Spanish Colonial Art at the Blanton Museum

The Thoma Foundation has underwritten a three-year Associate Curatorship of Spanish Colonial Art at the Blanton Museum of Art in Austin, Texas. The position correlates to a long-term loan to the Blanton of works from the Thomas’ distinguished collection of Spanish colonial art. The Thoma Foundation will also support short-term research grants for visiting scholars, available through the Teresa Lozano Long Institute of Latin American Studies and the Nettie Lee Benson Latin American Collection (LLILAS Benson).

Dr. Rosario I. Granados, a curator and lecturer in the field of Spanish colonial art and religious material culture, has been appointed as the Carl & Marilynn Thoma Associate Curator of Spanish Colonial Art. Granados has taught extensively on material culture, art, gender, and religion in Latin America, and has recently held positions at Skidmore College, the Center for Latin American Studies at the University of Chicago, and the Instituto de Investigaciones Estéticas (UNAM, Mexico).

Two galleries dedicated to art from the Spanish Americas will be included in the Blanton’s reinstallation of its permanent collection, scheduled to open to the public on February 12, 2017. The galleries will feature paintings on loan from the Thoma collection along with bibliographical materials from the Benson Collection, and works from other private collections, and will mark the first time in its history that the Blanton has dedicated permanent gallery space to art from the Spanish colonial period.