Converging Cultures: Art & Identity in Spanish America, March 1, 1996 through August 11, 1996 (Image: PHO_E1996i036.jpg Brooklyn Museum photograph, 1996)
Converging Cultures: Art & Identity in Spanish America, March 1, 1996 through August 11, 1996 (Image: PHO_E1996i037.jpg Brooklyn Museum photograph, 1996)
Converging Cultures: Art & Identity in Spanish America, March 1, 1996 through August 11, 1996 (Image: PHO_E1996i038.jpg Brooklyn Museum photograph, 1996)
Converging Cultures: Art & Identity in Spanish America, March 1, 1996 through August 11, 1996 (Image: PHO_E1996i039.jpg Brooklyn Museum photograph, 1996)
Converging Cultures: Art & Identity in Spanish America, March 1, 1996 through August 11, 1996 (Image: PHO_E1996i040.jpg Brooklyn Museum photograph, 1996)
Converging Cultures: Art & Identity in Spanish America, March 1, 1996 through August 11, 1996 (Image: PHO_E1996i041.jpg Brooklyn Museum photograph, 1996)
Converging Cultures: Art & Identity in Spanish America, March 1, 1996 through August 11, 1996 (Image: PHO_E1996i042.jpg Brooklyn Museum photograph, 1996)
Converging Cultures: Art & Identity in Spanish America, March 1, 1996 through August 11, 1996 (Image: PHO_E1996i043.jpg Brooklyn Museum photograph, 1996)
Converging Cultures: Art & Identity in Spanish America, March 1, 1996 through August 11, 1996 (Image: PHO_E1996i044.jpg Brooklyn Museum photograph, 1996)
Converging Cultures: Art & Identity in Spanish America, March 1, 1996 through August 11, 1996 (Image: PHO_E1996i045.jpg Brooklyn Museum photograph, 1996)
Converging Cultures: Art & Identity in Spanish America, March 1, 1996 through August 11, 1996 (Image: PHO_E1996i046.jpg Brooklyn Museum photograph, 1996)
Converging Cultures: Art & Identity in Spanish America, March 1, 1996 through August 11, 1996 (Image: PHO_E1996i047.jpg Brooklyn Museum photograph, 1996)
Converging Cultures: Art & Identity in Spanish America, March 1, 1996 through August 11, 1996 (Image: PHO_E1996i048.jpg Brooklyn Museum photograph, 1996)
Converging Cultures: Art & Identity in Spanish America, March 1, 1996 through August 11, 1996 (Image: PHO_E1996i049.jpg Brooklyn Museum photograph, 1996)
Converging Cultures: Art & Identity in Spanish America, March 1, 1996 through August 11, 1996 (Image: PHO_E1996i050.jpg Brooklyn Museum photograph, 1996)
Converging Cultures: Art & Identity in Spanish America, March 1, 1996 through August 11, 1996 (Image: PHO_E1996i051.jpg Brooklyn Museum photograph, 1996)
Converging Cultures: Art & Identity in Spanish America, March 1, 1996 through August 11, 1996 (Image: PHO_E1996i052.jpg Brooklyn Museum photograph, 1996)
Converging Cultures: Art & Identity in Spanish America, March 1, 1996 through August 11, 1996 (Image: PHO_E1996i053.jpg Brooklyn Museum photograph, 1996)
Converging Cultures: Art & Identity in Spanish America, March 1, 1996 through August 11, 1996 (Image: PHO_E1996i054.jpg Brooklyn Museum photograph, 1996)
Converging Cultures: Art & Identity in Spanish America, March 1, 1996 through August 11, 1996 (Image: PHO_E1996i055.jpg Brooklyn Museum photograph, 1996)
Converging Cultures: Art & Identity in Spanish America, March 1, 1996 through August 11, 1996 (Image: PHO_E1996i056.jpg Brooklyn Museum photograph, 1996)
Converging Cultures: Art & Identity in Spanish America, March 1, 1996 through August 11, 1996 (Image: PHO_E1996i057.jpg Brooklyn Museum photograph, 1996)
Converging Cultures: Art & Identity in Spanish America, March 1, 1996 through August 11, 1996 (Image: PHO_E1996i058.jpg Brooklyn Museum photograph, 1996)
Converging Cultures: Art & Identity in Spanish America, March 1, 1996 through August 11, 1996 (Image: PHO_E1996i059.jpg Brooklyn Museum photograph, 1996)
Converging Cultures: Art & Identity in Spanish America, March 1, 1996 through August 11, 1996 (Image: PHO_E1996i060.jpg Brooklyn Museum photograph, 1996)
Converging Cultures: Art & Identity in Spanish America, March 1, 1996 through August 11, 1996 (Image: PHO_E1996i061.jpg Brooklyn Museum photograph, 1996)
Converging Cultures: Art & Identity in Spanish America, March 1, 1996 through August 11, 1996 (Image: PHO_E1996i062.jpg Brooklyn Museum photograph, 1996)
Converging Cultures: Art & Identity in Spanish America, March 1, 1996 through August 11, 1996 (Image: PHO_E1996i063.jpg Brooklyn Museum photograph, 1996)
Converging Cultures: Art & Identity in Spanish America, March 1, 1996 through August 11, 1996 (Image: PHO_E1996i064.jpg Brooklyn Museum photograph, 1996)
Converging Cultures: Art & Identity in Spanish America, March 1, 1996 through August 11, 1996 (Image: PHO_E1996i065.jpg Brooklyn Museum photograph, 1996)
Converging Cultures: Art & Identity in Spanish America, March 1, 1996 through August 11, 1996 (Image: PHO_E1996i066.jpg Brooklyn Museum photograph, 1996)
