stunning – that sums up the collection. Containing over 3000 contemporary artworks, the museum was designed by acclaimed architecture studio Tuñón Arquitectos and opened officially in 2021. It was built to showcase the collection of contemporary art assembled by Helga de Alvear, and is considered to be one of the most relevant international contemporary art collections in Europe. And it is a wow!

Large format installations and sculptures, painting, video art and photography by renown artists such as Olafur Eliasson, Kandinsky, Louise Bourgeois, Ai Wei Wei and Doris Salcedo are central parts of the collection.

“The Collection begins in the late eighteenth century with an artist ahead of his time, frequently considered as the first authentic contemporary artist: Francisco de Goya.” The work of the Spanish painter is followed by other great names that are essential in order to understand 20th century art: artists such asPicasso, Kandinsky, Paul Klee, Joseph Albers and Robert Motherwell and any others.

This is not an easy museum. There were so many times when the works stopped me in my tracks, made me think, reconsider, ponder, wonder, question, or just sigh with pleasure. Exactly what a museum should do.

Housed in an elegant contemporary style building tucked into the tidy streets of Cáceres, the museum is accessed via an inclined path lined by a kind of installation art piece – chunks of Francisco Franco’s yacht, compressed into squares.

Helga de Alvear is most interested in making contemporary art accessible to everyone. “I am interested in contemporary art because it speaks to us of our times and of ourselves, because it creates and develops a language that can explain, in a new way, the world in which we happen to live and of which we often only brush the surface. ” (Helga de Alvear)

The museum is open every day except Mondays and you can book your tickets ahead online here.