Tag Archives: Spain

Opens Today: Alonso Berruguete: First Sculptor of Renaissance Spain, NGA, Washington DC, until 17 February 2020

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Alonso Berruguete: First Sculptor of Renaissance Spain will be the first major exhibition held outside Spain to celebrate the expressive art of the most important sculptor active on the Iberian Peninsula during the first half of the 16th century, Alonso Berruguete. The exhibition will present an impressive range of more than 40 works from across his career, including examples of his earliest paintings from his time in Italy, where he trained. His abilities as draftsman will also be celebrated with the largest group of his drawings ever to be assembled. The primary focus will be on his painted sculptures in wood, which generally decorated large altarpieces, or retablos. The Museo Nacional de Escultura in Valladolid, Spain, will be lending a substantial group of some of his very best figures. A section of one of his altarpieces will be loosely reconstructed in the exhibition to convey an idea of how his sculptures were originally seen.

The exhibition is curated by C. D. Dickerson III, curator and head of sculpture and decorative arts, National Gallery of Art, Washington.

A fully illustrated catalog accompanying the exhibition will be the first general book on Berruguete published in English and will feature essays by Dickerson as well as Manuel Arias Martínez, deputy director, Museo Nacional de Escultura, Valladolid, and Mark McDonald, curator of Italian, Spanish, Mexican, and early French prints and illustrated books, The Metropolitan Museum of Art. The exhibition was organized by the National Gallery of Art, Washington, and the Meadows Museum, SMU, Dallas.

It will travel to the Meadows Museum, Southern Methodist University, Dallas, from March 29 to July 26, 2020.

Click here for more information.

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Maius Workshop Welcome Meeting: Gordon House, London, 10 October 2019, 6:00pm

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The Maius Workshop returns for the 2019–20 academic year!

Please join us for an informal welcome meeting, which will take place on Thursday 10 October, 2019, at 6:00pm in Room 209 in Gordon House, 29 Gordon Square, Bloomsbury, London WC1H 0PP (at UCL, but just outside the main campus: click here for directions)

This event is open to anyone interested in pre-modern Hispanic cultures, widely considered: literature and language, history, geography, art and visual culture, medical humanities, music, etc., from Iberia, the Americas, and other Spanish and Portuguese colonies and communities. PhD candidates and ECRs from London universities and beyond are especially invited.

The Maius Workshop’s organisers, Costanza Beltrami, Bert Carlstrom and Elizabeth Chant, will introduce the group and events planned for the coming academic year. It will be an opportunity to meet people with similar research interests working at other universities and departments.

If you would like to attend, please register on Eventbrite: click here.

Image caption: Joaquín Domínguez Bécquer, ‘La Feria de Sevilla’, 1867. Colección Carmen Thyssen-Bornemisza en préstamo gratuito al Museo Carmen Thyssen Málaga, © Colección Carmen Thyssen-Bornemisza. Source: Wikimedia Commons, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=21170539

Workshop and Lecture: Music of the Three Andalusias, The Warburg Institute, London, 27 September 2019, 14:00–19:00

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Workshop: 14:00–16:00
Lecture and reception: 17:00–19:00  

A lecture and recital by musician, writer and teacher Marc Loopuyt on Muslim, Jewish and Christian music of Medieval Spain, focusing on the rabab and the oud, and on articulation techniques. Articulation in stringed musical instruments from the East will be put in relation with Paganini’s Suonare Parlante, with bird song and the mythical language of the birds. 

The evening lecture will be preceded by an afternoon workshop on the practical foundations of traditional mode based improvisation and ornamentation—details to be finalised. 

Born in France in 1947, with French, Dutch, English and Caucasian roots, Marc Loopuyt discovered the flamenco guitar via immigrant Spanish workers, and subsequently spent three years in Spain learning how to play it. Interested in the strong “colours” in flamenco singing, he crossed the Mediterranean and settled for nine years in Morocco, learning to play the oud. Attracted by the art of the Turkish master Cinuçen Tanrıkorur, he became his disciple and spent many years travelling and living in Turkey and the Middle East, as well as staying for one year in Azerbaijan with the singer Agha Karim Bey. Marc Loopuyt taught for 25 years in the Music Conservatory of Lyon, and has published, performed and recorded widely.

