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Indepth Arts News:
"The Grandeur of Viceregal Mexico: Treasures from the Museo Franz Mayer"
2003-03-08 until 2003-05-18
San Diego Museum of Art
San Diego, CA,
USA United States of America
The San Diego Museum of Art is proud to be the only West Coast venue for the first major exhibition in this country to focus exclusively on the rich artistic heritage of Mexico during the Viceregal period (1521-1821). The exhibition, titled The Grandeur of Viceregal Mexico: Treasures from the Museo Franz Mayer, presents approximately 130 decorative and fine arts, all drawn from the extensive holdings of the Museo Franz Mayer in Mexico City, home to the most comprehensive collection of colonial Mexican art in the world.
The Grandeur of Viceregal Mexico includes painting and sculpture, inlaid and richly carved furniture, silver, gold, and iron pieces, and Talavera earthenware, all produced between 1521 and 1821. The objects in the exhibition reveal how a fascinating confluence of Spanish, Moorish, Chinese, and Mesoamerican cultures gave the art of Mexico during this period its distinctive qualities.
Franz Mayer was a German immigrant who came to Mexico City in 1905 where he became a very successful banker and financier. Around 1920, Mayer focused his attention on collecting Mexican art of the colonial period, and when he died, he left his collections to the people of Mexico. The museum named for him, housed in a beautifully restored 16th-century hospital, opened to the public in 1986. Working with the Museo Franz Mayer, the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, has brought Mayer's rich legacy for the enjoyment of audiences north of the border.
For more information about the collection and the works of art, please visit the The Grandeur of Viceregal Mexico, Treasures from the Museo Franz Mayer web site designed by the College of Education, University of Houston and the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston.
The Grandeur of Viceregal Mexico: Treasures from the Museo Franz Mayer has been organized by the Museo Franz Mayer, Mexico City, and the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston. National funding has been provided by The Rockefeller Foundation and the National Endowment for the Arts.
The local presentation of this exhibition has been made possible in part by the generous support of the City of San Diego Commission for Arts and Culture, the County of San Diego's Community Enhancement Fund, the California Arts Council, the Mandell Weiss Charitable Trust, the SDMA Latin American Arts Committee and members of the San Diego Museum of Art.
IMAGE:
Folding Screen with Pastoral Scenes,
Late Eighteenth Century
Oil on canvas
Museo Franz Mayer, Mexico City
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