It’s finally here! After a looooooong hiatus, El Museo del Barrio reopens its doors this Saturday, October 17. Coinciding with the launch of El Museo’s 40th Anniversary festivities, which will continue all year, the museum has prepared 2 brand spanking new exhibitions in their newly renovated space. Here’s what’s next at El Museo:
Nexus New York: Latin/American Artists in the Modern Metropolis
This exhibit highlights the interaction between Latin American, American, and European artists based in New York that fomented many of the early 20th century’s art movements. Nexus New York is the first exhibition to explore the way these exchanges impacted art movements worldwide. More than 200 important works as well as contextual material (photographs, magazines, books,etc..) to highlight the collaborative and experimental nature of the time.
Nexus New York is organized in groups of style and epochs, covering everything from realist and expressionist art, to Cubism and Dadaism, culminating in Surrealism and Mexican modernism. Among the artists included are Miguel Pou y Becerra, Alice Neel, Carlos Enríquez, Marius de Zayas, Joaquin Torres–Garcia, David Alfaro Siqueiros, Candido Portinari, among many others.
Voces y Visiones: Four Decades Through El Museo del Barrio’s Permanent Collection
The second exhibit will unveil El Museo’s new Carmen Ana Unanue Galleries, which will be dedicated to the museum’s permanent collection, showcased on a rotating basis. The inaugural exhibition is a timeline of El Museo’s history in relation to the history of Latin American, Latino and Caribbean art.
Divided into the 3 major periods of El Museo’s history, Voces y Visiones begins with the foundation of the museum, where it will showcase some of the first acquired works. From there, Voces y Visiones will focus on the period between 1977 and 1991, during which the museum changed in location and expanded its collection. The final section will showcase El Museo’s involvement in contemporary art, photography and other local Latino movements.
El Museo’s permanent collection includes more than 6,500 works spanning over 800 years of Latin American, Latino and Caribbean art, including pre–Columbian Taíno artifacts, traditional arts, 20th-century drawings, paintings, sculptures and installations, as well as prints, photography, documentary films and video.