DALLAS, TEXAS.- Media are invited to a preview of the Meadows Museum’s newest exhibition, In the Shadow of Dictatorship: Creating the Museum of Spanish Abstract Art, on Thursday, Feb. 23, at 10:30 a.m. Check in opens at 10 a.m. A light buffet lunch will be served after the program and tours.

The exhibition presents a comprehensive selection of highlights from the eponymous museum (Museo de Arte Abstracto Español) whose historic building in Cuenca, Spain, is currently undergoing renovations. This is the first major exhibition of Spanish abstract painting and sculptures to take place in the U.S. since the 1970s. The exhibition will open to the public on Feb. 26 and will run through June 18, 2023.

The Dallas presentation will be the only American venue of this multiyear touring exhibition, which also includes stops in Spain and Germany. It features both globally recognized artists such as Eduardo Chillida, José Guerrero, Pablo Palazuelo, Antonio Saura, and Antoni Tapiès, as well as their lesser-known contemporaries, encompassing more than 40 works of art by over 30 artists active in the 1960s and 1970s.

A richly illustrated catalogue exploring the history of the Museum of Spanish Abstract Art against the cultural and political backdrop of the last decade of Francisco Franco’s regime accompanies the exhibition, co-edited by Clarisse Fava-Piz, curator of the exhibition and the Meadows’s 2021–2023 Mellon Curatorial Fellow, and Amanda W. Dotseth, director ad interim and curator of the Meadows Museum.

WHEN: Thursday, Feb. 23




10:30 a.m. - Welcome and opening remarks

·Amanda W. Dotseth, director ad interim and curator of the Meadows Museum

·Manuel Fontán del Junco, director of museums and exhibitions, Fundación Juan March, and director, Museum of Spanish Abstract Art

10:45 a.m. - Tour of In the Shadow of Dictatorship: Creating the Museum of Spanish Abstract Art

·Clarisse Fava-Piz, curator of the exhibition and the Meadows’s 2021-2023 Mellon Curatorial Fellow

11:30 a.m. - Light buffet lunch served in the Gene and Jerry Jones Great Hall