The Miami-based collectors Jorge and Darlene Pérez have donated a major work by the blue-chip Abstract Expressionist artist Joan Mitchell to Tate. The 1973 work, entitled Iva after the artist’s German Shepherd dog, was sold in 2018 for $3.3m (with fees) at Christie’s New York in 2018.
At a press briefing today, Maria Balshaw, Tate director, said that “by the time [UK public collections] realised the importance of Mitchell, her works were too expensive”. Jorge Pérez told The Art Newspaper that “the large American museums typically have good collections of Joan Mitchell and this fills a gap at the Tate”.
The work is on display opposite Mark Rothko’s Seagram Mural at Tate Modern, where, Jorge Pérez says, “it has room to breathe”. “In the totally different light here, the reds come [to the fore] in a much stronger way,” the collector continues.
Jorge Pérez, born to Cuban exiles in Argentina, made his fortune developing luxury condos through his company The Related Group. In 2019, he opened El Espacio 23, a 28,000-square-foot exhibition space in Miami dedicated to his contemporary art holdings.
The Pérezes are major players in the Miami art scene and have given at least $60m to Pérez Art Museum Miami (PAMM). The museum was controversially renamed following a gift in 2011, whereby Jorge Pérez donated $40m in both cash and works to the Miami institution. They donated a further $25m in 2023.
Pérez also keeps giving. “We donated close to 200 pieces of Cuban art to PAMM in 2016 and another grouping of works to the Museo Nacional Centro de Arte Reina Sofia in Madrid [in 2019],” he told the Art Basel website.
The Pérezes have also funded a “multi-million dollar endowment” to support Tate’s curatorial research which will “help fund curatorial posts dedicated to work on African and Latin American art”, says Tate.
“Additionally, a group of important works by artists from across Africa and the African diaspora will make their way from the Pérezes to Tate’s collection over the coming years,” says a Tate statement. Works by artists such as Yinka Shonibare, El Anatsui and Joy Labinjo will be donated as part of the arrangement.
Jorge Pérez says that Latin American works will also be donated. “Jorge has been involved for long time with our Latin American acquisitions committee,” says Balshaw.