Converging Cultures: Art & Identity in Spanish America, March 1, 1996 through August 11, 1996 (Image: PHO_E1996i067.jpg Brooklyn Museum photograph, 1996)
Converging Cultures: Art & Identity in Spanish America, March 1, 1996 through August 11, 1996 (Image: PHO_E1996i068.jpg Brooklyn Museum photograph, 1996)
Converging Cultures: Art & Identity in Spanish America, March 1, 1996 through August 11, 1996 (Image: PHO_E1996i069.jpg Brooklyn Museum photograph, 1996)
Converging Cultures: Art & Identity in Spanish America, March 1, 1996 through August 11, 1996 (Image: PHO_E1996i070.jpg Brooklyn Museum photograph, 1996)
Converging Cultures: Art & Identity in Spanish America, March 1, 1996 through August 11, 1996 (Image: PHO_E1996i071.jpg Brooklyn Museum photograph, 1996)
Converging Cultures: Art & Identity in Spanish America, March 1, 1996 through August 11, 1996 (Image: PHO_E1996i072.jpg Brooklyn Museum photograph, 1996)
Converging Cultures: Art & Identity in Spanish America, March 1, 1996 through August 11, 1996 (Image: PHO_E1996i073.jpg Brooklyn Museum photograph, 1996)
Converging Cultures: Art & Identity in Spanish America, March 1, 1996 through August 11, 1996 (Image: PHO_E1996i074.jpg Brooklyn Museum photograph, 1996)
Converging Cultures: Art & Identity in Spanish America, March 1, 1996 through August 11, 1996 (Image: PHO_E1996i075.jpg Brooklyn Museum photograph, 1996)
Converging Cultures: Art & Identity in Spanish America, March 1, 1996 through August 11, 1996 (Image: PHO_E1996i076.jpg Brooklyn Museum photograph, 1996)
Converging Cultures: Art & Identity in Spanish America, March 1, 1996 through August 11, 1996 (Image: PHO_E1996i077.jpg Brooklyn Museum photograph, 1996)
Converging Cultures: Art & Identity in Spanish America, March 1, 1996 through August 11, 1996 (Image: PHO_E1996i078.jpg Brooklyn Museum photograph, 1996)
Converging Cultures: Art & Identity in Spanish America, March 1, 1996 through August 11, 1996 (Image: PHO_E1996i079.jpg Brooklyn Museum photograph, 1996)
Converging Cultures: Art & Identity in Spanish America, March 1, 1996 through August 11, 1996 (Image: PHO_E1996i080.jpg Brooklyn Museum photograph, 1996)
Converging Cultures: Art & Identity in Spanish America, March 1, 1996 through August 11, 1996 (Image: PHO_E1996i081.jpg Brooklyn Museum photograph, 1996)
Converging Cultures: Art & Identity in Spanish America, March 1, 1996 through August 11, 1996 (Image: PHO_E1996i082.jpg Brooklyn Museum photograph, 1996)
Converging Cultures: Art & Identity in Spanish America, March 1, 1996 through August 11, 1996 (Image: PHO_E1996i083.jpg Brooklyn Museum photograph, 1996)
Converging Cultures: Art & Identity in Spanish America, March 1, 1996 through August 11, 1996 (Image: PHO_E1996i084.jpg Brooklyn Museum photograph, 1996)
Converging Cultures: Art & Identity in Spanish America, March 1, 1996 through August 11, 1996 (Image: PHO_E1996i085.jpg Brooklyn Museum photograph, 1996)
Converging Cultures: Art & Identity in Spanish America, March 1, 1996 through August 11, 1996 (Image: PHO_E1996i086.jpg Brooklyn Museum photograph, 1996)
Converging Cultures: Art & Identity in Spanish America, March 1, 1996 through August 11, 1996 (Image: PHO_E1996i087.jpg Brooklyn Museum photograph, 1996)
Converging Cultures: Art & Identity in Spanish America, March 1, 1996 through August 11, 1996 (Image: PHO_E1996i088.jpg Brooklyn Museum photograph, 1996)
Converging Cultures: Art & Identity in Spanish America, March 1, 1996 through August 11, 1996 (Image: PHO_E1996i089.jpg Brooklyn Museum photograph, 1996)
Converging Cultures: Art & Identity in Spanish America, March 1, 1996 through August 11, 1996 (Image: PHO_E1996i090.jpg Brooklyn Museum photograph, 1996)
Converging Cultures: Art & Identity in Spanish America, March 1, 1996 through August 11, 1996 (Image: PHO_E1996i091.jpg Brooklyn Museum photograph, 1996)
Converging Cultures: Art & Identity in Spanish America, March 1, 1996 through August 11, 1996 (Image: PHO_E1996i092.jpg Brooklyn Museum photograph, 1996)
Converging Cultures: Art & Identity in Spanish America, March 1, 1996 through August 11, 1996 (Image: PHO_E1996i093.jpg Brooklyn Museum photograph, 1996)
Converging Cultures: Art & Identity in Spanish America, March 1, 1996 through August 11, 1996 (Image: PHO_E1996i094.jpg Brooklyn Museum photograph, 1996)
Converging Cultures: Art & Identity in Spanish America, March 1, 1996 through August 11, 1996 (Image: PHO_E1996i095.jpg Brooklyn Museum photograph, 1996)
Converging Cultures: Art & Identity in Spanish America, March 1, 1996 through August 11, 1996 (Image: PHO_E1996i096.jpg Brooklyn Museum photograph, 1996)
