As soon as you cross the threshold, a sign welcomes you after a long closing parenthesis and does so by formulating a question, “Where is the duchess?”.
The painting dedicated to The Duchess of Alba, an important creation in the career of Francisco de Goya, is one of the many treasures housed in the museum of the Hispanic Society of New York. The canvas is back from its European tour, but it will rest for a few months before reappearing in the fall.
"We want to reopen with a special focus on Sorolla's centenary," explains Guillaume Kientz, director of the institution that emerged at the beginning of the 20th century due to the love that billionaire Archer Milton Huntington, a compulsive collector, felt for Spanish culture and for Spain.
"When asked when the reform will end, I answer that never, there are always things to improve," remarks Kientz.
It's been two years since he took over, and this weekend, he can finally open the doors of this content-rich museum fighting an upper Manhattan location off the commercial tourist track.
It's been a long way through the desert. The infrastructural reconstruction began in 2017 and has involved an investment of tens of millions to renovate the roof and part of the façade, improve air conditioning, air circulation and lighting, as well as accessibility. At the last minute there was a delay added by an employee strike.
It is already known that what works, better not to repair it. If the Hispanic Society has a watchword, that is Joaquín Sorolla, whose centenary of his death will be celebrated this August. The Valencian artist permanently has the Vision of Spain room, a space dedicated exclusively to his oil murals of the regions of Spain, made in 1911 at the personal request of his friend Huntington, and which have only come out once in his residence.
Door to door, the central cloister of the museum, made of red terracotta, completes this tribute with the exhibition of others by Sorolla from his collection. Here are exhibited a self-portrait, two portraits that he did of his wife, Clotilde, and others by Emilia Pardo Bazán, Juan Ramón Jiménez and Mariano Benlliure, as well as the compositions Niños en la playa and Playa de Valencia.
In his living room, Sorolla "converses" with a sample of jewelry designed by the Spanish Luz Camino, while in the cloister he "converses" with works by the Venezuelan Jesús Rafael Soto, whose hundredth anniversary is being commemorated since his birth.
This is Kientz's management idea, which consists of recovering the tradition of putting two artists face to face, usually one alive and the other dead.
While waiting for the extension to be completed with the connection of this headquarters with the adjoining building (the one that was a Native American museum), scheduled for five years from now, Kientz opts for a “clearer” line. In the previous stage there was an overcrowding of exhibited paintings. Now there are few and far between, with the idea of making rotations to match a heritage of 750,000 pieces.
The reopening also offers a room in which a portrait of Juan de Pareja, the black artist who was a slave to Diego Velázquez, is displayed. This portrait, like the "twin" on display at the Metropolitan Museum, was considered to be the work of Velázquez himself. Later studies have shown that it was not his and, in principle, today it is attributed, according to Kientz, to his son-in-law and disciple Juan Bautista Martínez del Mazo.
The Duchess is waiting.
