NEW YORK, NY.- The Hispanic Society Museum & Library (HSM&L) – the primary institution dedicated to the preservation, study, understanding, exhibition and enjoyment of art and cultures of Portuguese- and Spanish-speaking countries and communities – announces its phase one of reopening with a robust 2023 programming line-up and exhibition schedule. With a focus on the commemoration of Joaquín Sorolla’s Centennial, Jesús Rafael Soto’s Centennial and Pablo Picasso’s Semi-Centennial, the institution will recognize the great Spanish artists with a series of exhibitions, lectures, concerts and receptions.
The Hispanic Museum & Library is amid its most ambitious capital project in its history, upgrading its three landmark buildings and restoring the Audubon Terrace to maximize the potential of the organization’s vast resources, afford the ability to better serve the surrounding community and increase the institution’s ability to welcome partnerships and collaborations with local and international partners. Under the leadership of CEO and Director Guillaume Kientz, the HSM&L will reopen its Main Court, Upper Terrace and the iconic Sorolla Gallery, Vision of Spain (1912-1919), in March 2023 as part of the commemoration of Sorolla’s Centennial year. The Sorolla Gallery houses 14 monumental paintings dedicated to Spain where the viewer is surrounded by the peoples, costumes and traditions of various regions of the country. The Gallery is one of New York’s gems and a “required visit”, if not a pilgrimage voyage.
“This centennial year and reopening of the museum mark a watershed moment in the Hispanic Society’s centuries-old history, bringing together some of the most important creative voices of the Hispanic world, and ushering them into our current culture,” says Guillaume Kientz, Chief Executive Officer of the Hispanic Society Museum & Library. “We’re excited to introduce the museum to a new generation of art enthusiasts and to welcome the community back through our doors to enjoy an incredible programming roster.”
2023 exhibitions and events in celebration of this momentous Centennial year include the following:
A Masterpiece in the Making: Joaquín Sorolla’s Gouaches for the Vision of Spain
January 17 - April 26, 2023
To kick off Joaquín Sorolla’s centennial celebration, the HSM&L presents A Masterpiece in the Making: Joaquín Sorolla’s Gouaches for the Vision of Spain, a collaborative exhibition on view at the National Arts Club. The exhibition, which opens during Master Drawings Week, commemorates the Valencian master Joaquín Sorolla y Bastida—the preeminent artist in Spain at the turn of the 20th century—on the occasion of his centennial year. On view are Sorolla’s rarely seen preparatory sketches for the paintings in the HSM&L’s Sorolla Gallery, Vision of Spain. The Sorolla Gallery houses 14 monumental paintings dedicated to Spain, where the viewer is surrounded by the peoples, costumes and traditions of various regions in the country.
Jesús Rafael Soto’s: Penetrable
May 2023 – 2026
The HSM&L is thrilled to celebrate the 100-year anniversary of Venezuelan artist Jesús Rafael Soto’s birth (1923–2005) by mounting the first ever outdoor interactive sculpture from Soto’s Penetrable series in New York City. The iconic Penetrable, 1990 from the Colección Patricia Phelps de Cisneros will be accessible to the public on the newly reopened Upper Terrace from May 2023 for a period of 3 years. Additional works by Soto will be installed in the HSM&L’s Main Court with related programming. At 16, Soto started his serious artistic career when he began to create and paint posters for the cinemas in Ciudad Bolívar in Venezuela. In France, Soto discovered Paul Klee and Piet Mondrian’s work, and the latter suggested the idea of ‘dynamizing the neoplasticism’. This, joined with Soto's will to create a new movement that would add to three-dimensional art, concluded in associations with Yaacov Agam, Jean Tinguely, Victor Vasarely and other artists connected with the Salon des Réalités Nouvelles and the Galerie Denise René in Paris.Soto continued to incorporate time and real movement through his treatment of space. He believed the work should be an autonomous object, where "real" situations were put into play, and not a plan where a determinate vision was projected. At the same time, the spectator was moving in front of the work to experience its optical vibrational effects, time and real movement.
Jewels in a Gem: Luz Camino at the Hispanic Society Museum
May 18 – September 3, 2023
The HSM&L presents its first ever jewelry exhibition by Spanish high jeweler Luz Camino in the Sorolla Gallery. This will be the artist’s first museum exhibition in the United States. Camino began her career as a jewelry maker and designer in 1973. This exhibition will celebrate not only her 50-year career, but also her unique design, exquisite craftsmanship and passion for unusual materials. Her work is considered a hidden gem among greater audiences and has rarely been shown in the public, given the very limited-edition nature of her pieces. The reopening of the Sorolla Gallery and the celebration of the Centennial of Joaquín Sorolla gives Camino the perfect venue and context to hold this exhibition. Camino and Sorolla’s shared approach to vibrant colors as a reflection of the perception of light, together with their shared heritage and inspiration, makes this a perfect match. Both artists used quintessentially Spanish elements including flowers, fruits, castanets and imagery inspired by flamenco. This exhibition will not only showcase the relation of her work to the Sorolla paintings within its magnificent space, but also chronicle the trajectory of her work from the 1970’s to today. Additional programs will highlight the amazing, yet still little known HSM&L’s own collection of historic jewelry. Finally, the exhibition will serve as the platform to debut her first ever monograph, currently in development with Rizzoli.
