LOS ANGELES, September 26 /PRNewswire/ --

The Los Angeles County Museum of Art (LACMA) has received the first long-term loan to a U.S. museum of Spanish colonial art from the celebrated New York and Caracas-based Coleccion Patricia Phelps de Cisneros (CPPC). The loan, which comprises twenty-five objects including decorative arts, silverworks, carved ivories, and paintings, is part of the CPPC's efforts to make the collection accessible to a wider audience and to increase awareness of Latin American art and culture. Well-known for its collection of postwar geometric and contemporary art, the CPPC also includes important holdings in colonial art and Latin American landscapes from the seventeenth century to the present.

LACMA CEO and Director Michael Govan said, "The Los Angeles County Museum of Art is grateful to the Coleccion Patricia Phelps de Cisneros for its generous loan. While many are familiar with the CPPC's superb holdings of modern and contemporary Latin American art, too few know of its important collection of colonial art. The loan of twenty-five works from this collection is helping to advance LACMA's efforts to ensure that Latin American art is a key and growing component of the Museum's program. It is especially appropriate that the CPPC works will have their LACMA debut during the presentation of The Arts in Latin America, 1492-1820, to which they will provide an enriching complement."

Works from the CPPC loan are currently part of Highlights of Spanish Colonial Art from the Coleccion Patricia Phelps de Cisneros, a special installation on view through December 30, 2007. Following this, they will be installed in the Museum's renovated Latin American art galleries, scheduled to open in February 2008.

From 1492 to 1820, Latin America underwent a transformation beginning with Columbus's first voyage to the New World and ending with the wars of independence. The mission of Spanish colonialism was the spread of the Catholic faith and the exploitation of natural resources to sustain the vast Spanish empire. New social orders were established as natives, Europeans, and Africans (initially brought over as slaves) mixed. In addition, the complex trade routes that linked the Atlantic and the Pacific brought in luxury goods from Europe and Asia, contributing to the development of unique art forms.

The works in the CPPC loan exemplify the mastery attained by colonial artists, and the rich diversity of themes, styles, and materials of Spanish colonial art. Objects such as Sewing Box (Costurero) (late seventeenth-early eighteenth century), with its inlaid mother-of-pearl, reflect the predilection for imported Asian goods, while sculptures like the Christ Child (Nino Dios) and the Virgin of the Assumption (Virgen de la Asuncion) (both eighteenth century) illustrate the popularity of ivory devotional images. Other works, including the shields worn by nuns (escudos de monjas) in colonial Mexico, were painted by some of the best artists of the time.

The CPPC has additionally loaned three colonial objects to the exhibition The Arts in Latin America, 1492-1820, on view at LACMA through October 28, 2007. These include a Peruvian trunk of tooled leather, from the seventeenth century; a lavish late seventeenth-century sewing box decorated with inlaid mother-of-pearl; and a magnificent wooden Cuban chest of drawers made for a sacristy, from the second half of the eighteenth century. Following the exhibition, these will become part of the loan to LACMA, and will be installed with the other objects in the new Latin American art galleries.

CPPC founder Patricia Phelps de Cisneros comments, "In addition to containing objects of great beauty and virtuoso skill, the colonial art component of the Coleccion Patricia Phelps de Cisneros opens a window onto the social, economic, and artistic history of Latin America. We are delighted to share these objects and the stories they tell with visitors to the Los Angeles County Museum of Art, many of whom have roots in Latin America."

Coleccion Patricia Phelps de Cisneros (CPPC)

Founded by Patricia Phelps de Cisneros, the Caracas and New York-based CPPC focuses on modern and contemporary art from Latin America, as well as Spanish colonial art and Latin American landscapes from the seventeenth century to the present. Works from the CPPC form the basis of diverse educational and public programming, ranging from programs for teachers and students to international symposia. Among these is Piensa en Arte, a school program designed to use art to build students' observational, expressive-language, and critical-thinking skills. Director of the CPPC is Rafael Romero.

The colonial collection comprises roughly 250 works, including painting, sculpture, furniture, silver, and other examples of the decorative arts from the seventeenth to the early nineteenth centuries. Curator of the colonial collection is Jorge Rivas.

LACMA's Latin American Art Program

Over the years, LACMA has become one of the main repositories for pre-Columbian and Latin American art in the United States, and the collection continues to grow. In addition, LACMA has presented a host of groundbreaking exhibitions devoted to pre-Columbian, Spanish colonial, and modern and contemporary Latin American art. Recent exhibitions include: Mexico: Splendors of Thirty Centuries; Diego Rivera: Art & Revolution; The Road to Aztlan: Art from a Mythic Homeland; Inventing Race: Casta Painting and Eighteenth-Century Mexico; Lords of Creation: The Origins of Sacred Maya Kingship; and The Arts in Latin America, 1492-1820. Ilona Katzew is the Curator of Latin American Art.

Jeanne Collins & Associates, LLC, info@jcollinsassociates.com, +1-646-486-7050