Join us for this special program that forms part of our “Distinguished Speakers in the Art of the Spanish Americas” Series. Our guest speaker Susan V. Webster, Jane Williams Mahoney Professor of Art History and American Studies, The College of William and Mary (and The University of Texas at Austin Alumna) will discuss the work of Andean Painters in Early Colonial Quito.

The first generations of painters in colonial Quito were almost exclusively Andean artists who acquired and appropriated Western forms, languages, and literacies under the tutelage of Franciscan friars. Yet the languages and literacies possessed by painters were not solely imported, imparted, or imposed by Europeans; they drew upon the local and traditional as well as the foreign. Masters of the brush and the pen, literate Andean painters were the creators and cultural translators of almost exclusively Christian imagery for a heterogeneous colonial audience, and they simultaneously harnessed the power of graphic technologies and alphabetic literacy to negotiate the colonial bureaucratic system. The lives and works of two early master painters, Andrés Sánchez Gallque and Mateo Mexía, reveal the multifarious ways that Andean and allied artists mastered and deployed languages and literacies to claim power and status in early colonial Quito.

This event will take place in our Capitol Room, located in the Smith Building across the plaza (upstairs from the Blanton Café). Please feel welcome to bring your lunch. Seating is limited so please RSVP in the ticket link below to secure your place.

The Blanton is located at the intersection of Congress Avenue and Martin Luther King Jr. Boulevard. Paid parking is available in the Blanton/Brazos Garage on Brazos Street and Martin Luther King Jr. Boulevard. Parking is $4; bring your ticket with you to the front desk of the museum for payment and validation.

IMAGE CREDIT
Andrés Sánchez Gallque, Portrait of Don Francisco de Arobe and his sons Don Pedro and Don Domingo, Quito (Ecuador), 1599, Oil on canvas, Museo de América (Madrid)