Casa de las Artes

This is a rationalist building from 1939 designed by Romualdo de Madariaga. It was created to house a Bank of Spain office, but the Ministry of Economy and Finance decided to close all the branches outside the provincial capitals in the mid-80s and the municipality acquired the building. Casa das Artes opened in 1990 and it has been the main arts centre for municipal temporary exhibitions since. It has displayed art from different disciplines, including architecture, photography and the plastic arts, both from contemporary Galician and international movements of the 20th century. This wide range of exhibitions reveal one of the main objectives of the centre: the promotion of all forms of culture. Casa das Artes houses several municipal collections. They include the Laxeiro Foundation, the Pacheco Photography Archive and the Torras Collection, founded in 1998 after Luis Torras, an artist from Vigo, donated a selection of his best works to the city. He is considered one of the most relevant figures of Galician contemporary art, and his collection of 67 paintings, mostly of landscapes and portraits, reveals a meticulous technique and a unique Fauvist style, ranging from Post-Impressionism to Cubism.