Picasso and La Celestina as part of The Picasso Celebration 1973-2023: 50 exhibitions and events to Celebrate Picasso
October 6, 2023 – January 7, 2024
April 8, 2023 marks the fiftieth anniversary of the death of Spanish artist Pablo Picasso and thus the year will represent the celebration of his work and his artistic legacy in France, Spain and internationally. The French and Spanish governments wanted to carry out this large-scale transnational event through a binational commission, bringing together the cultural and diplomatic administrations of the two countries. The Picasso Celebration 1973-2023 revolves around some fifty exhibitions and events that will be held in renowned cultural institutions in Europe and North America, and which together will draw up a historiographical survey of approaches to Picasso’s work. The commemoration, punctuated by official celebrations in France and Spain, will shine a light on the research and understanding of Picasso’s work, notably during a major international symposium in autumn 2023, at the time of the opening of the Center for Picasso Studies in Paris. The Musée national Picasso-Paris and the Spanish National Commission for the commemoration of the 50th anniversary of the death of Pablo Picasso are pleased to support this exceptional program. As a part of this celebration, the HSM&L will kick-off this event in New York City, presenting Picasso and La Celestina, which will explore the relationship between Spanish painter Pablo Picasso and one of the most famous seminal novels in Spanish Literature. Beyond this theme, the programming will address issues about Picasso’s relationship to literature, Spanish tradition, love and women. It will also raise timely questions about artists - or any person - in exile: “Where and what is home?”, “Where do I belong?”
The Hispanic Society Museum & Library Reveals Additional Exhibitions & Programming in 2023
Upon its reopening, the Hispanic Society Museum & Library presents an additional series of programming and exhibitions throughout 2023, welcoming the public back into the New York institution.
Anatomy of a Fresco: Drawings of José Clemente Orozco from the Wornick Collection
June 22 – October 1, 2023
Drawn from a recent, major donation from the private collection of Selma and Michael Wornick, Anatomy of a Fresco features a rare group of figurative sketches for portraits and preparatory cartoons for large-scale murals made during the Mexican Mural Movement by one of ‘los tres grandes’, or ‘the big three’, José Clemente Orozco. This exhibition offers visitors the unique opportunity for the close study of the fresco- making process with large-scale digital reproductions of the final murals. Co-curated by Dr. Orlando Hernández-Ying and Dr. Niria E. Leyva-Gutiérrez, this show brings to the forefront the important social & political issues of post-Revolutionary Mexico that inform contemporary practices of muralism as a societal commentary.
In Search of Juan de Pareja: From Arturo Schomburg to Jas Knight
April 3, 2023 – July 16, 2023
In conjunction with The Metropolitan Museum of Art’s major exhibition on Spanish painter Juan de Pareja titled “Juan de Pareja, Afro-Hispanic Painter”, the HSM&L will present a dossier exhibition focused on works from the HSM&L collection featuring the artist or attributed to him. This show will investigate the recent interests and responses to Juan de Pareja as an artist, a sitter, a person and the symbol he became. The exhibition will display works including a copy of the Portrait of Juan de Pareja by Spanish artist Diego Velázquez, painted by someone close to Velázquez, a copy of the painting by historian, writer, collector and artist Arturo Alfonso Schomburg and a more recent copy of the painting by Brooklyn-based artist Jas Knight.
Marta Chilindron’s Orange Cube, 2014
June – October 2023
In partnership with the Northern Manhattan Arts Alliance (NoMAA), the HSM&L is announces the winner of the open call for a summer outdoor installation on the Audubon Terrace (Broadway between 155th and 156th streets): Argentinean-born, New York-based contemporary artist Marta Chilindron. The artist, who resides in Upper Manhattan, will debut an installation entitled Orange Cube, 2014. The work will be open to the public at the institution’s prestigious Audubon Terrace during summer 2023, a location which will play host to ongoing public art installations as the organization reopens. According to the artist, the installation will consist of 62 vibrantly colored, square panels of twin-wall polycarbonate hinged together that, when folded shut, form a 48 x 48 x48-inch cube. The hinging systems at once allows the work to be unfolded into various shapes and invites visitor interaction.