Click here for an excerpt from his flamenco-influenced piece Farruca. 
Supported by the Cassal Trust, the Matheson Trust.

Click here for more information about this event


Closing Soon: Balenciaga and Spanish Painting, Museo Nacional Thyssen-Bornemisza, Madrid, until 22 September 2019

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Francisco de Zurbarán
Saint Casilda, ca. 1635
Oil on canvas. 171 x 107 cm
© Museo Nacional Thyssen-Bornemisza, Madrid

The Spanish fashion designer’s approach to his designs was informed by his lifelong love of art sparked by his youthful admiration of the paintings owned by clients of his seamstress mother, in particular the Marquis and Marchioness of Casa Torres, who spent their summers in the Palacio Aldamar (also known as Vista Ona) in Getaría. Three of the paintings on display in this exhibition, and loaned by the Prado, were in that collection: Head of an Apostle by Velázquez; Saint Sebastian by El Greco; and Cardinal Luis María de Borbón y Vallabriga by Goya. The latter establishes a dialogue with a magnificent red dress suit with a short jacket loaned from the Museo del Traje in Madrid. Balenciaga frequently drew on the heritage of his Spanish homeland, going further than adding flamenco ruffles to his dresses and seeking inspiration by re-imagining bull fighters’ jackets. The exhibition explores the influence of four centuries of Spanish painting on the couturier’s work. Zurbarán was one inspiration, his drapery influencing Balenciaga’s bold sashes. In 1939 Velázquez’s portraits of the Infanta Magarita were reinterpreted by the dress designer’s work. Also notable is the interaction between a spectacular blue silk evening gown and cape and the mantle of the same colour seen in The Immaculate Conception by Murillo from the Arango collection. The curator Eloy Martínez de la Pera, has drawn together some 90 examples of Balenciaga’s work alongside 55 paintings, including works by El Greco, Murillo, Goya and the nineteenth-century artist Antonio María Esquivel. Paintings have been lent by the Prado, Bilbao, Seville and Valencia and costumes, some of which have never been displayed before and designs have been lent by the Balenciaga Museum in his hometown in Getaría, and archives in Paris. The exhibition also explores the impact of Philip II’s court making the use of black fashionable for clothing throughout Europe, and how Balenciaga chose to transform it in his own way. As the magazine Harper’s Bazaar wrote in 1938: “at the new Spanish house Balenciaga [in Paris] the black is so black that it hits you like a blow. Thick Spanish black, almost velvety, a night without stars, which makes the ordinary black seem almost grey.”

Click here for more information.

Thoma Foundation Grants in Spanish Colonial Art, deadline 25 October 2019

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MARILYNN THOMA FELLOWSHIP IN SPANISH COLONIAL ART

The Carl & Marilynn Thoma Art Foundation offers Pre-doctoral and Post-doctoral fellowships annually in support of projects and research initiatives that will advance the field of Spanish colonial art. The Marilynn Thoma Fellowship is the only unrestricted research funding in the United States devoted exclusively to the field of Spanish Colonial art. Scholars may come from any discipline, but all projects must relate to the study of art and art history. Exceptionally accomplished scholars holding an MA may also apply. International scholars, particularly from Latin America, are strongly encouraged to apply. 

Applicants should propose projects that exhibit original scholarship and/or will make a significant contribution to the understanding of colonial Spanish American art and its history. Fellowships range in duration from one to two years, and eventuate in major measurable outcomes, including museum exhibitions, dissertations, book publications, scholarly essays, and lecture series. Projects will be considered from all of Spanish colonial Latin America and the Caribbean, however the Foundation will give strong preference to projects that make specific contributions to the history of painting and sculpture in colonial South America. 

Pre-doctoral Dissertation Research Fellowship–$45,000 (1–year award) 

Post-doctoral Fellowship–$60,000/year (1–2 year award; indicate project length in application)
*Applicants should hold a PhD conferred between 2009-2019 

Applications are open from May 15 to October 25, 2019. Click here for more information.


