DALLAS, TX.- The Meadows Museum, SMU, announced an expansion of its contemporary art program with the establishment of a six-year partnership with Fundación ARCO, the guiding organization behind Spain’s premier contemporary art fair, ARCOmadrid. Through the collaboration, titled MAS: Meadows/ARCO Artist Spotlight, the Meadows will, on a biennial basis, select one emerging or mid-career Spanish artist to present their work at the Meadows Museum for approximately four months. As part of the series, each selected artist will also travel to Dallas to participate in public programming, envisioned to further engage audiences with the artist’s practice. The partnership leverages ARCO’s deep knowledge of Spain’s contemporary art scene and the Meadows Museum’s leadership as a center for Spanish art in the United States to promote Spanish artists who have had limited exposure in the U.S. and provide them with an opportunity to enhance their visibility, build networks of support and interest, and expand understanding and appreciation of their work among U.S. audiences. The first artist’s installation under the MAS program will open at the Meadows in January 2021.

As a prelude to the launch of MAS, the Meadows Museum will display a recent painting (Untitled, 2019) by Madrid native Secundino Hernández (b. 1975). The featured painting captures Hernández’s exuberant style, which mixes hard-edged lines with vibrant washes of color. In his works, subtle representational elements are consumed by abstract, free-form gesture, producing a strong sense of movement and depth across and beneath the surface plane. Hernández has been inspired by old and modern masters from his native country of Spain, creating a strong connection with the Meadows’s excellent historic collection of Spanish art. The work will be on view from November 19, 2019, through April 26, 2020. In April, Hernández will visit Dallas to participate in a series of public programs.

Both the Hernández presentation and the MAS collaboration originated in a trip taken by Meadows Museum leadership to the ARCOmadrid Fair in February 2018, at which The Meadows Foundation, an independent entity established by philanthropist Algur H. Meadows that vigorously supports the Meadows Museum, received Fundación ARCO’s “A” Award for collecting Spanish art. During the trip, the group visited Hernández’s Madrid studio, and determined to bring Untitled, 2019, to the museum as a short-term loan. The decision led to wider conversations about extending the Meadows Museum’s central focus on the art of Spain with a new contemporary art program.

“The range of contemporary artists working in Spain is enormous, but many of them have not been able to gain meaningful visibility in the U.S.,” said Mark A. Roglán, the Linda P. and William A. Custard Director of the Meadows Museum. “This new initiative is an opportunity for us to expand the Meadows Museum’s presentation of contemporary Spanish art, while developing relationships with a new roster of artists and strengthening those connections through their participation in programs in Dallas. We are excited to kick-off this new vision for our curatorial program with the installation of Secundino Hernández’s work, which has many aesthetic connections with works in our collection. We are grateful to Fundación ARCO for their support and collaboration in this project.”

“As the leaders of Spain’s largest contemporary art fair, we are all too aware of the terrific art and artists who nonetheless struggle for recognition,” said Clemente González Soler, president of Fundación ARCO. “This collaboration with the Meadows Museum dovetails beautifully with its role as the leading institution for Spanish art in the U.S., and will be a great platform to bring critical attention and new audiences to these selected artists.”

There will be a total of three MAS loans, installed at the Meadows every other year from midJanuary to the end of April; the first will be in 2021, the second will be in 2023, and the third will take place in 2025. Throughout the 12 months prior to each presentation period, Fundación ARCO and the Meadows Museum will work together to select each artist. The process will begin with Fundación ARCO assembling a Nominating Committee, comprised of two collectors and two directors of institutions dedicated to contemporary art in Spain. ARCO’s Nominating Committee will then propose four emerging or mid-career Spanish artists for participation in the program, and will present a portfolio of the artists’ work to the Meadows Museum Selection Committee.

The Meadows Museum’s Selection Committee—which will include members of the museum’s curatorial staff, two collectors from the Meadows Museum Advisory Council, and a specialist in contemporary art—will then review the portfolios of the four artists and select one to participate in the program. Once identified, the artist and the museum will coordinate on the selection of the artwork to be lent to the museum. MAS will be open to Spanish artists working in all media, ensuring diversity in the works that are presented—and, likewise, in the types of educational programs the selected artists can conduct during their stay in Dallas.