DALLAS (SMU) – Jan. 3, 2024 – The Meadows Museum, SMU, today announced its spring and summer exhibition schedule for 2024. The first exhibition presents the works of Spain’s celebrated textile artist and her exquisite tapestries. The second exhibition showcases treasures from three collections managed by the museum and includes works by Picasso, Calatrava, Giacometti and numerous Texas artists. And a third exhibition spotlights the prolific painting career of SMU art professor emeritus, Barnaby Fitzgerald.
The year kicks off in February with Meadows/ARCO Artist Spotlight: Teresa Lanceta, which runsFeb. 18-June 16, 2024. Opening concurrently with the ARCO exhibition is Meditating on Materiality in the Meadows Collections, which closes April 21. Additionally, Barnaby Fitzgerald: An Eye for Ballastwill be on view May 5-Sept. 24. A major fall exhibition will be announced at a later date.
MEADOWS/ARCO ARTIST SPOTLIGHT: TERESA LANCETA
Feb. 18-June 16, 2024
Admission $12 adults, $10 seniors 65+, $4 non-SMU students; free for Meadows Museum members, SMU faculty/staff/students, and youth 18 and under
For the first time in its nearly 60-year history, the Meadows Museum will present works by a fiber/textile artist in its exhibition, Meadows/ARCO Artist Spotlight: Teresa Lanceta. Widely recognized for her large-scale and intricately designed tapestries, Lanceta (b. 1951) was recently awarded her country’s highest honor for visual artists – the Spanish National Prize for Fine Arts. The Meadows Museum exhibition will feature a selection of her weavings, painted and sewn fabric, and pencil drawings.
Drawing upon her Ph.D. in art history and extensive travels throughout Spain and Morocco to study diverse weaving traditions, Lanceta engages with the history of fabrics and domestic labor while also questioning the boundary between “art” and “craft.”
Established in 2019, Meadows/ARCO Artist Spotlight (MAS) is a six-year partnership between the Meadows Museum and Fundación ARCO, the leading organization behind Spain’s premier contemporary art fair, ARCOmadrid. Through a double-juried process, MAS selects one contemporary Spanish artist with limited recognition in the U.S. biennially and presents their work at the Meadows Museum. A key component of the program is the artist’s visit to Dallas.
The second of three artists chosen for the MAS program, Lanceta will also participate in educational and member programming designed to engage SMU students and the broader community during her visit. Lanceta is represented by 1 Mira Madrid Gallery in Madrid.
Meadows/ARCO Artist Spotlight: Teresa Lanceta has been organized by the Meadows Museum, SMU, Dallas, in collaboration with Fundación ARCO and is funded by a generous gift from The Meadows Foundation. Promotional support is provided by the Dallas Tourism Public Improvement District.
MEDITATING ON MATERIALITY IN THE MEADOWS COLLECTIONS
Feb. 18-April 21, 2024
Free and open to the public
Meditating on Materiality brings together works from the Meadows Museum’s collection of Spanish art along with works from SMU’s Master of Fine Arts Collection (MFAC) and University Art Collection (UAC). The exhibition explores how artists intentionally challenge the limits of their materials, thereby encouraging viewers to expand their own understanding of the relationship between matter and meaning.
The Meadows collection is represented in this exhibition by some of the most celebrated modern and contemporary artists, including Pablo Picasso, Helen Escobedo, Alberto Giacometti, Xavier Corberó, Santiago Calatrava and Rufino Tamayo. The selected objects, many of which are rarely displayed to the public, demonstrate the breadth of the museum’s holdings, while offering a new context through which to interpret each work. Although the Meadows is primarily recognized as a museum of Spanish paintings, Meditating on Materiality seeks to expand the public’s knowledge of the museum’s purview beyond the objects and materials for which it is best known.
The exhibition also includes works of art by graduates of SMU’s Master of Fine Arts program who are, upon graduation, invited to donate an example of their work to the collection. The University Art Collection – which consists of donations from alumni and friends of SMU – includes representative works by eminent Texas and international artists, such as John Chamberlain, Jim Love, Hildur Bjarnadóttir, Charles Pebworth, and Jill Moser.
Meditating on Materiality in the Meadows Collections is organized by the Meadows Museum and is funded by a generous gift from The Meadows Foundation. Promotional support is provided by the Dallas Tourism Public Improvement District.
BARNABY FITZGERALD: AN EYE FOR BALLAST
May 5-Sept. 22, 2024
Free and open to the public
This focused, monographic exhibition of key paintings by Dallas-based artist Barnaby Fitzgerald (b. 1953) from prominent local collections will honor the artist’s prolific career and celebrate his election to professor of art emeritus at SMU.
Over a career spanning five decades and three continents, Fitzgerald has built a reputation for his otherworldly landscapes and interior scenes, which contemplate themes from literature, mythology, and art history. Drawing on the tradition of Surrealism, he offers imaginative reinterpretations of classical allegories in his own unique, contemporary language. These compositions are populated by a captivating cast of characters, such as grisaille sculptural studies, skeletons, and individuals from his own life.
Fitzgerald is also known for his mastery of the egg tempera technique, a medium he was initially drawn to for its luminosity and its association with late medieval paintings.
Fitzgerald has traveled widely throughout his career, maintaining an artistic practice that is truly global in scope. He currently keeps studios in Dallas, in the Italian region of Umbria, and in the West African country of Togo, a place he first visited in 1999 with his wife, Sylvie.
A beloved professor of art at SMU since 1984, Fitzgerald was bestowed with the title of professor emeritus of art upon his retirement in 2023. Fitzgerald is represented in Dallas by Valley House Gallery.
Barnaby Fitzgerald: An Eye for Ballast is organized by the Meadows Museum with the support of the Office of the Dean of the Meadows School of the Arts.
MEADOWS MUSEUM GENERAL INFORMATION
The Meadows Museum is located on the SMU campus at 5900 Bishop Blvd., Dallas, TX 75205. Hours are 10 a.m.-5 p.m. Tuesday-Saturday with extended hours until 9 p.m. on Thursday and 1-5 p.m. Sunday. Parking is free for museum visitors. For more information, go to meadowsmuseumdallas.org.
About the Meadows Museum
The Meadows Museum is the leading U.S. institution focused on the study and presentation of the art of Spain. In 1962, Dallas businessman and philanthropist Algur H. Meadows donated his private collection of Spanish paintings, as well as funds to start a museum, to Southern Methodist University. The museum opened to the public in 1965, marking the first step in fulfilling Meadows’s vision to create “a small Prado for Texas.” Today, the Meadows is home to one of the largest and most comprehensive collections of Spanish art outside of Spain. The collection spans from the 10th to the 21st centuries and includes medieval objects, Renaissance and Baroque sculptures, and major paintings by Golden Age and modern masters. For more information visit
Thank you,
Glenda, Charlie and David Cates
