Museum of Contemporary Spanish Realism (MuReC)

A project arising from the sum of synergies that since 2012 has united the Diputación de Almería with the Fundación de Arte Ibáñez Cosentino in the commitment of both institutions to Art and Culture, and from the close relationship that for more than two decades has united the realist artists Antonio López García (Tomelloso (Ciudad Real), 1936) and Andrés García Ibáñez (Olula del Río (Almería), 1971), the Museo del Realismo Español Contemporáneo [MUREC] in Almería opened its doors on 15 March 2024.

Located in the former Royal Hospital of Santa María Magdalena, a building restored and refurbished by the Diputación de Almería, the MUREC houses a permanent collection of 271 works of art created between 1890 and 2023 by 134 Spanish artists. The collection, created by the Ibáñez Cosentino Art Foundation expressly for this new publicly owned cultural space, is unique and exceptional both for its discourse – realism as the common thread – and for the artists represented.

Distributed over two floors, the MUREC has 11 rooms in which the museum’s permanent collection is exhibited. A collection, distributed according to chronological criteria, which will allow the visitor to learn about the course of realism as an aesthetic option and artistic concept over more than a century of history.

The first six rooms of the museum are located on the ground floor. Here, as well as presenting, by way of a preamble, the MUREC and explaining why it is located in Almería, a journey through the evolution of Spanish Realism from the end of the 19th century to the beginning of the 1950s begins. A journey in which the presence of artists such as Sorolla, Beruete, Pinazo, Ramón Casas, Rusiñol, Mir, Gonzalo Bilbao, Benedito, Zuloaga, Mariano Benlliure, López Mezquita, Antonio Fillol, Romero de Torres, Julio Antonio, Mateo Inurria, Morcillo, Capuz, Gustavo de Maeztu, Zubiaurre, Solana, Ramón Gaya, Cristóbal Ruiz, Sunyer, Vázquez Díaz, Rosario de Velasco, Juan Cristóbal, Romero Ressendi, Eduardo Vicente, García Donaire, Xavier Valls, Campillo, Marisa Pinazo and Mallol Suazo, among many others.
The first floor of the building houses 5 rooms in which the museum’s discourse continues, from the 1950s to the present day. More than 7 decades of realist art through the works of, among others, Antonio López Torres, Félix Alonso, Carmen Laffont, María Moreno, Esperanza Parada, Isabel Quintanilla, Amalia Avia, Francisco López, Julio López, Antonio López, Matías Quetglas, Antonio Maya, José María Mezquita Gullón, Juan José Aquerreta, José María Cuasante, Félix de la Concha, Jesús Ibáñez, Clara Gangutia, Roberto González, Golucho, Ignacio Mayayo, Andrés García Ibáñez, Joseba Sánchez Zabaleta, Cristina Megía, Eduardo Millán, Pepe Baena, Francisco Lafarga and Noé Serrano.