Spanish Art in America

The American passion for collecting Spanish art has resulted in superb collections in a wide number of museums from the east to the west coast. This beautifully photographed, oversized book discusses each collection in separate chapters, exploring the background to the collections and how they were acquired. The text addresses the economic as well as cultural frameworks for acquisitions, which expanded significantly in the second half of the 19th century with the increasing wealth of industrial America. Works in these collections include outstanding paintings by the great Golden Age masters, including Zurbarán, Murillo, Velázquez, El Greco, and Goya, and 20th century masterpieces by Dali, Miró, Picasso, Gris, Zuloaga, and Sorolla. Curators from the collections and independent scholars contributed the text, expanding our understanding of the artists, their works, and the cultural richness they represent.

This monograph reveals the wonderful Spanish artistic heritage conserved in the museums of the United States and its enormous quality and interest, from the Middle Ages until contemporary art The United States is probably the country outside of Spain which has valued Spanish art the most. This claim is based on the sheer number of Spanish works purchased in the recent history of this nation, the high quality of these works and their widespread distribution among most of the museums in the country s leading cities. This fascination with Spanish art is reflected in the specialisation of some of these institutions, as well as in the way these works make up the most important core of some collections or are represented on par with those of other schools in more encyclopaedic museums. This monograph reveals the wonderful Spanish artistic heritage conserved in the museums of the United States and its enormous quality and interest, from the Middle Ages until contemporary art. With essays by the conservators of American museums and experts in Spanish art, this volume evaluates the importance of the works of art from Spain in the different museums and tells the story of how they have been collected in the United States of America. 250 colour