For the unsuspecting client La Residencia's Art Collection is an event – and an immense surprise.

Displayed here are outstanding works by over 85 artists, all of whom have lived and worked in Deià or the north side of Mallorca during the last three or four decades.

The Collection is contemporary in character and wide ranging in taste, with many of the exploratory directions of modern art celebrated on these premises. Not least of the remarkable aspects of the Collection is the symbiosis of Contemporary Art with a noble Mallorcan finca dating from 16th and 17th centuries. The nobility of the buildings with their elegant appointments establishes a surprisingly intimate dialogue with these contemporary works.

Criteria used in choosing the art is not in the signature on the painting but rather its quality and a certain magical essence that distinguishes a work of art from purely decorative furnishings.

All works are original, there are no reproductions. The passage of time seems to give an increased lustre to the Collection…which is constantly being improved and augmented as meritorious new works are created in Deià or the surrounding villages. Some of the artists represented have acquired international recognition – others have continued a quieter path but this is not to me an important objective. The highest quality, originality, and mastery of the chosen works is the prime consideration.

Unexpectedly, here and there in the Collection, different versions or improvisations of past renowned European Masters are visible: Veláquez, Carvaggio, Georges de La Tour, Delacroix, Titian. They have been honoured with our once-yearly theme show at La Residencia's Tafona Gallery. The artists reveal their ‘personal view’ of these great works which recall in a contemporary manner our debt to our pictorial past.

As the hotel has expanded over the years, so has the collection, with a view to maintain the harmony and originality of direction and outlook that characterised the collection's inception.

During your visit to the village of Deiá and its environs, please recall its traditions of art, and its literary and musical culture and creativity dating back over more than a century. Here in the hotel you have an historical record of the artists and an aesthetic appreciation of those who have lived and evolved here during past decades and who continue to do so today. Their works enhance the hotel’s nobility and distinction.


Cecile Sheridan

Curator of the Art Collection
Director of Tafona Art Gallery