Madrid, Spain - The Thyssen-Bornemisza Museum exhibits From Cranach to Monet. Masterpieces from the Pérez Simón Collection, the first public display of this important private Mexican collection.  A total of 57 paintings by some of the great names in the history of art – including Cranach, Rubens, Canaletto, Tiepolo, Goya, Corot, Monet, Cézanne, Gauguin, Pissarro, Renoir and Van Gogh – will provide visitors with an overview of what is considered one of the most significant private collections in Latin America...The Pérez Simón Collection.

Comprising more than 1,000 works and including paintings, sculpture, drawings, the decorative arts and manuscripts from the 14th to the 19th centuries, this Mexican collection is well known and highly esteemed by art historians and a reference point for experts.  Works from the collection have been included in a number of temporary exhibitions and museum projects but have never before been presented as a group.  On exhibit until 10 September, 2006.

The Pérez Simón Collection is also known as the JAPS Collection, the initials of its creator, Juan Antonio Pérez Simón, and of the foundation that manages it: Juntos Actuando por la Superación A.C.. It was founded in early 1970 and is currently embarked on a project to create its own museum.  In addition to the conservation, study and dissemination of the works in the Collection, the Foundation’s aim is to encourage the development of cultural and artistic projects that enrich the taste and awareness of the Mexican public in the field of the fine arts.

Aesthetic rigor and the careful selection of works, as well as the unique personality and tastes of the Collection’s owner are the characteristics that define the Pérez Simón Collection. Among its particular traits are the clear interest in female beauty, nature, scenes from daily life that juxtapose earthly pleasures with the ephemeral nature of existence as found in still lifes, and a fascination with the use of light and color, principally in the transition from Academic painting to modern art.

Visit Thyssen-Bornemisza Museum at : http://www.museothyssen.org/thyssen_ing/home.html