Just crossing the threshold, a sign welcomes you after a long closing parenthesis and does so by asking the 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 in New York. The fabric is now back from its European tour, but will rest for a few months before reappearing in the autumn.
"We want to reopen with a special focus on the centenary of Sorolla", explains Guillaume Kientz, director of the institution that arose at the beginning of the 20th century due to the infatuation felt by the multi-millionaire Archer Milton Huntington for Spanish culture and for Spain. compulsive collector. "When they ask me when the reform will be finished, 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 to this content-rich museum that's fighting for a location in upper Manhattan that's off the commercial tourist circuit.
It has been a long journey through the desert. The infrastructural reconstruction started in 2017 and has involved an investment of ten million to renovate the roof and part of the facade, improve air conditioning, air circulation and lighting, as well as accessibility. At the last minute there was an added delay due to a workers' strike.
It is known that what works, it is better not to repair it. If the Hispanic Society has a saint and sign, it is Joaquín Sorolla, whose death this August marks the centenary of his death. 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 by personal commission from his friend Huntington, and which have only once left his residence.
Door to door, the central cloister of the museum, made of red terracotta, completes this tribute with the exhibition of other Sorollas from its collection. A self-portrait, two portraits he made of his wife, Clotilde, and other pieces by Emilia Pardo Bazán, Juan Ramón Jiménez and Mariano Benlliure are exhibited here, in addition to the compositions Children on the beach and Platja de Valencia.
In his room, Sorolla "dialogues" with a display of jewelery designed by the Spaniard Luz Camino, while in the cloister he "converses" with works by the Venezuelan Jesús Rafael Soto, whose centenary is being commemorated.
This is a management idea of Kientz, which is to recover the tradition of putting two artists face to face, usually one living and one dead.
While the extension is expected to be completed with the connection of this headquarters to the adjacent building (the former Native American museum), scheduled for five years from now, Kientz opts for a "clearer" line. In the previous stage there was a crowd of exhibited paintings. Now there are few and far between, with the idea of making rotations to give play to a heritage of 750,000 pieces.
The reopening also offers a room where a portrait of Juan de Pareja, the black artist who was a slave of Diego Velázquez, is displayed. This portrait, like the "twin" exhibited in the Metropolitan Museum, was considered to be the work of Velázquez himself. Subsequent 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.
