The Museo de Arte de Ponce (MAP) is launching a monumental traveling exhibition in collaboration with the Meadows Museum at SMU.
Titled The Sense of Beauty: Six Centuries of Painting from Museo de Arte de Ponce, 60 masterwork paintings will be displayed at the Meadows, marking the first major tour for the Museo de Arte de Ponce since 2008.
Presented in English and Spanish, 62 works from the Italian Renaissance to contemporary Puerto Rican art will reflect the vision and multifaceted taste of philanthropist Luis A. Ferré, who founded the museum in 1959. The Sense of Beauty will showcase masterworks of European, American and Puerto Rican art.
Headlined by Flaming June (1895), the Victorian masterpiece by Frederic, Lord Leighton (1830-1896), the exhibition will feature paintings by leading lights of the various European and American schools including Peter Paul Rubens, Anthony van Dyck, Sir Joshua Reynolds, Elisabeth Louise Vigée-LeBrun, Jean-Léon Gérôme, Frederic Church and William Merritt Chase. In a presentation unique to the Dallas venue the Spanish selections -- including works by El Greco, Jusepe de Ribera, Francisco de Goya and Joaquín Sorolla y Bastida -- will be displayed among the Meadows' permanent collection, further enhancing the rich narrative of Spanish art history that the Meadows presents.
"The Meadows is proud to have been the first museum approached to host this exhibition and we have enthusiastically supported its development from the beginning," said Amanda W. Dotseth, The Linda P. and William A. Custard Director of the Meadows Museum and Centennial Chair in the Meadows School of the Arts, SMU. "We look forward to introducing North Texas audiences to the extraordinarily diverse and rich collection of the Museo de Arte de Ponce."
The exhibition will be at the Meadows Museum located on the SMU campus from Feb. 23 to June 22, 2025, after which they will travel to five additional institutions across America. 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.