1. Modern Love:
A new series of e-books carries on the
Fundación Cisneros campaign to champion
the under-told story of Latin american art.
Thursday, February 14, 2013
The Wall Street Journal
WHEN A YOUNG VENEZUELAN media scion named Gustavo Cisneros came to Manhattan
from Caracas with his wife, Patricia Phelps de Cisneros, soon after they married in the 1970s,
they found a fast friend in the form of David Rockefeller. The philanthropic banker had met the
couple after founding the Americas Society and the Council of the Americas, and soon invited
them to join the International Council of New York's Museum of Modern Art. It was, as their
daughter Adriana Cisneros de Griffin tells it, an eye-opening experience. "Everybody at MoMA
knew about Diego Rivera and Frida Kahlo—that heavy Mexican art," says the 33-year-old.

2. "But my parents always had an affinity toward modernist works in Latin America. They realized
that there were two stories of Latin American art, and only one that was known to the world."
The revelation inspired them to create their own artistic organization, the Colección Patricia
Phelps de Cisneros, to encourage a better understanding and appreciation of Latin American
art.
Thirty years later, the original goals of the foundation have largely been realized. Adriana, who
became the foundation's president in 2009, points out that works by Latin-American artists now
have a home at MoMA, where her mother sits on the board of trustees. And at any time there
are hundreds of works from their collection on loan around the world, including the largest
exhibition of their pieces to date, which opened in January at Madrid's Museo Reina Sofia.
In February, the foundation launched its latest educational endeavor, a brainchild of Adriana's:
a series of six e-books on influential Latin American artists (quotes and selected art from e-
books at right) aimed at students and art fans alike. The Cisneros family's commitment to
sharing its treasures with the rest of the world signals the kind of openness and transparency
that most collectors avoid. But, "we always like to say that we're not the owners of the
collection, we're the custodians of these works of art," says Adriana. "And that's a whole
different ball game."
—Brekke Fletcher
In addition to the Feb. 20 e-book launch of the first six books in the
"Conversaciones/Conversations" series, all forthcoming titles will be published simultaneously
in print and digital editions. For more information about the e-books,
visit http://www.coleccioncisneros.org.