Converging Cultures: Art & Identity in Spanish America, March 1, 1996 through August 11, 1996 (Image: PHO_E1996i097.jpg Brooklyn Museum photograph, 1996)
Converging Cultures: Art & Identity in Spanish America, March 1, 1996 through August 11, 1996 (Image: PHO_E1996i098.jpg Brooklyn Museum photograph, 1996)
Converging Cultures: Art & Identity in Spanish America, March 1, 1996 through August 11, 1996 (Image: PHO_E1996i099.jpg Brooklyn Museum photograph, 1996)
Converging Cultures: Art & Identity in Spanish America, March 1, 1996 through August 11, 1996 (Image: PHO_E1996i100.jpg Brooklyn Museum photograph, 1996)
Converging Cultures: Art & Identity in Spanish America, March 1, 1996 through August 11, 1996 (Image: PHO_E1996i101.jpg Brooklyn Museum photograph, 1996)
Converging Cultures: Art & Identity in Spanish America, March 1, 1996 through August 11, 1996 (Image: PHO_E1996i102.jpg Brooklyn Museum photograph, 1996)
Converging Cultures: Art & Identity in Spanish America, March 1, 1996 through August 11, 1996 (Image: PHO_E1996i103.jpg Brooklyn Museum photograph, 1996)
Converging Cultures: Art & Identity in Spanish America, March 1, 1996 through August 11, 1996 (Image: PHO_E1996i104.jpg Brooklyn Museum photograph, 1996)
Converging Cultures: Art & Identity in Spanish America, March 1, 1996 through August 11, 1996 (Image: PHO_E1996i105.jpg Brooklyn Museum photograph, 1996)
Converging Cultures: Art & Identity in Spanish America, March 1, 1996 through August 11, 1996 (Image: PHO_E1996i106.jpg Brooklyn Museum photograph, 1996)
Converging Cultures: Art & Identity in Spanish America
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June 1, 1994
Twenty-five metropolitan area educators, selected out of a field of more than 170 applicants, will participate in the fifth annual Summer Teacher Institute at The Brooklyn Museum from July 5 through July 21. The Institute, which is open to teachers of all grades, will explore issues relating to The Brooklyn Museum’s permanent collection of Spanish Colonial art. The program, funded by the National Endowment for the Humanities, includes scholarly lectures, gallery talks, workshops, and field trips. The educators will meet Mondays through Thursdays from 9:30 a.m. to 3:30 p.m. There will be additional follow-up sessions in the fall and winter. This summer‘s program is related to a[n] exhibition currently being organized by the Museum scheduled for the fall of 1995. Entitled Converging Cultures: Art and Colonialism in Spanish America, the exhibition will explore the nature of contact between the Native American cultures and the Spanish in Latin America through a presentation of paintings and a wide range of objects including furniture, ceramics, silver, textiles, and manuscripts. The participating educators, will also have an opportunity to preview the exhibition shortly before it opens to the general public.
Previous Summer Teacher Institutes have focused on The Brooklyn Museum’s collections of ancient Egyptian art and decorative arts.
Brooklyn Museum Archives. Records of the Department of Public Information. Press releases, 1989 - 1994. 01-06/1994, 075.
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February 6, 1995
BROOKLYN, NEW YORK--The Brooklyn Museum has acquired, in a pre-emptive bid at the New-York Historical Society sale at Sotheby’s, an extremely rare set of fourteen mid-l8th-century portraits of the kings of the Inca empire, painted by anonymous artisans of the Cuzco School in the highlands of Peru, it was announced today by Museum Director Robert T. Buck. As a New York State public institution, the Museum exercised the right, under the terms of the auction, to pre-empt for 3% less than the high bid of $310,000 and purchased the series of paintings for $300,700, plus a buyer’s premium of $33,500.
“The Brooklyn Museum’s acquisition of the Inca kings ensures that this great treasure will be preserved intact for the people of New York. We are delighted to be able to add these extraordinary portraits, unique in their completeness and state of preservation, to the Museum’s strong holdings of Spanish colonial art numbering approximately one thousand works and one of the most important such collections in North America,” comments Mr. Buck.
The fourteen portraits, donated to the New-York Historical Society in 1873 by Frederick De Peyster, will next be on public view in an upcoming exhibition organized by The Brooklyn Museum, Converging Cultures: Art and Colonialism in Spanish America. Scheduled March 1-July 14, 1996, after which it will travel to Phoenix and Los Angeles, it will be composed almost entirely of works from the Museum’s collections of Spanish colonial art, which include rich holdings of Cuzco paintings as well as sculpture, furniture, silver, textiles, and manuscripts.
