Edward Helig was a private, idiosyncratic American collector who believed in the potential of young artists. His globetrotting, accompanied by a dog, was less about spectacle and more about finding a future in art. He dreamed of funding a foundation or gallery in Germany and devoted himself to acquiring works by artists with strong futures.
Among the artists he supported was Eusebio Sempere (Onil, 1923-Onil, 1985). Helig purchased one of Sempere’s works directly from the artist in Onil in 1962, a landmark acquisition described as the largest single purchase of the artist’s work by a private collector. The deal involved roughly thirty gouaches for 100,000 pesetas, a bold investment by a collector from Alicante who later opened his Madrid home on José Soriano street. The artist expressed upbeat pride in that season, saying that sales were strong. Alfons Roig recalls this moment on September 17, 1962, noting the momentum in Sempere’s career at the time.
Rosa Castells, the curator of MACA, contributed to the exhibition catalog From Paris to Madrid. 1950-1965, which marked the first joint presentation of Sempere and Helig’s collection. The show featured eighteen works, including sixteen gouaches and two panels, alongside additional pieces from the gallery and private collectors. It opened in Madrid, with Guillermo de Osma Gallery marking a notable year in Sempere’s centennial celebration through the exhibition.
Sempere of a century ago
This gathering of forty works traced Sempere’s journey from 1954 to 1965, featuring collages, gouaches, oils, and large-scale organ sculpture executed for the Juan March Madrid Foundation. The display highlighted a less explored phase: the artist’s early travels to Paris, which exposed him to Kandinsky, Matisse, and other influential figures, shaping a personal language that merged geometry with lyrical, poetic elements.
“It stands as one of the artist’s most compelling periods,” says Guillermo de Osma, the gallery owner. “It marks the moment when Sempere forged a distinctive, recognizable style—the Sempere signature born during the Paris years.”
Sempere’s arc in Madrid and Paris is celebrated as a crucial hinge in his career. A representative selection of works, including gouache on cardboard and wood, reveals the evolution of his approach. Some pieces reference Fray Angélico in shades of sienna, while others honor intimate figures in Sempere’s life, such as his sister Concha. Rosa Castells notes this material in the accompanying catalog, which includes insights from independent curator Osbel Suárez and art critic Alfonso de la Torre.
Gazing back at this period, Castells emphasizes Sempere’s “extraordinary artistic moments,” including early computer-inspired explorations and the breadth of works exhibited in major museums like Pompidou, MoMA, and the Reina Sofía. He is described as a dedicated artist who balanced labor in daily life—fruit packing and unloading trucks—with nocturnal studio hours, toiling on gouache and other media.
A missed opportunity for Alicante
The arc of Sempere’s reception also touches on the fate of his works in local institutions. Had Alicante City Council approved Sempere’s purchase on any of the occasions offered, the collection might have remained in MACA’s holdings. Helig, who once ran a Georgetown-based tobacco and alcohol business, returned to the United States with the majority of his acquisitions. The trail went cold for years, until summer 2001, when Helig and his wife Rosalía Ordóñez revisited Alicante and visited the Insured Museum. They discussed the artist’s career, its value, and the possibility of lending artifacts to the museum, a conversation that hinted at what might have been.
Rosa Castells could later confirm the presence of photographs—seventeen gouache pieces on cardboard and three on wood, one now missing—described as unpublished and exceptional. The museum maintained a relationship with the artist’s catalog raisonné, which remained unfinished. A report was prepared to explore deposits and eventual purchase, but no action followed. In 2005, after her husband’s passing, Rosalía Ordóñez again pressed for the artifacts to return to the Alicante museum, but the effort did not bear fruit. Nine years later, a prominent American choreographer brokered a sale for the collection, which was offered to the Alicante museum again; however, the local government did not pursue the deal. The artifacts eventually found their way to an American gallery owner, Don Christiansen, who facilitated their return to Spain as part of a new exhibition.
Thus, Sempere’s legacy continued to travel across borders, with the works weaving a narrative of artistic innovation, cross-cultural exchange, and the enduring pull of Spain’s geometric abstraction in the mid-20th century. The story remains a testament to a century of artistic conversation, a conversation that transcends borders and institutions and remains alive in the hands of curators, collectors, and the public who encounter these works today.