Diego Velázquez, “Gaspar de Guzmán, Count-Duke of Olivares,” 1625-1626, oil on canvas, 222 x 137.8 cm.   Courtesy of The Hispanic Society of America, New York, NY.

“It’s not as if they’ll have any Goya, or Velázquez,” the couple remarked, chuckling, as they entered the museum. They were at Brigham Young University to view the Museum of Art’s widely-publicized, widely-anticipated blockbuster event of the year, Spain and the Hispanic World—an exhibition billed as hosting “treasures of the Hispanic world.” The couple had their doubts as to what a university museum in the Intermountain West might consider a “treasure.” Oblivious to the alternating glares and grins of the staff members who overheard their comment, they entered the exhibition, which, for the record, contains four Goyas, two El Grecos, one Velázquez, and more than 150 additional artifacts and artworks spanning 4,000 years of Spanish art history.

In 2020, while the world was on lockdown, MOA curator Ashlee Whitaker made a daring request. She and Dr. Janalee Emmer (who became the Museum of Art Director in 2021) had learned about a unique exhibition organized by the Hispanic Society of America. With over half a million items to its name, the New York-based museum and library boasts the most extensive multidisciplinary collection of Spanish art and artifacts outside of Spain and Latin America. Since 2017 it has loaned, and agreed to loan, a curated selection of their works to the Museo Nacional del Prado (Madrid, Spain), Museo del Palacio de Bella Artes (Mexico City, Mexico), and Royal Academy of Arts (London, England). Whitaker and Dr. Emmer wanted it to come to Provo, Utah, too.

The deal was that the Hispanic Society would provide the museum with a curated selection of approximately 160 artifacts, which would present, if not a complete then at least a comprehensive, overview of several thousand years of Spanish cultural history. The MOA would then be free to display, interpret, and interact with the artifacts however they saw fit.

While it took several years to convince the Hispanic Society that BYU had the resources to responsibly care for such a valuable collection, a loan agreement was finally reached. In the early weeks of 2024, MOA staff, including collections manager Tiffany Wixom, oversaw a caravan of trucks, loaded down with priceless artifacts, as it drove from New York to Utah in heavy snow.

Finally, on January 26, 2024, Spain and the Hispanic World: Treasures from the Hispanic Society Museum & Library, was open for visitors.

It’s not the most creative of names and not the most creative of concepts for an exhibition. To be fair, it doesn’t have to be and it’s not even trying to be. The exhibition is proudly what it is: a survey of Spanish art history. A once-in-a-lifetime opportunity for many to see spectacular art. A textbook that has come to life.

Ignacio Zuloaga y Zabaleta, “The Family of the Bullfighter,” 1903, oil on canvas, 220 × 205 cm Courtesy of The Hispanic Society of America, New York, NY.

The “textbook” demands all of the MOA’s main floor gallery space. It contains 163 objects spanning 4,000 years of Hispanic history. Chronologically, it begins with the Iberian Peninsula’s early Celtic cultures and guides you through the Roman Empire, Umayyad Caliphate, Spanish Golden Age, Enlightenment, and Modern Era in less than a thousand steps. The objects illustrate the melding of cultures: Jewish, Islamic and Christian; Old World and New. They tackle the thorny issue of colonialism, of art that is used to conquer, to assimilate, and to create a new society that is neither entirely one thing nor the other.

El Greco (Doménikos Theotokópoulos),
”Pietà,” 1574-1576,
oil on canvas, 66 x 48 cm. Courtesy of The Hispanic Society of America, New York, NY.

Perhaps that academic, bird’s-eye-view of the exhibition is not the most enticing endorsement, depending on your point of view. Maybe this will help: If you look closer, you will see that each object in the exhibition tells a special story about what it means to be a human. That humans have always been “like this.” We have always been simultaneously silly and serious, ironic and reverent, playful and proud, regardless of when or where we live.

For example, in the galleries you’ll find beautifully wrought iron door knockers and cups made to look like lizards, birds, and turtles, because humans have favorite animals and like to make things that look like other things. You’ll see a Latin Bible, made in Paris in 1250 as a gift for a widowed father who joined a monastery after the death of his entire family, because humans try to make sense of incomprehensible tragedy however they can and sometimes faith helps.

You’ll also see a series of ink sketches by Goya that capture the often serious artist’s playful side. You’ll find an ostentatious portrait of Mrs. William Randolph Hearst (her name was Millicent) decked out in a classic revenge dress in response to another of her husband’s affairs. And you’ll recognize the attitude of children sprawled on the sand in Sorolla’s lively beach scenes, proud to have escaped their parents (and their clothes) and already developing spectacular sunburns.

Perhaps not every object in the exhibition is for everyone. It doesn’t have to be. There are more than enough objects to go around, and more than enough to demand multiple visits.

This is a textbook you’ll want to crack open again and again, discovering new treasures each time. Perhaps the best treasure of all is the pictures this exhibition paints, not of Spanish culture but of humankind.

Joaquín Sorolla y Bastida, “Sea Idyll,” 1908, oil on canvas. Courtesy of The Hispanic Society of America, New York, NY.

Spain and the Hispanic World: Treasures from the Hispanic Society Museum & Library,  Brigham Young University Museum of Art, Provo, through June 15

Candace Brown

Candace Brown received her BA in Art History and Curatorial Studies from BYU. Raised in Utah, she is proud of the state’s extraordinary artistic community.