“The splendid visual impact of these paintings and their fascinating history as icons demonstrating the convergence of Native and European cultures in the creation of New World societies will greatly enrich that installation,” states Linda S. Ferber, Chief Curator and Curator of American Painting and Sculpture.
The fourteen brilliantly colored and gilded bust length images, each measuring about 23 by 21 inches, depict the succession of Inca rulers of Peru from the First Inca, Manco Capac, to the last, Atahualpa, who was captured by Francisco Pizarro in 1532.
The first thirteen portraits are based on engraved images from the frontispiece of Antonio Herrera’s early 17th-century chronicle The History of the Spaniards in the Islands and the Continent of the Atlantic Ocean, one of the earliest histories of the New World. The 14 Inca king paintings are the only 18th-century set based on the Herrera book known to have survived. Following the last native revolt in 1781-82, the Spanish came to view this type of painting as inflammatory and destroyed many of them.
It is thought that the origins of this type of painting began after the Conquest because the king of Spain wished to know more about the Royal House of Peru. Accordingly a series of portraits were produced by Cuzco artists, who adapted and interpreted the portrait conventions for European rulers. Such images became important instruments of colonial government and society, serving to establish lineage as well as political and social position for the native lords of the Viceroyalty of Peru. They were also of great interest to Europeans eager to learn more of the history of the New World.
Brooklyn Museum Archives. Records of the Department of Public Information. Press releases, 1995 - 2003. 01-06/1995, 072-3.
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July 1, 1995
More than 10 years in preparation, Converging Cultures: Art and Identity in Spanish America, will be on view at The Brooklyn Museum March 1 through July 14, 1996, after which it will travel to the Phoenix Art Museum and to the Los Angeles County Museum of Art. The exhibition will comprise around 250 works, among them paintings, sculpture, costumes, textiles, domestic and religious objects, and manuscripts from the Spanish colonial viceroyalties of New Spain (Mexico) (1535-1821) and Peru (1544-1817).
Approximately eighty-five percent of the works in the exhibition are from The Brooklyn Museum’s permanent collection of Spanish Colonial material comprising more than 1,000 pieces, acknowledged to be one of the largest and finest in the United States. Many of the objects have not been on public view since the early 1940s. Loans from other museums and private individuals will be used to further illustrate and expand upon the themes raised by the collection.
Converging Cultures: Art and Identity in Spanish America was organized by The Brooklyn Museum. The exhibition is made possible by a generous grant from NYNEX. Major support has been provided by the National Endowment for the Humanities and the National Endowment for the Arts. Additional support was provided by the Mex-Am Cultural Foundation. Additional funds for the catalogue [were] provided through the generosity of the Iris and B. Gerald Cantor Foundation and the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation.
The two Spanish viceroyalties explored in the exhibition correspond to the geographic boundaries of the Aztec and Inca empires. They encompassed not only what is known today as Mexico and Peru, but also the Southwestern United States, Bolivia, Chile, Colombia, Argentina, Paraguay[,] and Ecuador.
Objects from Mexico will include a series of portraits from the aristocratic Algara-Romero de Terreros family, as well as Chinese export ceramics, and a serape owned by that family; illustrated manuscripts made by native communities to confirm their history and support their autonomy; a fine lacquer tray, called a batea; textiles made by the Huichol; a striking image of St. Francis painted on hide by the New Mexican painter Molleno; and a copy of the Mexican Declaration of Independence.
The arts of Peru are especially well represented in the exhibition. Among them will be a selection from the set of fourteen mid-18th century portraits of the kings of the Inca empire, painted by anonymous artisans of the Cuzco School in the highlands of Peru, purchased by The Brooklyn Museum at the New-York Historical Society sale at Sotheby’s. Additional Cuzco paintings, most with religious themes, from the Museum’s important holdings will also be presented.
Other Peruvian objects include a splendid portrait of a woman from the Lima school; a selection of fine tapestries and rare native garments; wooden kero cups; silver horse equipage; and [an] 18th-century gilded bed, a sculpture of the Virgin of Quito attributed to the workshop of Bernardo de Legardo[,] and jewelry made by the Mapuche, a cultural group that retained its traditions and artistic independence under both the Inca and the Spanish.
Converging Cultures will examine the native contribution to the development of colonial society as well as the impact of imported European culture, focusing on the ways in which these two distinct populations influenced one another and the creative results of their interaction.
The exhibition will explore issues of identity as they are expressed and reflected in a wide range of objects and images. Among the themes emphasized are:
* Self Representation. How did the various groups that made up colonial society represent themselves to each other? What aspects of their history did they choose to preserve and present?
* Patronage and Reception. How did colonial social, economic, and religious institutions shape the production of art and [a]ffect traditional technologies, interpretations, and values? How did diverse audiences interpret this art?
* Artistic Strategies of Resistance. Which arts survived and flourished in the new colonial environment and how did their meanings change?
* Anachronism and Revival. What role did the past play in the development of national identities in the Independence period?
