History of the Museum

The Museum of Modern Art was founded by the Diputació of Tarragona in order to promote the study and knowledge of modern and contemporary art, and also to conserve and display its artistic heritage and share them with the community. In order to achieve this aim, the Museum, equipped with an auxiliary library, a documentation centre and a photographic archive, was founded.

In its current state, the Museum building is the result of the merger of three former houses in the old quarter of the city. The first had been owned by the Sants Reis Jesuit College of Tarragona. Confiscated from the Company by the Crown following the expulsion of the Jesuits in 1767, it was purchased by Antoni Martí i Gatell in 1772 and the building was known as Martí d’Ardenya house.

Antoni de Martí i Gatell was the father of the illustrious scientist Antoni de Martí i Franquès who lived in Tarragona from 1798 until his death in 1832, and it was in this house that he established his library and his laboratory. Of his studies, the most important was entitled On the quantity of vital air found in atmospheric air (1790).

The Royal Academy of Science of Barcelona has installed a plaque to commemorate this illustrious scientist on the main façade of the Museum..

Casa Martí. School of Art of the Diputació de Tarragona (c.1960)

In 1951 the School of Art of the Diputació de Tarragona was established at Casa Martí, where it remained until moving to its present location at Sant Pere Sescelades, in 1976.

In 1976, in order to make use of the space offered by the house, work began on creating a new Museum for the city.

In 1983, the Diputació acquired the building and two years later the architect Jaume Mutlló i Pàmies was commissioned to redesign the building. It reopened in 1991.

In 2008 the Museum of Modern Art updated the exhibition of its permanent collection, presenting it in a more didactic way.