From the Andes to the Caribbean: American Art from the Spanish Empire
March 3, 2023 – July 30, 2023
From the Andes to the Caribbean presents 26 paintings from the Carl & Marilynn Thoma Foundation—the premier U.S. private collection of Spanish colonial paintings from South America and the Caribbean—together with works from the Harvard Art Museums. The exhibition emphasizes three key themes related to culture and empire: the political and spiritual work of Catholic icons, the ways in which empire begets hybrid cultural identities, and the relationship between labor, wealth, and luxury. Oil paintings from present-day Bolivia, Ecuador, Peru, Puerto Rico, and Venezuela are presented alongside works on paper and design objects made with Cuban and Honduran mahogany, Mexican cochineal, and Peruvian silver, underlining the great diversity of works of art broadly referred to as either “Viceregal,” “Spanish colonial,” or simply “American.”