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Detroit Institute of Arts Presents “Spain's Prado Museum: Looking back to the Future” Annual Dr. Coleman Mopper Memorial Lecture features Prado’s deputy director
Monday, March 29, 2010
March 29, 2010 (Detroit)—Some of Europe's most valued masterpieces collected by Spanish royalty over 300 years form the basis of the Prado Museum's collection. On Saturday, April 24 at 2 p.m., the Detroit Institute of Arts' (DIA) presents the annual Dr. Coleman Mopper Memorial Lecture, featuring Dr. Gabriele Finaldi, deputy director of the Prado. He will talk about how the museum has played a central role in the study and reception of Spanish art, how it has grown, how works in the collection influenced the "contemporary" art of Manet, Sargent and Picasso, as well as what the future holds for the museum
The Prado Museum was founded in 1819 by King Fernando VII of Spain. Highlights of the collection include Titian's great mythological works, Hieronymous Bosch's bizarre fantasies, Goya's royal portraits, and the paintings of Diego Velázquez. The Prado quickly established itself as one of the great historical museums and has become the leading Spanish cultural institution. In recent years, the Prado has organized an ambitious program of exhibitions, and has opened an important new extension housing state-of-the-art conservation facilities, as well as a research center.
Finaldi, born in London, completed his studies at the Courtauld Institute of Art (London University). He is a world-renowned scholar on the work of the Spanish painter José de Ribera, and has organized major exhibitions on Spanish and Italian art, including a major El Greco retrospective at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York and the National Gallery of London. Finaldi served as curator of later Italian and Spanish Painting at the National Gallery of London in 1992, and in 2002 became deputy director for Collections and Research at the Prado where, among other things, he has overseen the opening of the new extension designed by architect Rafael Moneo.
Sponsored by the Dr. Coleman Mopper Memorial Endowment Fund in conjunction with the European Paintings Council and the Visiting Committee for European Sculpture and Decorative Arts.
The Dr. Coleman Mopper Memorial Lecture was established in 1997 in memory of Dr. Coleman Mopper, who passed away in 1996. Dr. Mopper and his wife, Shirley, were founding members of the Visiting Committee for European Sculpture and Decorative Arts, a museum auxiliary, and have been longstanding members and patrons of the DIA. The Moppers, avid collectors of European paintings, sculpture, and decorative arts, made numerous gifts to the museum, and were recognized with a DIA Lifetime Service award in 1996. In Dr. Mopper's memory, friends generously endowed an annual lecture on European art to be given by an internationally recognized specialist.
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Contact: Pamela Marcil 313-833-7899 pmarcil@dia.org
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