7,900 items.

On July 8, 1952 the bookstore and art gallery Sur opened in Santander. Until its closure in 1994 it was run by its founder, the writer and gallery owner Manuel Arce (San Pedro del Acebal, Asturias, 1928-Santander, 2018), who turned it into one of the most prominent spaces in the Spanish art market during the second half of the 20th century, overcoming its peripheral location and putting forward a coherent discourse, while, at the same time, proving capable of adapting to the changing times.

Benjamín Palenciahe’s work inaugurated the gallery, and throughout its history the works of Cantabrian artists (Agustín Riancho, Pancho Cossío and César Abín), the Madrid School (Álvaro Delgado, Luis García Ochoa and Agustín Redondela) and new Catalan painters (Antoni Tàpies, Guinovart and Ràfols-Casamada) could be seen there, as could the works of artists like Llorens Artigas, Gregorio Prieto, Millares, Fernando Zóbel, Cristino Mallo, José Caballero, Eusebio Sempere and Joan Josep Tharrats. Yet, if it were necessary to highlight a few exhibitions, these would undoubtedly be the monographic ones dedicated to María Blanchard, Óscar Domínguez and Pancho Cossío, and the group exhibitions «European Masters» (Chagall, Juan Gris, Magritte, Giorgio Morandi and Fernand Léger) and «Contemporary Classics» (Chillida, Picasso, Miró, Kandinsky and Braque).

The thousands of documents from the Sur Gallery included in Archivo Lafuente include photographs (of works exhibited, exhibitions, artists, and personal ones of Manuel Arce’s life and work), correspondence with artists, assorted exhibition documents (sales invoices, lists of works exhibited with their prices...), a complete collection of gallery catalogs, exhibition brochures, magazines and books.