HISTORY OF THE COLLECTION
Much of The Brooklyn Museum’s collection of more than 1,000 pieces of Spanish colonial art was acquired in 1941 during a several-month-long field trip by longtime curator of ethnography Herbert J. Spinden. A Harvard-trained archaeologist, Spinden’s interests in both the fine arts and social sciences were reflected in the Spanish Colonial collection, which ranges from artistic masterpieces to everyday household objects. A month after his return from the field the acquisitions were presented in the groundbreaking exhibition America South of the U.S., the first major exhibition of Spanish Colonial material in this country. Herbert Spinden also was responsible for acquiring the core of The Brooklyn Museum’s important collection of pre-Columbian material, which comprises more than 8,000 works including the most important collection in North America of Peruvian and Andean textiles.
The first permanent display of Spanish colonial material was installed in the early 1940s and was on view until the 1950s. The collection was eventually redistributed to four different curatorial departments within the Museum—Painting & Sculpture; Decorative Arts; Arts of Africa, the Pacific, and the Americas; and Costumes & Textiles.
The presentation of Converging Cultures marks the first time this material has been reunited in several decades and was a collaborative effort of the curatorial departments. The exhibition has been organized by Kevin Stayton, Curator of Decorative Arts, Costumes, Textiles; Diana Fane, Chair of the department of the Arts of Africa, the Pacific and the Americas; and Sarah Faunce, Curator of European Painting & Sculpture.
The exhibition will be accompanied by a catalogue co-published by Abrams. It will include essays by outside scholars as well as organizing curators. There will also be video presentation and a wide range of educational and public programs.
EXHIBITION ITINERARY
The Brooklyn Museum:
March 1-July 14, 1996
Phoenix Art Museum:
December 1996-February 1997
Los Angeles County Museum of Art:
March 30-June 8, 1997
Brooklyn Museum Archives. Records of the Department of Public Information. Press releases, 1995 - 2003. 01-06/1996, 001-4.
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September 1, 1995
Diana Fane, Ph. D.
Diana Fane received a Ph. D. in Art History from Columbia University. A specialist in American Indian and Pre-Columbian art, she joined the staff of The Brooklyn Museum in 1979 and is now Curator of the Arts of the Americas and Chair of the Department of the Arts of Africas, the Pacific, and the Americas.
Dr. Fane has been awarded numerous fellowships. Most recently she was one of 12 scholars participating in the Getty Scholar Program of the Getty Center for the History of Art and the Humanities where she spent the 1993-1994 academic year.
At The Brooklyn Museum Diana Fane has served as director of several federally funded projects, among them the traveling exhibition Objects of Myth and Memory: American Indian Art at The Brooklyn Museum. Other exhibitions at The Brooklyn Museum that she has organized are Images on Stone: Petroglyphs of the Southwest (1988-89), Indian Pottery of the American Southwest (1985), The Textile Arts of the American Southwest (1984), and Discovering the Maya (1982).
Diana Fane is co-author of the exhibition catalogue Objects of Myth & Memory and volume editor of the catalogue for Converging Cultures.
Sarah Faunce
Sarah Faunce joined The Brooklyn Museum in 1969 as Curator of Painting and Sculpture. In 1984, when the expanding department was divided into American, European, and Contemporary sections, she became Curator of European Painting and Sculpture and Chair of the Department of Painting and Sculpture, a rotating position. She is a graduate of Wellesley College and received an M.A. in art history from Washington University in St. Louis. She did three years of doctoral studies at Columbia University.
Prior to joining The Brooklyn Museum she was an exhibition consultant at The Jewish Museum. She has also been Curator of Art Properties at Columbia University, where she organized exhibitions for the Art History Advisory Council. Ms. Faunce has lectured widely and has taught at a number of institutions, including Barnard College.
At The Brooklyn Museum Sarah Faunce has been curator of several exhibitions, among them Courbet Reconsidered (1988), Northern Light: Realism and Symbolism in Scandinavian Painting, 1880-1910 (1982), Belgian Art, 1880-1914 (1980), and Peruvian Colonial Paintings (1971).
Ms. Faunce is the author of several scholarly articles and has contributed to many exhibition catalogues.
Kevin Stayton
Kevin Stayton, Department Head and Curator of the Department of Decorative Arts at The Brooklyn Museum is the recipient of an M.A. in Art History and an M. Phil. from Yale University. He received a B.A. in Art History from Ohio University.
In addition to his responsibilities at The Brooklyn Museum, Mr. Stayton is currently on the faculty of the Bard Center for Studies in the Decorative Arts and has taught at Columbia University and the Cooper-Hewitt/Parsons Masters Program.
Prior to joining The Brooklyn Museum in 1980 Kevin Stayton was a Research and Exhibitions Assistant at the Yale University Art Gallery, teaching assistant for various courses at Yale University under Charles F. Montgomery and Vincent Scully, and an interpreter for the Piqua Historical Area of the Ohio Historical Society.
Mr. Stayton has also authored and contributed to many publications, including the exhibition catalogue for Converging Cultures, Dutch by Design: Tradition and Change in Two Historic Brooklyn Houses, and The Sphynx and The Lotus.
Other exhibitions at The Brooklyn Museum that he has organized include The Treasure of San Gennaro: Baroque Silver from Naples (1987), Spanish Colonial Arts of the Andes, with Sarah Faunce and Diana Fane (1984), and The Decorative Arts of Peru (1981), as well as the reinstallation of the Nicholas Schenck house and the Harrison rooms at The Brooklyn Museum.
