Travel Tip: Art and Archaeology in United States
From El Greco to Dalí: The Great Spanish Masters from the Pérez Simón Collection

Juan Antonio Pérez Simón, an important Spanish-Mexican businessman and celebrated art collector, began to build his collection in the 1970s. Over a period of about ten years, his passion for art and taste for culture has led him to acquire a magnificent collection of paintings, sculptures, drawings, etchings, decorative objets d’art and manuscripts together with a library of more than 15,000 books. This is one of the most important private collections in the world, known for both for its well-known artists and comprehensive character.

Displaying 64 Spanish oil paintings, sculptures, and drawings from more than 25 master painters, the exhibition presents an overview of the progression and history of art in Spain over the last 500 years.

With the works of El Greco, José de Ribera and Bartolomé Esteban Murillo, the visitor is taken to the heart of the different faces of Catholic Reformation art in the 16th- 18th centuries. Goya and Sanchez Coello counter this religious art with beautiful, and sensitive, court portraits of Spanish Monarchs, balancing the portrayal of power with realistic representations.

Ten works by Joaquin Sorolla, the undisputed master of scenes portraying simple pleasures and known for vivid, bright, strong canvasses, highlight the strong feeling of national identity that characterizes Spanish art of the 19th century. The exhibition finishes with a dialogue between Cubism and Surrealism by the Spanish masters who revolutionized western art: Pablo Picasso, Joan Miro, and Salvador Dalí.