Manuel Puig Costa highlighted the importance of the study of collecting in order to determine the sociological and aesthetic values that mark a certain historical period during his admission as a corresponding academician of the Royal European Academy of Doctors-Barcelona 1914 (RAED), held on 24 January. “Nothing like collecting defines the taste and values of an era. What is collected says a lot about the social transformation of a certain era”, he said.
For Puig Costa, in addition, collecting has an enormous value in the approach to the figure of the collector, often a historical person who reveals with his collection fundamental aspects of his personality that sometimes are not taken into account. “Any collection is a biography, describes a history of art or of personal popular culture. Each writes his own history of art, according to his tastes and economic possibilities, when he makes a collection”.
The new academic of the RAED read the inaigural speech “El coleccionismo. Introducción a la historia” (Collecting. Introduction to the history). On behalf of the RAED answered the full academician Pedro Clarós.