Kevin Stayton is a former President of The Decorative Arts Society and is a member of the Board of Trustees of the Morris-Jumel Mansion in New York.
Brooklyn Museum Archives. Records of the Department of Public Information. Press releases, 1995 - 2003. 07-12/1996, 057-59.
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December 1, 1995
Converging Cultures: Art & Identity in Spanish America, a major traveling exhibition organized by The Brooklyn Museum, where it will be on view March 1 through July 14, 1996, will feature a gallery presenting examples of, and information on the conservation of many of the works in the show.
More than 85% of the material in the exhibition, including paintings and a wide range of objects, are from The Brooklyn Museum’s important holdings of Spanish colonial material. All of the works have been evaluated and treated, when necessary, by the Museum’s Conservation Laboratory.
“Because of the quantity and diversity of the material in the exhibition, it created a superb opportunity to inform the public about some of the materials and techniques used in the creation of these works of art,” comments Chief Conservator Kenneth Moser.
This conservation component of the exhibition will be titled Materials and Techniques in Spanish America. It will comprise five sections, among them painting supports and pigments found on paintings and sculpture, as well as the techniques used in the creation of sculpture and briscada that will focus on pieced construction, joining techniques, and the use of glass eyes. It will also explore how “amate,” a beaten bark paper, was made and used; the nature of surface decoration on sculpture and paintings through the presentation of a uniquely Mexican lacquer technique illustrated with three wood trays; and how and why, in some cases, paintings and objects were later modified for practical or religious reasons.
This section of the exhibition was organized by the conservation staff at The Brooklyn Museum.
Brooklyn Museum Archives. Records of the Department of Public Information. Press releases, 1995 - 2003. 07-12/1996, 060-61.
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January 1, 1996
Established in 1535, the Viceroyalty of New Spain included what is now Mexico, Central America, Florida, and parts of the southwestern United States. Initially, the Philippines, the Antilles, and present-day Venezuela were also under New Spain’s jurisdiction. Mexico City, the capital of the viceroyalty, was built on top of the ruins of the Aztec capital Tenochtitlan, an area originally surrounded by salt and freshwater lakes. Throughout the colonial period Mexico City was the political, religious, and economic center of New Spain. An efficient network of roads linked it to the mining towns in the north and the coastal ports of Veracruz on the Atlantic Ocean and Acapulco on the Pacific Ocean. The wealth of New Spain grew out of the silver mining industry of the Sierra Madre in Central Mexico, which was largely supported by an extensive Indian labor force.
New Spain was the center of a profitable trade route that linked Spain and China via the Philippines. The Manila Galleon brought Asian imports such as sumptuous silks to Acapulco, where they were transported overland to Veracruz via Mexico City and then to Spain.
The reverse trade route from Spain to Veracruz via the Antilles brought European luxury goods to the colony for consumption by Spanish and creole elites. Castilian was the official language in a society that emulated Spanish manners and customs. However, many native languages were preserved, in large part through the efforts of the Franciscan and Dominican friars in the 16th century. New Spain was populated by a variety of ethnic and social groups that included the native Amerindians, Spaniards, Africans, and the mixed races that resulted from intermarriages.
Chronology
1519
Hernán Cortés conquers Mexico. Spanish rule established in the Aztec capital of Tenochtitlan.
1524
First twelve Franciscan friars arrive.
1535
First viceroy of New Spain Antonio de Mendoza arrives.
1537
Printing press introduced in Mexico City.
1542
New Laws of the Indies issued by King Charles I of Spain. Indian slavery outlawed.
1545
800,000 Indians die in first great epidemic.
1553
University of Mexico opens in Mexico City.
1557
First ordinance for painters and guilds.
1563
Work begins on the Cathedral of Mexico City.
1565
Trade with the Philippines begins.
1571
Tribunal of the Inquisition established. Indians are excluded from its jurisdiction.
1572
Arrival of Jesuits.
1576-79
Epidemics and floods in Mexico City.
1604
Royal decree prohibits commerce between Peru and New Spain.
1624
Acapulco invaded by the Dutch.
1692
Riot in Mexico City caused by food shortages results in partial destruction by fire of the viceregal palace.
1700
Beginning of Bourbon reign in Spain under Philip V.
1737
Our Lady of Guadalupe made Patroness of Mexico.
1767
Expulsion of Jesuits followed by riots in their support.
1778
Decree of free trade between the American colonies and European nations other than Spain.
1781
Bourbon Reforms reorganize the colonies.
1821
Mexican Independence.
Adapted from the exhibition catalogue.
Copyright 1995 The Brooklyn Museum
Brooklyn Museum Archives. Records of the Department of Public Information. Press releases, 1995 - 2003. 07-12/1996, 062-64.
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June 1, 1996
Converging Cultures: Art & Identity in Spanish America, the critically acclaimed exhibition of some 300 Spanish colonial objects that opened at The Brooklyn Museum On March 1, will be extended through August 11. The exhibition, which will travel to the Phoenix Art Museum (December 1996-February 1997) and the Los Angeles County Museum of Art (March 30-June 8, 1997), was originally slated to close in Brooklyn on July 14.
