Art Of The Day Weekly

Centro Botín, heading to the Cantabria region

SANTANDER - The Banco Santander is the most solid bank in Spain and the Botín family, who controls it, is a financial dynasty not to be overlooked. It was therefore natural, three years after the demise of the patriarch Emilio, that the new center of the Botín foundation, active since 1964, open in Santander itself, the lovely capital of the Cantabria region. Museum maps often neglect it, in favor of its powerful Basque rival, Bilbao, some one hundred kilometers away. The architect is the designer most in demand today in matters of museums, Renzo Piano. The object itself, a glass and steel sandwich open to the famous bay, leaning on stilts, contributes to the revitalization of the former dock district. The institution opens ambitiously, combining cultural activities and educational projects, with three exhibitions. Their content is very varied, thus illustrating the ambition of its policy: a complete retrospective of Carsten Höller, a selection of some one hundred drawings by Goya, and a choice among the purchases of the last twenty years, in which Spanish and Latin American art hold a place of choice with Lara Almarcegui, Carlos Garaicoa or Juan Uslé.
• The Centro Botín opens to the public on 24 June 2017.

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