THOMA FOUNDATION RESEARCH AND TRAVEL AWARDS IN SPANISH COLONIAL ART

Congruent with the Marilynn Thoma Fellowship, the Thoma Foundation offers annual grants to scholars, curators, art historians and advanced graduate students working on MA or PhD dissertations in support of projects and research initiatives that will advance the field of colonial art of Spanish America. These grants are meant to help defray the costs of research-related expenses. Funding is provided each year to several scholars selected by an international jury of undisclosed experts in the field, with travel commencing within one year + one month from the date of notification. 

Grants of up to $25,000 are available for projects lasting up to six months. 

Applications are open from May 15 to October 25, 2019. Click here for more information.

Click here for the Thoma Foundation website

Edilia and François-Auguste de Montêquin Fellowship, Society of Architectural Historians, deadline September 30, 2019

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The latern tower of Teruel cathedral. By Escarlati – ACDSee for Pentax, CC BY 2.5, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=1284830

Purpose
This award provides support for travel related to research on Spanish, Portuguese, or Ibero-American architecture.  

The Awards
The awards consist of a $2,000 fellowship for an advanced graduate student and a $6,000 fellowship for a senior or emerging scholar. The awardees will be notified in December and will be recognized at the SAH 73rd Annual International Conference in Seattle, Washington (April 29–May 2, 2020). The awards also will be announced in the May 2020 issue of the SAH Newsletter. 

Criteria for Application

These annual fellowships are intended to support the research of graduate students who have completed their coursework and are engaged in doctoral dissertation research, and senior or emerging scholars who have completed their PhD or equivalent terminal degree. The research to be supported must focus on Spanish, Portuguese, or Ibero-American architecture, including colonial architecture produced by the Spaniards in the Philippines and what is today the United States. The applicant must be a current member of SAH. 

Reporting Requirements
Following completion of travel and research supported by the fellowship, each de Montêquin Fellowship awardee must submit a written report summarizing their research and explaining what travel was undertaken and how funds were spent. The report will be submitted to the SAH office no later than three months following the completion of work related to the fellowship. Awardees are required to upload images to SAHARA (a minimum of 50 for junior scholars and a minimum of 150 for senior scholars).  

Application Details
You will need two recommendations to apply for this fellowship, a description of the research project on Iberian or Ibero-American architecture to be funded (500 words maximum), a current curriculum vitae (5 pages max), and a statement of purpose.

SAH is accepting applications for the 2020 Edilia and François-Auguste de Montêquin Fellowship. The application deadline is September 30, 2019.

Visit sah.org/research-fellowships to apply.

Featured Exhibition: Thoughts on Portraiture, Birmingham Museum and Art Gallery, 3 August–18 November 2019

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A free one-room show which draws on Birmingham’s collection of modern and contemporary art to explore how artists have used a wide range of styles and imagery to interpret complex human emotion and experiences. The display is centred around the sculpted polychrome group Man and His Sheep (1989) by the Brazilian-born artist Ana Maria Pacheco, which has not been on show for over five years. The striking installation consists of eight lifelike carved wooden figures arranged in a procession. Each imposing figure is carved from a single piece of limewood then painted and waxed to give a startling lifelike appearance, enhanced by their onyx eyes and acrylic teeth, which add a somewhat sinister expression. Pacheco’s oil painting In Illo Tempore I (1994) is also on display. The display also includes two Picasso etchings from the Vollard Suite. Winged Bull Watched by Four Children (1934) shows a monstrous mythological beast, whilst Portrait of Vollard (1937) uses lighter and darker shades to depict different characteristics of Ambroise Vollard, the art dealer who commissioned the Suite of prints. For conservation reasons neither of these works on paper are likely to be on display again soon. Other artists whose portraits are featured in the exhibition include a self-portrait by the Birmingham-born David Bomberg and Frank Auerbach’s etching of his friend the art historian Michael Podro.
Click here for more information.