Converging Cultures, which examines the fusion of native and Spanish cultures in the viceroyalties of New Spain (Mexico) (1535-1821) and Peru (1544-1817), includes paintings, sculpture, costumes, textiles, domestic and religious objects, and manuscripts.
Objects from Mexico include a series of portraits from the aristocratic Algara-Romero de Terreros family, Chinese export ceramics, pictorial manuscripts[,] textiles made by the Huichol, an image of Saint Francis painted on hide by the New Mexican painter Molleno, and a copy of the Mexican Act of Independence.
Among the arts of Peru presented are a series of mid-18th-century portraits of the kings of the Inca empire, painted by anonymous artisans of the Cuzco School in the highlands of Peru as well as major examples of Cuzco paintings. Also on view are a gilded bedstead, sterling silver stirrups, a native ceremonial hat, and a selection of important, finely woven Peruvian tapestries.
Approximately ninety percent of the works in the exhibition, which was more than ten years in preparation, are from The Brooklyn Museum’s permanent collection of Spanish Colonial material, comprising more than 1,000 pieces and acknowledged as one of the largest and finest in the United States.
Much of the material had not been on public view for several decades. However, highlights from this landmark show will be permanently installed in Museum galleries upon the conclusion of the exhibition’s national tour.
Converging Cultures: Art & Identity in Spanish America was organized by The Brooklyn Museum. The exhibition is made possible by a generous grant from NYNEX. Major support has been provided by the National Endowment for the Humanities and the National Endowment for the Arts. Additional support was provided by the Mex-Am Cultural Foundation. Additional funds for the catalogue were provided through the generosity of the Iris and B. Gerald Cantor Foundation and the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation.
Brooklyn Museum Archives. Records of the Department of Public Information. Press releases, 1995 - 2003. 07-12/1996, 065-66.
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June 1, 1996
Converging Cultures: Art & Identity in Spanish America, the critically acclaimed exhibition of some 300 Spanish colonial objects that opened at The Brooklyn Museum on March 1, will close on August 11. After the exhibition closes in Brooklyn, its only venue in the eastern United States, it will travel to the Phoenix Art Museum (December 1996-February 1997) and the Los Angeles County Museum of Art (March 30-June 8, 1997).
Converging Cultures, which examines the fusion of native and Spanish cultures in the viceroyalties of New Spain (Mexico) (1535-1821) and Peru (1544-1817), includes paintings, sculpture, costumes, textiles, domestic and religious objects, and manuscripts.
Objects from Mexico include a series of portraits from the aristocratic Algara-Romero de Terreros family, Chinese export ceramics, pictorial manuscripts; textiles made by the Huichol, an image of Saint Francis painted on hide by the New Mexican painter Molleno, and a copy of the Mexican Act of Independence.
Among the arts of Peru presented are a series of mid-18th-century portraits of the kings of the Inca empire, painted by anonymous artisans of the Cuzco School in the highlands of Peru as well as major examples of Cuzco paintings. Also on view are a gilded bedstead, sterling silver stirrups, a native ceremonial hat, and a selection of important, finely woven Peruvian tapestries.
Approximately ninety percent of the works in the exhibition, which was more than ten years in preparation, are from The Brooklyn Museum’s permanent collection of Spanish Colonial material, comprising more than 1,000 pieces and acknowledged as one of the largest and finest in the United States.
Much of the material had not been on public view for several decades. However, highlights from this landmark show will be permanently installed in Museum galleries upon the conclusion of the exhibition’s national tour.
Converging Cultures: Art & Identity in Spanish America was organized by The Brooklyn Museum. The exhibition is made possible by a generous grant from NYNEX. Major support has been provided by the National Endowment for the Humanities and the National Endowment for the Arts. Additional support was provided by the Mex-Am Cultural Foundation. Additional funds for the catalogue were provided through the generosity of the Iris and B. Gerald Cantor Foundation and the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation.
Brooklyn Museum Archives. Records of the Department of Public Information. Press releases, 1995 - 2003. 07-12/1996, 069-70.
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July 1, 1995
More than ten years in preparation, Converging Cultures: Art and Identity in Spanish America, will be on view at The Brooklyn Museum March 1 through August 11, 1996, after which it will travel to the Phoenix Art Museum and to the Los Angeles County Museum of Art. The exhibition will comprise almost 300 works, among them paintings, sculpture, costumes, textiles, domestic and religious objects, and manuscripts from the Spanish colonial viceroyalties of New Spain (Mexico) (1535-1821) and Peru (1544-1817).
Approximately eighty-five percent of the works in the exhibition are from The Brooklyn Museum’s permanent collection of Spanish Colonial material comprising more than 1,000 pieces, acknowledged to be one of the largest and finest in the United States. Many of the objects have not been on public view since the early 1940s. Loans from other museums and private individuals will be used to further illustrate and expand upon the themes raised by the collection.
Converging Cultures: Art and Identity in Spanish America was organized by The Brooklyn Museum. The exhibition is made possible by a generous grant from NYNEX. Major support has been provided by the National Endowment for the Humanities and the National Endowment for the Arts. Additional support was provided by the Mex-Am Cultural Foundation. Additional funds for the catalogue [were] provided through the generosity of the Iris and B. Gerald Cantor Foundation and the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation.
