Louvre opens its doors to Mexican masterpieces

Paris: An exhibition opening later this week at the Louvre, the world`s most-visited art museum, will showcase Mexican art. The "Mexican Art at the Louvre: Masterpieces from the 17th and 18th Centuries" exhibition, which runs from March 7 to June 3, features 10 works by Cristobal Villalpando, Juan Rodriguez Juarez and Jose Suarez. "Among others, the monumental `Zurbaranesque` work of Jose Juarez, the Baroque dynamism of Cristobal Villalpando and the softness and delicacy of Rodriguez Juarez will introduce visitors to the many facets of New World art during this period and give them an understanding of its close yet independent relationship with Spanish art," the museum said in a statement posted on its web site. EFE got a sneak peek at the exhibition, which offers visitors a look at fine works from New Spain exhibited among the Spanish paintings in the Paris art museum. "What we have tried to do is open the door to Mexican art from the colonial period," said US Hispanist Jonathan Brown, one of the exhibition`s curators. The exhibition is being jointly organized by the Louvre and Fomento Cultural Banamex. In a gallery used to exhibit the works of Spanish painters, such as Zurbaran, Murillo and Jose de Ribera, not far from the Mona Lisa, the Louvre found a space for Mexican art and some of its masters. "What you see here is nearly an explosion, a range of very rich colours, but especially a grouping of figures" a long way from the Spanish Baroque, Brown said. IANS