San Diego Museum of Art To Host “From El Greco to Dalí: The Great Spanish Masters from the Pérez Simón Collection”

Written by Santuzza Maderacabeza Wednesday, 21 December 2011 22:35

San Diego, CA.- From July 9th through October 3rd 2011, the San Diego Museum of Art is proud to be the only U.S. museum to show "From El Greco to Dalí: The Great Spanish Masters from the Pérez Simón Collection". This spectacular survey of Spanish art from the 16th century to the 1970s will feature 64 works drawn from one of the world’s finest private collections From the golden age of Charles V and on through the modern period, this exhibition showcases such acclaimed masters of the Spanish school as El Greco, Ribera, Murillo, Goya, Sorolla, Picasso, Dalí and Miró. Spanning four centuries, this selection of works by some of the world’s most celebrated artists illustrates a splendid chapter in the history of Spanish art.

Visitors to the exhibition will also be invited to discover dazzling artists little-known in the U.S., such as the Romantic Manuel Barrón y Carrillo, or the Modernist Romero de Torres.

This exhibition proposes new perspectives on the story of Spanish art, considered both thematically and historically. An outstanding selection of old master paintings will  underscore the importance of religious piety and royal patronage from the 16th to the 18th century, including Jusepe de Ribera’s sensational Saint Jerome, Bartolomé Murillo’s sublime Immaculate Conception, and Francisco de Goya’s masterful Doña María Teresa de Vallabriga y Rozas. The struggle between tradition and modernity will be considered from the late-18th to the 20th century, featuring six works by Salvador Dalí, among them his monumental Ascension of Christ, and the diptych Gala’s Christ, painted for his wife and muse in 1978.



Monuments of painting, the masterpieces assembled for this exhibition are also a testament to a preeminent collector’s enduring passion. A native of Asturias, Spain, Juan Antonio Pérez Simón has made Mexico City his home. It is also home to his collection, begun in the 1970s, which now ranks among the greatest in the world. From El Greco to Dalí: The Great Spanish Masters from the Pérez Simón Collection, a choice selection from the outstanding works that comprise this stellar collection,premiered in Paris, at the Musée Jacquemart-André, before traveling to the Musée national des beaux-arts in Québec City.

The San Diego Museum of Art’s mission is to collect, preserve, interpret and display the finest works of art that men and women have created throughout time for the benefit of the broadest conceivable audience. The inspiration for a permanent public art gallery in San Diego can be traced to the Panama-California International Exposition, held in Balboa Park during 1915-1916.  The Exposition, which was organized to celebrate the opening of the Panama Canal and to promote San Diego as a seaport, also showcased San Diego as a growing cultural center. Planning for the new museum began in 1922 when local business and civic leader, Appleton S. Bridges (1849-1929), offered to fund the construction of a permanent structure to house a municipal art collection. A prominent site on the north side of Balboa Park’s Plaza de Panama was secured and construction got underway in April 1924. Bridges hired one of San Diego's leading architects at the time, William Templeton Johnson (1877-1950), to design and construct the new art gallery. The Fine Arts Gallery of San Diego officially opened its doors on February 28, 1926, at which time ownership and maintenance of the building was transferred to the City of San Diego. The Museum underwent an important period of expansion, in terms of both its collections and gallery space from 1955 until 1979. The completion in 1966 of the west wing doubled the space of Bridges' original structure and additional gallery space was added with the completion of the Gildred-Parker-Grant (east) wing in 1974. In 1978, Trustees changed the name of the Fine Arts Gallery of San Diego to The San Diego Museum of Art in recognition of the Museum's status as a repository for applied and decorative arts in addition to the fine arts of painting and sculpture.



The San Diego Museum of Art provides a rich and diverse cultural experience for 350,000 visitors annually. Located in the heart of beautiful Balboa Park, the Museum’s nationally renowned collections include Spanish and Italian old masters, South Asian paintings, and 19th and 20th century American paintings and sculptures. The Museum regularly features major exhibitions of art from around the world, as well as an extensive year-round schedule supporting cultural and educational programs for children and adults. At The San Diego Museum of Art, exhibition text is always in English and Spanish. Visit the museum's website at ... http://www.sdmart.org

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