Discerning Eye: Miguel Zugaza
February 2008
Miguel Zugaza, the 43-year-old director of the Prado Museum in Madrid, relishes discussing the future of the 200-year-old institution in light of its elegant, new $208-million addition, designed by the acclaimed architect Rafael Moneo.Settling into a sofa in his airy, art book-lined office, Zugaza looks to the position born, though his appointment in 2002 was not without controversy. Traditionally run by artists, aristocrats and academics, the museum shifted gears with his selection, following the trend set by other national European galleries of bringing in professional museum managers to deal with contemporary realities. Moreover, the Basque native, who previously held positions at Madrid’s Reina Sofia contemporary art center and Bilbao’s Museum of Fine Arts, became the museum’s youngest and highest-paid director. Most surprisingly, he has won universal approval in artistic and government circles.
WHAT ARE THE BIGGEST CHANGES BROUGHT ABOUT BY THE PRADO’S ADDITION?
We are the last great European museum to modernize. This means that the Prado has now moved into the 21st century. No longer will we be viewed as simply a grand old repository of art, but instead as a magnificent collection available to all and housed in a spacious group of buildings that cater to visitors, enabling the maintenance and study of our precious holdings. Moneo successfully linked the original 19th-century structure with the new, covering the underground passageway between them with a formal garden.
We had a chronic problem with space, but now that we’ve doubled in size, you can see both the permanent collection— we have the world’s richest store of pre-20th century masters, including Velázquez, Rubens, El Greco and Goya—and the temporary exhibitions in ideal, uncrowded circumstances. I think we’ve learned how to communicate with and serve the public better. On a very specific level, our budget almost doubled from $22 million to $42 million and we increased our staff from 350 to 420. This means more work for everyone and more changes to come.
SINCE YOU BECAME DIRECTOR, ATTENDANCE HAS RISEN ABOUT 30 PERCENT. WHY IS THAT?
In part because of our highly successful temporary exhibitions of Titian, Manet and Vermeer. Temporary exhibitions were a rarity in the past. Now with the Moneo extension, we have galleries specifically designed for them. Change attracts people, as does the opportunity to focus on one artist, particularly those as popular as those three.
We are winning the same good response to the current show, “Velázquez’s Fables,” the first in-depth analysis of his narrative works. In the spring, we’ll show Goya prints that haven’t been seen in 10 years and Renaissance portraits during the summer.
WITH STATE SUPPORT REDUCED FROM 80 PERCENT TO 50 PERCENT IN 2003, HOW HAVE YOU SUPPLEMENTED THESE FUNDS?
People often assume that by gaining corporate support one loses artistic control, but that’s not the case. We always retain total artistic control over our exhibits. The advantage is that as a result of corporate funding, we have been able to mount very expensive shows in exchange for simply adding discreet logos in our advertising. We should double our revenue by next year through earnings from our restaurants, gift shop, reproduction rights and ticket sales. At the same time we’ve just inaugurated a policy of free entry for two hours every day and have been putting more money into our restoration workshops, educational programs and acquisition fund.
THE PRADO IS SEEN AS A GREAT HISTORICAL MUSEUM. WOULD YOU EVER CONSIDER HOLDING MORE EXHIBITIONS OF MORE RECENT ARTISTS?
Definitely. We won’t stop at Goya. We’ll show more Picasso and other great modern artists. We have the space for it now and the staff to organize those kinds of shows.