Reverberations of an empire
Faith and Fortune: Art Across the Global Spanish Empire featuring the art and artists from Latin America, the Philippines and Spain, opens to the public on June 11.
Francesco de Zurbarán. Saint Emerentiana (Santa Emerenciana), ca. 1635-1640. Oil on canvas, 171.5 x 105.5 cm. Courtesy of The Hispanic Society of America, New York, NY. Presented to the Hispanic Society by Archer M. Huntington, 1925.
From 1492 to 1898, Spain ruled an empire that stretched across the Atlantic and Pacific oceans. Spanish colonization was largely fuelled and sustained by natural resource extraction, the forced labour of enslaved people and the spread of Catholicism. As artists, books and patrons moved between oceans and within the empire, a visual culture emerged, revealing complex and intersecting narratives. This ambitious exhibition at the AGO brings these four centuries into focus through the lens of art production, prompting visitors to begin to unpack the ramifications of colonization in the Americas and Southeast Asia. In a firmly decolonizing study addressing this period, Faith and Fortune: Art Across the Global Spanish Empire, on view in the Sam & Ayala Zacks Pavilion on Level 2, centres on art and objects from Latin America, the Philippines and Spain.
On view in the exhibition are nearly 200 compelling works drawn primarily from the collection of the Hispanic Society Museum & Library. This exhibition charts the rise and fall of an empire – pan-geographically and chronologically – beginning with Columbus’s invasion of the Americas. Paintings, sculptures, books, maps, jewellery, textiles and more from multiple countries are juxtaposed, allowing visitors to better understand the nuanced cross-cultural exchange at work. Visitors will encounter many artisans both known and not-yet-known, such as José Campeche, Manuel Chili, Luisa Roldán, Diego Velázquez, Alonso Vázquez and El Greco.
The exhibition is curated by Adam Harris Levine, AGO Assistant Curator, European Art. Levine and the curatorial team worked closely with a consultation group comprised of artists, cultural workers and community members, based in Toronto and all with ties to the countries represented. Their contemporary perspectives and, in many cases, lived experiences, provide a crucial counterpoint to much of the work on view, grounding the exhibition in the present and giving voice to the persisting influence of colonization. A highlight of the exhibition on view in Sherman Gallery (Level 2) is a selection of 15 never-before-seen daguerreotypes from the Philippines, likely taken by French daguerreotypist Jules Alphonse Eugène Itier. This selection of historic photographs, guest curated by Filipina-Canadian designer and artist Tahnee Ann Macabali Pantig, gives visitors a small glimpse into rare scenes in Manila and the neighbouring province of Laguna in the early 1840s.
Faith and Fortune: Art Across the Global Spanish Empire from the collection of the Hispanic Society Museum & Library opens to AGO Members on Wednesday, June 8 and to Annual Passholders and the general public on Saturday, June 11. Also on Saturday, June 11, you can join curators Adam Harris Levine and Tahnee Pantig and AGO interpretive planner Gillian McIntyre for a free Curator’s Talk hosted in Gallery – register here. Stay tuned for more stories about this exhibition.
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Curated books and items related to the Faith and Fortune: Art Across the Global Spanish Empire exhibtion.