The two Spanish viceroyalties explored in the exhibition correspond to the geographic boundaries of the Aztec and Inca empires. They encompassed not only what is known today as Mexico and Peru, but also the Southwestern United States, Bolivia, Chile, Colombia, Argentina, Paraguay[,] and Ecuador.
Objects from Mexico will include a series of portraits from the aristocratic Algara-Romero de Terreros family, as well as Chinese export ceramics, and a serape owned by that family; illustrated manuscripts made by native communities to confirm their history and support their autonomy; a fine lacquer tray, called a batea; textiles made by the Huichol; a striking image of Saint Francis painted on hide by the New Mexican painter Molleno; and a copy of the Mexican Act of Independence.
The arts of Peru are especially well represented in the exhibition. Among them will be a selection from the set of fourteen mid-18th century portraits of the kings of the Inca empire, painted by anonymous artisans of the Cuzco School in the highlands of Peru, purchased by The Brooklyn Museum at the New-York Historical Society sale at Sotheby’s. Additional Cuzco paintings, most with religious themes, from the Museum’s important holdings will also be presented.
Other Peruvian objects include a splendid portrait of a woman from the Lima school; a selection of fine tapestries and rare native garments; wooden kero cups; silver horse equipage; and [an] 18th-century gilded bed, a sculpture of the Virgin of Quito attributed to the workshop of Bernardot de Legardo[,] and jewelry made by the Mapuche, a cultural group that retained its traditions and artistic independence under both the Inca and the Spanish.
Converging Cultures will examine the native contribution to the development of colonial society as well as the impact of imported European culture, focusing on the ways in which these two distinct populations influenced one another and the creative results of their interaction.
The exhibition will explore issues of identity as they are expressed and reflected in a wide range of objects and images. Among the themes emphasized are:
• Self Representation. How did the various groups that made up colonial society represent themselves to each other? What aspects of their history did they choose to preserve and present?
• Patronage and Reception. How did colonial social, economic, and religious institutions shape the production of art and [a]ffect traditional technologies, interpretations, and values? How did diverse audiences interpret this art?
• Artistic Strategies of Resistance. Which arts survived and flourished in the new colonial environment and how did their meanings change?
• Anachronism and Revival. What role did the past play in the development of national identities in the Independence period?
HISTORY OF THE COLLECTION
Much of The Brooklyn Museum’s collection of more than 1,000 pieces of Spanish colonial art was acquired in 1941 during a several-month-long field trip by longtime curator of ethnography Herbert J. Spinden. A Harvard-trained archaeologist, Spinden’s interests in both the fine arts and social sciences were reflected in the Spanish Colonial collection, which ranges from artistic masterpieces to everyday household objects. A month after his return from the field the acquisitions were presented in the groundbreaking exhibition America South of the U. S., the first major exhibition of Spanish Colonial material in this country. Herbert Spinden also was responsible for acquiring the core of The Brooklyn Museum’s important collection of Precolumbian material, which comprises more than 8,000 works including the most important collection in North America of Peruvian and Andean textiles.
The first permanent display of Spanish colonial material was installed [in] the early 1940s and was on view until the 1950s. The collection was eventually redistributed to four different curatorial departments within the Museum--Painting & Sculpture; Decorative Arts; Arts of Africa, the Pacific, and the Americas; and Costumes & Textiles[.]
The presentation of Converging Cultures marks the first time this material has been reunited in several decades and was a collaborative effort of the curatorial departments. The exhibition has been organized by Kevin Stayton, Curator of Decorative Arts, Costumes, Textiles; Diana Fane, Chair of the department of the Arts of Africa, the Pacific and the Americas; and Sarah Faunce, Curator of European Painting & Sculpture.
The exhibition will be accompanied by a catalogue copublished by Abrams. It will include essays by outside scholars as well as organizing curators. There will also be video presentation and a wide range of educational and public programs.
EXHIBITION ITINERARY
The Brooklyn Museum: March 1-July 14, 1996
Phoenix Art Museum: December 1996-February[,] 1997
Los Angeles County Museum of Art: March 30-June 8, 1997
Brooklyn Museum Archives. Records of the Department of Public Information. Press releases, 1995 - 2003. 07-12/1996, 071-74.
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March 1, 1996
Converging Cultures: Art & Identity in Spanish America, on view at The Brooklyn Museum from March 1 through July 14, 1996, comprises more than 250 Central and South American paintings, sculptures, manuscripts, and domestic and ritual objects dating from the 16th through the 19th century, mostly drawn from The Brooklyn Museum’s permanent collection.
The exhibition examines two Spanish viceroyalties, New Spain and Peru, that corresponded to the geographic boundaries of the Aztec and Inca empires, encompassing the modem states of Argentina, Bolivia, Chile, Columbia, Equador, Mexico, Paraguay, Peru, and parts of the southwestern U.S.
Organized by Museum curators Kevin Stayton, Decorative Arts; Diana Fane, Chair of the Department of the Arts of Africa, the Pacific, and the Americas; and Sarah Faunce, European Painting and Sculpture; the exhibition will explore the native contribution to the development of colonial society, as well as the impact of imported European culture, focusing on ways in which these two distinct populations influenced each other and the creative results of their interaction.
Brooklyn Museum Archives. Records of the Department of Public Information. Press releases, 1995 - 2003. 07-12/1996, 075.
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