A walk-dialogue with Evelio Acevedo (69 years old) director-manager of an institution, the Thyssen-Bornemisza, which is special because it has three collections of cloth, a desire to evolve and an artistic quality beyond any doubt and, because, Contrary to what is sometimes believed, it is a national museum with a fund (the collection purchased at the time from Heinrich Heini Thyssen-Bornemisza) that belongs to the State.
Acevedo, always in love with art, has known how to open the museum to society beyond its pure function and has turned it into an agora where community and culture meet continuously. One day it is an awards ceremony, like the recent one from Magazine, and another is the presentation of a series of events in support of the LGTBIQ community. Also a place that, thanks or because of the pandemic, can be visited in detail from anywhere in the world. Acevedo, who attends La Vanguardia without haste, arrived at the museum after a career in different banking entities: "Before I gave money, now I spend all day asking for it," he laughs.
What did you want to be when you were little? Surely he would not imagine that he would be here...
When I was little I wanted to be a journalist, to be there where you are. There was none in my family, but I liked to read, from Enid Blyton to whatever fell into my hands. I was always curious, wanting to investigate. If I didn't, it was out of fear, because my family told me that I had to earn a living. I studied Law and then Communications Corporation and I never thought I would be in a museum, although it must be said that one of my first hobbies was painting.
Two tributaries to the same river.
I have reconciled both passions, life is sometimes that. Art does not stop being communication, painters are also chroniclers of their times. But hey, here, in the end, what I do is make the museum work and the accounts balance. There are many figures in dance, knowing how far we can go or not.
you come from the bank
Yes, I was at Santander, I knew languages and that helped me to enter the international branch, more fun. At Sabadell I was working in London and from there I jumped to Barclays. I had a great time, innovating, developing more humanistic and supportive activities. Barclays was very pioneering in corporate responsibility, in volunteering, in campaigns to raise funds that woke me up to realities that because you are privileged you do not live but that you end up knowing. In many parts of the world and also in your backyard.
For me, the goal of each day is to wake up to continue dreaming. What painters fascinate you the most?
Thanks for not asking me what my favorite painting is. It is true that the Thyssen is a place to daydream. Here behind is the poster of the Hopper exhibition, one of my favorites and it has a special value because it is the first exhibition that I fully experienced together with another one by Marc Chagall. I really like modern painting, the German expressionists. There I agree with Baron Thyssen who explained that this movement represents a before and after, that it is his personal touch and a new one from him to the collection that he had inherited from his father. He only bought paint until the 18th century because from then on he considered that the rest was not paint.
Francesca Thyssen-Bornemisza, the baron's daughter, recalled here that her father collected what was not yet established.
Yes, painters like Hopper, like Freud and the London school, artists who feel isolated but later end up being recognized in style. Then there is old painting, I really like Dutch painting, which is important in the collection. I think we have the best Caravaggio in Spain. And Carpaccio's painting, Young Knight in a Landscape, which is a reference, and which seems to be the first full-length portrait in Europe.
The other day, watching Vermeer's, with those women reading love letters, one realizes that Hopper's universe has a lot of that world of light and silence.
Too bad we don't have any, but with Vermeers you had to be careful: some that looked like it weren't. I was lucky enough to see the exhibition and it is true that you almost cry when you see the scenes.
You reacted quickly to the pandemic by digitizing the collection so that the windows were open even when the doors were closed.
I am very proud of the team and their reaction. It all happened in five minutes. They call me from the ministry on a Friday: "You close at three and it doesn't open until a new date." We work for and for the public. We had to be close to them, not lose contact, continue to be useful, sharing projects with partners. I learned it when I gave money, now that I spend all day asking for it.
Are museums still a silent temple, garden and concert hall?
Wow... funny, a concert hall... It's what we've tried so that those who come and those who visit us from a distance are here and want to return. We like to get to know the visitor, we respect him as such, but also as a client, specializing his visit. We also limit the maximum number of visits to 80%.
So people don't bump into each other...
Yes, and sometimes that is unavoidable, because there are rush hours... It happened now at the Rijksmuseum and Vermeer, which were like sales at El Corte Inglés. We don't want nudges… Let's see, the number of visitors worries me, but having more Xs won't save your bottom line, but the quality of the experience will bother you. You can't always think about blockbusters...
Where is the balance?
The big names are the big names and they have to arouse interest. A great exhibition allows the public to meet other artists. We're not much of a blockbuster… Hopper, the most visited, Antonio López… they have to make sense for the museum and then they don't think about large shows either. That of Picasso and Chanel has had a pull, but a different Picasso is being made. You also offer quality. And we are a public museum, we have an obligation to make other names known.
At Thyssen there are three collections, the Baron, the Baroness and the TB21, more contemporary... It shouldn't be so easy to fit all three together.
I think we are lucky to have been able to buy the baron's collection, which belongs to the State and was bought 30 years ago, 800 paintings, 55 of them at the MNAC in Barcelona. The more museums I know, the more I value our collection. From the end of the XIII to the XX it is all there. Then there is Tita's, which is private. The third is provided by Francesca Thyssen and organic growth with the TB21 program, because she continues to collect in the 21st century, but with a vision of sustainability, of the social.
With the collector Patrizia Sandretto one day we were talking about a certain aversion to NFTs; It is not necessary to reject all that new outright, but my face is twisted...
We have thought a lot and considered it. On the one hand, life is like that and you cannot go against the current, but NFTs present a difficulty that is very unknown terrain. We must be careful. Formats change, as a child I collected stickers of football animals... nobody is surprised that there are posters... the NFT is that 21st century version... But when I hear about the metaverse, it causes me many doubts...
