The United States is probably the country outside of Spain which has valued Spanish art the most. This claim is based on the sheer number of Spanish works purchased in the recent history of this nation, the high quality of these works and their widespread distribution among most of the museums in the country?s leading cities. This fascination with Spanish art is reflected in the specialisation of some of these institutions, as well as in the way these works make up the most important core of some collections or are represented on par with those of other schools in more encyclopaedic museums. This monograph reveals the wonderful Spanish artistic heritage conserved in the museums of the United States and its enormous quality and interest, from the Middle Ages until contemporary art. With essays by the conservators of American museums and experts in Spanish art, this volume evaluates the importance of the works of art from Spain in the different museums and tells the story of how they have been collected in the United States of America.

A dazzling combination of comics and essays sheds light on the rich but often overlooked contributions of Spanish immigrants to the political, cultural, and scientific history of the US.

A revealing exploration of Spain's significant impact on American painting in the 19th and early 20th century

In the course of the Spanish occupation of Mexico (New Spain) and Peru for three centuries, this confrontation of divergent ways of seeing and experiencing the world gave rise to new Latin American cultural traditions.

Including textiles, paintings and decorative arts, Archive of the Worldoffers a lucid alternative to traditional interpretations of art from the so-called New World Exquisitely illustrated with new photography, this stunning book represents the first comprehensive study of LACMA's notable holdings of Spanish American art. Following the arrival of the Spaniards in the Americas in the 15th century, the region developed complex artistic traditions that drew simultaneously on Indigenous, European, Asian and African art. In 1565 the Spaniards conquered the Philippines, inaugurating a new commercial route that connected Asia, Europe and the Americas. Private homes and civic and ecclesiastic institutions in Spanish America were filled with imported and locally made objects. This confluence of riches signaled the status of the Americas as a major entrepôt--what one contemporaneous author described as "the archive of the world." Many works created in Spanish America were also shipped across the globe, attesting to their wide appeal. Arranged into five thematic sections, the volume features a conversation about LACMA's collection and nearly 100 catalog entries by various scholars, including Pablo F. Amador Marrero, Aaron M. Hyman, Rachel Kaplan, Paula Mues Orts, Jeanette F. Peterson, Elena Phipps, Maya Stanfield-Mazzi and Luis Eduardo Wuffarden, among others. These authoritative texts offer multiple access points to appreciate the material, aesthetic and historical aspects of the works, providing a lasting reference in this increasingly influential area of art history.

A critical contribution to the burgeoning field of Spanish colonial art, Behind Closed Doors reveals how art and luxury goods together signaled the identity and status of Spanish Americans struggling to claim their place in a fluid New World hierarchy. By the early sixteenth century, the Spanish practice of defining status through conspicuous consumption and domestic display was established in the Americas by Spaniards who had made the transatlantic crossing in search of their fortunes. Within a hundred years, Spanish Americans of all heritages had amassed great wealth and had acquired luxury goods from around the globe. Nevertheless, the Spanish crown denied the region’s new moneyed class the same political and economic opportunities as their European-born counterparts. New World elites responded by asserting their social status through the display of spectacular objects at home as pointed reminders of the empire’s dependence on silver and other New World resources. The private residences of elite Spaniards, Creoles (American-born white Spaniards), mestizos, and indigenous people rivaled churches as principal repositories for the fine and decorative arts. Drawing principally on the Brooklyn Museum’s renowned colonial holdings, among the country’s finest, this book presents magnificent domestic works in a broad New World (Spanish and British) context. In the essays within, the authors lead the reader through the elite Spanish American home, illuminating along the way a dazzling array of both imported and domestic household goods. There, visitors would encounter European-inspired portraiture, religious paintings used for private devotion and also as signifiers of status, and objects that spoke to the owner’s social and racial identity.

Explores how one group of Latin American artists express their relationship to American art, history and culture.