Helga de Alvear is an art collector. She was born in the city of Kirn/Nahe, Germany, in 1936. She studied at the Salem School near Lake Constance, and subsequently in Lausanne and Geneva, Switzerland. She furthered her studies afterwards in London for a year. In 1957 she travelled to Spain to learn Spanish and met the architect Jaime de Alvear. They married in 1959 and she set up residence in Madrid. They have three children, Maria, Ana and Patricia. In 1967 Helga de Alvear met Juana Mordó and began what would later turn into her art collection. She came into contact with artists from the Cuenca group and from the El Paso group and she became increasingly interested in the Spanish art scene. In January 1980 she started to work at the Juana Mordó gallery. Here, she was able to hone her knowledge about the international art scene.
Galería Helga de Alvear
Helga de Alvear continued to be involved in the Juana Mordó gallery for the next 4 years, and in 1984, when Mordó died, she took the helm. Over the next 10 years she followed in the artistic and professional footsteps of her mentor. In 1995, she decided to take a turn in her career by opening a new gallery under her own name in a space measuring more than 900 square meters next to the Reina Sofía Museum. Many of her projects championed international contemporary art with a special emphasis on photography, video and installation – at a time when these mediums were practically unknown in Spain. Today, Helga de Alvear's project is one of the best-established and longest-running art galleries on the Spanish scene. and it has earned widespread international acclaim. Helga de Alvear was awarded the Medal of Extremadura in 2007, the Gold Medal for Merit in the category of Fine Arts in 2008, the Medal of Cáceres in 2011 and Fundación Arte y Mecenazgo Award in the category of Collector in 2012. While carrying out her professional duties Helga de Alvear has been able to greatly expand her art collection. At the present time her Collection includes more than 2,500 pieces by Spanish and international artists. The Collection will be donated to the Regional Government of Extremadura and the Centre of Visual Arts is currently being built in the city of Cáceres to house it. The mission of the Collection is also to contribute to public awareness about art and it often loans out works to institutions around the world. In addition, it has been the subject of a number of in-depth exhibitions, most importantly:
