Irene Rodríguez, collector: “I cannot conceive of buying art to enjoy it alone” | Culture | EUROtoday

Irene Rodríguez has organized NATO summits, has lived in a number of international locations and is aware of first-hand the salons, and the kitchen, of Spanish nationwide and worldwide politics. She has additionally been widowed twice at 56 years previous. The first, at 40, from her first husband: the diplomat Juan María López Aguilar, who took his personal life in 2009, whereas being consul of Spain in Montevideo. The second, from her second husband: the journalist and businessman José Antonio Llorente, founding father of the communication company LLYC, who died two years in the past, at 63, from digestive most cancers. She meets at her home, a spectacular dwelling in a stately space of ​​Madrid, the place she lives alone, surrounded by artistic endeavors. We spoke within the visitor eating room, the place she and her husband, and now she alone, invited everybody from artists to politicians to businessmen to dinner with the only real premise of speaking about the whole lot, figuring out that what occurred there, stayed there. Dress in ardour purple. He would not lack that.

How are you feeling?

I’m high-quality. And that’s an train, a call and a job. I’m very constructive and I don’t let myself be carried away by ache or struggling. I do not need to undergo greater than crucial. I’m very conscious that in life there are very troublesome moments that come to you with out warning. For me it’s important to be good with your self and with others. I do not like being alone and if I really feel good as we speak it’s as a result of many individuals have supported me.

Does loneliness weigh you down?

We want one another. I’m what I’m as a result of many individuals in life have accompanied me. I’ve been fortunate to search out mentors in life who’ve helped me so much. I’ve all the time appeared for them. I’ve surrounded myself with individuals who moved in the direction of excellence, it is rather vital to need to be higher, then, whether or not you obtain it or not, you don’t management.

Was it like this because you have been a baby?

As a baby I used to be very sociable, very empathetic. I’ve been a type of who preferred to go to high school. I’ve needed to make an effort in my research, however I’m very disciplined, in all areas of life, which, I have to additionally admit, can result in rigidity, and we now have to battle towards that.

Since you have been little, did you’ve got a objective in life, do you know what you wished to be?

No, I’ve been discovering it. And in that, the folks I’ve met have helped me so much. Above all, my two husbands. The first, Juan María, was a diplomat and taught me a ardour for multilateral politics. I studied Law, however he taught me the opposite facet of idea, the human a part of diplomacy. The second, José Antonio, launched me to the world of communication and modern artwork, which have been his nice passions. They each taught me generosity: they have been beneficiant past measure. They all the time had time for others. They each labored for a greater world.

How can a collector enhance the world?

Collecting have to be demystified. Collecting is just not adorning, it’s not investing, it’s not placing stunning work in your own home, however supporting the artist. As an funding, artwork could be the worst: you make rather more cash within the inventory market. Art has to make you assume, get excited, replicate. And the collector, as we speak, is an individual dedicated to the artist, the gallery proprietor, and the museums. It is a patron, to the extent that you simply become involved with the artist and need to help him. I don’t conceive of shopping for artwork to take pleasure in it alone, however to share it: my home is open to my pals, and, in our LLYC places of work, to workers and everybody who passes by. I don’t conceive gathering as accumulating works for the sake of accumulating them.

Do you proceed purchasing after being widowed?

When José Antonio died, on December 31, 2024, I did not know if I used to be going to purchase once more. But, in two months, in February 2025, the ARCO honest arrived, I did it. I acquired some images of La Ribot from the Prado Museum, with and with out folks. I felt deep ache, however, on the identical time, I wished to proceed residing and normalize my life as a lot as attainable. I noticed it and immediately mentioned: I’m going to take it.

Does crush exist in artwork?

More than a crush it was emotion. And additionally a guess on myself. With José Antonio, we purchased works collectively. I additionally, to a lesser extent, in fact, started to personally purchase works by ladies. So, I used to be excited that my first buy with out it was additionally a lady. By specializing in modern artwork. Normally, we all know the artists earlier than, on the time we purchase the works, or after. I just like the figurative, I like the colour. Art is just not a pattern. It is a approach of eager to convey one thing: what is going on, what you’re experiencing, what you’re feeling.

She says that her two husbands instilled her passions in her. Did you get married too younger?

When I married my first husband, I used to be 30 years previous and he was 20 years older. I believed I used to be now not younger, however as we speak I understand that I’m. I found an vital a part of my life with him. I believe that, not directly, he, who was very pedagogical, helped me uncover all my prospects, and that’s very good. He introduced out the perfect in me.

It is a misfortune to lose two husbands.

No, it is not.

Sorry.

Being widowed twice is just not a misfortune. These are issues that occur in life. I do not really feel depressing. I’m not. I’m fortunate to have met two individuals who have influenced me a lot and so positively. The misfortune has been for them, they’ve died too quickly. They are those who’ve had dangerous luck. They have lived a really intense life. They have taken benefit of the time till the final minute. But I’m not unlucky.

Of course, however we are likely to pity these of us who’re left alive.

I’m very clear that those that die bear the brunt, because of the variety of issues they cease doing, that they haven’t lived. My first husband, for instance, missed seeing Obama arrive on the White House. He was a profession diplomat, he was very considering worldwide politics, what was occurring on the earth, and he was left with out seeing it.

He was additionally left with out seeing Trump as president. What do you assume he would assume?

We ought to ask ourselves why Trump gained, that’s the large query.

You have labored within the kitchen of politics and worldwide relations. How do you see the second we stay in?

Convulsed. Today, greater than ever, values ​​are wanted. We have loads of data and it’s time for civil society to take motion. We residents should commit ourselves, be rather more energetic, and accomplish that with optimism.

Does that imply going out into the streets to burn containers?

No, which means defending our values, placing ethics on the forefront. It is everybody’s must not go away the whole lot within the palms of politicians. For instance, I believe what Bad Bunny did on the Superbowl is alongside these strains. The dedication to music and artwork needs to be various. Talk about how all of us depend. And do it being inclusive, not unique. We have to consider why we now have reached this polarization, to be so removed from one another. Something has occurred there and we should attraction to justice, training and values.

What banner would you stand behind?

Of freedom, justice, equality and peace. It appears unattainable to me that we’re experiencing a battle in Europe, and in Gaza, and that we aspire to a ceasefire as a right away resolution when, for us, the precedence needs to be peace.

You are wealthy and influential. Do you envy one thing about somebody?

No, nothing. I’m fortunate, it is true. But, the truth is, cash doesn’t deliver happiness neither is it the tip of life. It is a medium. And I’ll inform you that cash is constructive to the extent that all of us have sufficient to have the ability to stay effectively. We should aspire for everybody to stay effectively. What’s the purpose of some residing effectively, and the remainder?

She is now a shareholder of LLYC and president of the José Antonio Llorente Foundation. How is a signature ‘inherited’?

It was completely surprising. Since they informed us he had most cancers, each he and I believed he was going to recuperate, and we skilled it as a stage in our lives that we needed to face with the purpose of being cured. Cancer is a illness that’s all over the place, why ought to we be totally different. Until three days earlier than, they informed him: you will die. And José Antonio had the whole lot deliberate. To run an organization with 1,300 folks, it’s important to be organized. I by no means thought I might discover myself occupying this place on the board of shareholders of an organization.

His firm works to advertise firms, political leaders, even international locations. Do they’ve purple strains to signify who, or do they cowl their nostril?

Of course there are. I’m not within the govt a part of the corporate, however at LLYC we don’t maintain our noses. And if we cowl it up it’s as a result of we all know that one thing is going on, and it’s not about hiding it, however about dealing with it. So, our purple strains are those that query these values ​​I used to be telling you about. For instance: it is rather vital to inform and defend the reality in communication. That is the important thing, and it’s inalienable. That, and the important spirit. The algorithm leads us to, with out realizing it, lose that important spirit, and, for us, it’s important to defend it.

Would you seat Pedro Sánchez and Isabel Diaz Ayusoand even Pedro Sánchez and Trump?

Of course, the invitation is constituted of right here and now. We should work for that to occur, they’re the primary, indubitably, however we too. You should get to that stage. We have to have the ability to sit down and discuss, from divergent positions, freely, with out insulting the opposite. Anyway, I’ll inform you that, at these dinners, those who study essentially the most are the hosts, effectively, now, the hostess.

Have you turn out to be fearful or a hypochondriac due to your life expertise?

No, look, dying is a part of life. We haven’t been educated for it, however I see it in a really possible way. It is just not the identical when your first husband dies as when your second dies. It’s arduous to say, however I do know a bit about this. The first time was very arduous, in fact, however I knew in a short time that I used to be going to get forward, as a result of I wished to get forward, however I believed that I might by no means be the identical, that it was unattainable to be. But, sure, I used to be excited once more, and that is why I used to be capable of get married once more, with the identical need, and I used to be as comfortable as the primary time. I used to be the identical once more.

Is it the identical now?

[silencio largo] It’s taking me time. More than I might have thought. Precisely as a result of I already know the idea. Grieving takes time, and it’s important to take it straightforward, however I really feel good. You have a distinct age, different duties, a larger dedication. I additionally discovered from José Antonio that, in order for you one thing to occur, it’s important to make it occur, not watch for others to do it. For this motive, amongst different issues, I’ve reconsidered the difficulty of discretion. Before, I mentioned: the perfect factor is to be discreet, to not seem in images, to be invisible. And not. Being discreet doesn’t imply not being dedicated, not being energetic, not being seen, with out having to be the protagonist of something. That’s why I’m right here with you.

IN THE LIVING ROOMS AND IN THE KITCHENS

Irene Rodríguez (Gijón, 56 years previous) studied Law and has labored in public administration and in multilateral establishments. She is patron of the Reina Sofía Museum, of the Hispanic Society of New York and, because the dying of her second husband, founding father of the Llorente y Cuenca agency, she has chaired the José Antonio Llorente Foundation, devoted, above all, to supporting younger folks and their projection with new applied sciences. In 2024 she obtained the A prize for Collecting from the ARCO Foundation for the standard of her non-public assortment and her patronage work. Passionate about dialog, private relationships and civilized dialogue, the partitions of her rooms hold as many artistic endeavors as state secrets and techniques and echoes of society. She is silent.