Behind Closed Doors: Art in the Spanish American Home, 1492-1898 is the first major exhibition in the United States to explore the private lives and interiors of Spain’s New World elite from 1492 through the nineteenth century, focusing on the house as a principal repository of fine and decorative art. Through approximately 160 paintings, sculptures, prints, textiles, and decorative art objects, this exhibition presents for the first time American, European, and Asian luxury goods from everyday life as signifiers of the faith, wealth, taste, and socio-racial standing of their consumers. The exhibition explores themes including representations of the indigenous and Creole elite, rituals in the home, the sala de estrado (women’s sitting room), the bedchamber, and social identity through material culture.
Dona Mariana Belsunse Y Salasar
18th Century
Attributed to Pedro Jose Diaz
Brooklyn Museum, Gift of Mrs. L. H. Shearman
Dona Maria de los Dolores Gutierrez del Mazo Y Perez
1796
Jose Campeche
Brooklyn Museum, Gift of Lilla Brown in memory of her husband, John W. Brown, by exchange
Portrait of Don Tadeo Bravo de Rivero
1806
Francisco de Goya y Lucientes
Gift of the executors of the estate of Colonel Michael Friedsam
Deborah Hall
1766
William Williams
Brooklyn Museum, Dick S. Ramsay Fund
Casket or Small Cabinet
1677
Brooklyn Museum, Carl H. de Silver Fund
Don Juan Xavier Joachin Gutierrez Altamirano Velasco, Count of Santiago de Calimaya
Circa 1752
Miguel Cabrera
Brooklyn Museum, Museum Collection Fund and the Dick S. Ramsay Fund
Behind Closed Doors Opens Friday (June 20) At The New Orleans Museum Of Art
By Doug MacCash, NOLA.com | The Times-Picayune This article originally appeared here My second favorite artwork in the “Behind Closed Doors: Art in the Spanish-American Home 1492 to 1898” exhibit that opens at the New Orleans Museum of Art on Friday (June 20) is the huge 1780 portrait of Dona Mariana Belsunse Salasar of Lima… Read More
Behind Closed Doors: Art In The Spanish American Home, 1492-1898
On View at the New Orleans Museum of Art June 20, 2014-September 21, 2014 New Orleans, La. – Opening June 20 at the New Orleans Museum of Art, Behind Closed Doors: Art in the Spanish American Home, 1492-1898, is an immersive exhibition that explores the private lives and interiors of Spain’s New World elite from… Read More
Behind Closed Doors: NOMA Exhibit Provides Comforts Of Home For Spanish American Art
By Cheryl Castjohn | NOLA Defender This article originally appeared here “Behind Closed Doors: Art in the Spanish American Home, 1492-1898” opened Friday at the New Orleans Museum of Art, compliments of the Brooklyn Museum. To the exhibit, NOMAadds eleven objects from its own Spanish Colonial Collection.NOMA and “Closed Doors” mesh well together, and not… Read More
Exhibit Shines Light On City’s Spanish Heritage
By John d’Addario | The New Orleans Advocate This article originally appeared here It isn’t hard to find evidence of the 18th-century French influence in present-day New Orleans. From the very name of the city itself and its centerpiece, the French Quarter, to the continued popularity of French-inflected cuisine, decorative arts and even vocabulary, constant… Read More
Review: Behind Closed Doors: Art In The Spanish American Home, 1492-1898
D. Eric Bookhardt on the exhibit at the New Orleans Museum of Art By D. Eric Bookhardt | Gambit Weekly This review originally appeared here The title Behind Closed Doors sounds racy, but the subtitle, Art in the Spanish American Home, 1492-1898, suggests something more sedate. In fact, this overview of how the newly rich… Read More
Sponsors / Partners
Behind Closed Doors: Art in the Spanish American Home, 1492–1898 is organized by the Brooklyn Museum. Generous support for this exhibition has been provided by National Endowment for the Humanities. The New Orleans presentation is underwritten by the Zemurray Foundation, with additional support provided by Pan-American Life Insurance Group