Art and the deepest part of the human spirit

Patricia Phelps: I hope that dynamic and powerful art continues to be created in Latin America

Despite the many political and economic challenges that many Latin American countries, including Venezuela, have gone through, "dynamic and powerful" art continues to be created in the region, according to Venezuelan collector and philanthropist Patricia Phelps de Cisneros, something that she It gives him "a lot of hope."
"Art does not have to be beautiful in a traditional sense. It is a reflection of the world's own complexity. It can be disturbing, disturbing, disorienting. What cannot be is indifferent," says Phelps, who this Tuesday receives the Commemorative Plaque of the Reina Sofía Higher School of Music.

"Art can teach us the value of free and critical thinking like few other things. It is not done with an instrumental purpose, but to express something profound about the human being," she adds when responding in writing to a questionnaire.
And in the specific case of music, it "appeals to spiritual values, which is something that the world needs, and can unite communities despite ideologies," explains Phelps, widow of Venezuelan businessman Gustavo Cisneros. And she says: "It has been a long time since I conceived my life without music or art and I think that happens to many of us."

He adds that it is an immense honor to receive recognition from the Higher School of Music for his commitment to musical training, which is presented to him by Queen Sofía, as well as to other personalities at the closing ceremony and concert of the 2023-2024 academic year.

It is "a life project," she comments, "that has borne many fruits and a recognition of the creativity of so many Venezuelan musicians" who have gone through this international training center through the Mozarteum Venezuela Foundation, created by her and her husband. .

Art and the deepest part of the human spirit

Art can heal spirits (music is an example of this), but it can also torment them, stir individual and collective consciences... What would you say is the mystery of that force?
"Art," Phelps responds, "can reach where pure logic or language cannot reach, to the depths of the human spirit."

And its value transcends space and generations: "Art is the material trace left by civilizations. From it we can connect in depth with people from other times and other cultures."

The Patricia Phelps de Cisneros Collection (CPPC) is known, and internationally recognized, for donations of hundreds of works of Latin American art to public museums on several continents. To what end?

"The objective that Gustavo and I set for ourselves - he remembers - and that our daughter Adriana follows was simple: to bring Latin American art to the main stages of the world. Before, there was a very profound lack of knowledge and a negative stereotype about Latin American culture and I believe that today That's improved."

"Despite the many political and economic challenges that many Latin American countries have gone through, and certainly Venezuela, dynamic and powerful art continues to be created and that gives me a lot of hope," she concludes.

Phelps collaborated with the founding of the Reina Sofía Higher School of Music (1991) and is a member of its International Circle, created to promote it in the world and consolidate the support of a group of patrons who contribute to the development of this musical training center.

The Patricia Phelps de Cisneros Collection (CPPC) includes modern, contemporary art, art from the colonial period, from the Orinoco region, and works and other material by traveling artists in Latin America during the 17th, 18th, and 19th centuries.

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