Painting the Divine: Images of Mary in the New World

Jun 29, 2014 through Mar 13, 2016

A 1960s’ ecclesiastical wave of urban renewal inspired mission churches throughout the Americas to undergo renovations and, all too often, cast off centuries-old artwork. Charles W. Collier, a cultural attaché to Bolivia, and his wife, Nina Perera Collier, began purchasing and obtaining pieces that eventually formed the backbone of the International Institute of Iberian Colonial Art, once based at their Los Luceros estate in northern New Mexico. In 2005, with the promised construction of spacious galleries and a state-of-the-art collections vault at the New Mexico History Museum, the Institute donated 70 paintings and three sculptures. When Painting the Divine: Images of Mary in the New World opens on June 29, 2014, 35 of these 17th- and 18th-century masterpieces will share one exhibition space for the first time ever.

Painting the Divine includes works from Spain’s three colonial capitals: Peru, Mexico and New Mexico. Together, they reveal how faith sustained Spanish colonists in harsh and remote frontiers and how their religious art evolved in those places.

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Our Lady of the Apocalypse

Our Lady of the Lakes

The Visitation

Our Lady of the Lote Tree

The Virgin of the Immaculate Conception

Rest on the Flight into Egypt

Our Lady of Copacabana

Our Lady of Bethlehem

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