Artium, the showcase of contemporary art.

Visit the Artium Museum, the most important contemporary art collection in the Basque Country.

This museum and center, inaugurated in 2002, perfectly fulfills its objective of creating, exhibiting, researching and transmitting the contemporary heritage that lies behind its walls, a task that has been internationally recognized. Its intense and complete program of cultural activities (performing arts, conferences, cinema, music…) creates a dynamic and lively atmosphere around the museum that perfectly complements the medieval quarter of the city.

Get to know the Artium Museum closely through the different facets that we name below, don’t miss them!

History of Artium: The last quarter of a century has been fundamental in obtaining the Artium Museum’s collection, and the Provincial Council of Alava began to put together what we know today as the Artium collection in the 1970s. We must place ourselves in those years and understand the context and situation of that time in which the acquisition of works of art by public bodies was an eccentricity, an eccentricity for which we should be grateful that the Artium Museum has the honor of having works by artists as important as Eduardo Chillida, Nestor Basterretxea, Picasso and Miró. Thus, we are talking about the most complete collection of contemporary art in the Basque Country and one of the most important in the Peninsula.

Artium

Building: This great collection was crying out for the construction of a new building where all the works could be exhibited in full, so in the late 90s, the Provincial Council of Alava decided to promote the construction of a new museum. The building, located next to the old town of Vitoria-Gasteiz, places most of its works below the surface, leaving the large concrete cube that we find on the surface as a mere indicator of the main entrance of this great museum. The building houses spaces of all kinds among which we find a restaurant (Cube), an auditorium, a main lobby, a store and a cloakroom among many others. Spaces, which help to complement the art exhibitions that are inside.

Artium Exterior

Artium’s current affairs: Thanks to Artium’s exhibition program, cultural activities, educational project and documentation center, we can say that we are facing an essential center of the cultural fabric of the city of Vitoria-Gasteiz and the Basque Country in general, undoubtedly one of our most important assets in the artistic and cultural scene.

Artium Workshops

Artium Collection: The permanent collection of this museum consists of more than 3,000 works of art that show the great potential of the history of art during the twentieth and twenty-first centuries in the Basque Country and Spain. Works represented in all kinds of formats, among which we highlight painting, sculpture and photography. Lately, the Artium collection is being completed with works by international artists in order to provide this museum with a broader context and perspective.

Super Hero Euskalduntzarra, Artium

Location: Right in the urban center, located next to the old town of Vitoria-Gasteiz, we find this artistic center that is presented as the cultural axis of the entire city. The architect José Luis Catón, was in charge of giving life to this emblematic building with trapezoidal shape, a place designed to act as a point of social expansion of the Basque Country. Accompanying the Artium museum in this same location are works by great artists of the twentieth century as Jorge Oteiza and Eduardo Chillida, works that we can find as we walk around.

Works of Artium: The work “A Piece of Crystallized Sky” welcomes us to Artium, a work of artist Javier Perez that captivates all who visit the Artium Museum through its size and sounds, perhaps one of the most photographed works of all this museum Gasteiztarra. Under this great work are the stairs that descend to the anteroom of the museum, the space from which you access the Artium exhibitions. In the anteroom, left and right, located above our heads, we find the work “Water Flames” by the artist Anabel Quincoces, a work formed by blown glass pieces that remind us of the seabed. Inside the exhibition halls we find a wide variety of works, a variety that caters to all tastes, we attest.

A Piece of Crystallized Heaven, Artium

These works are just a sample of the potential of Artium, a sample, which is reinforced when contemplating the rest of the works that the museum keeps inside, a must on our visit to Vitoria-Gasteiz.

Rates: Among the different types of Artium rates, the “You decide” rate stands out, a rate that allows you to decide the rate to pay depending on your opinion. This rate is valid every Wednesday of the year and the weekends following the opening of any exhibition. The contributions obtained from this rate are used for the development of programs and maintenance of the museum.

Temporary exhibitions: Artium’s temporary exhibitions create great interest among the general public, very ambitious temporary exhibitions with which the Artium Museum has achieved great fame in the international art scene.

Temporary Exhibition, Artium

TurismoVasco Tiketa” Accreditation: The Artium Museum has our exclusive tourism accreditation, a little wink through which we reward the important collection of Basque art that we find inside.

Tourism AccreditationVasco Tiketa

As you can see, this is a point of interest that you should take into account in every visit to the city of Vitoria-Gasteiz.