I wanted readers to know about a great new exhibit at the Saint Louis Art Museum that will be on display until September 1. The exhibit focuses on the art produced in Spanish colonies of Latin America from 1500 to 1800, which of course overlaps for around forty years when St. Louis in fact a secret colony of Spain after Louis XV transferred the Louisiana Territory to his Bourbon cousin as he faced defeat in the Seven Years’ War.

The image above is based off the famous Virgin of Guadalupe, a pilgrimage site north of Mexico City where an Aztec peasant witnessed a miraculous appearance of Mary. You can see the various major scenes of his story in the painting. The original is in the gigantic 1960s church in Mexico, which I have actually visited. It’s something to see.

Perhaps what is most interesting about the art produced during this milieu is the syncretizing of Mesoamerican and European motifs and religion, as the Spanish sought to impose Christianity on the locals.

The exhibit possesses a multitude of different works of art from oil paintings to the decorative arts and textiles, and I strongly encourage my readers to visit. As more immigrants from Central and South America arrive in the United States, it is imperative to understand the culture and heritage of the people who created the civilizations south of the border.

“Art and Imagination in Spanish America, 1500–1800” was curated by Ilona Katzew with the Los Angeles County Museum of Art. The organizing curators at SLAM are Genevieve Cortinovis, the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation Associate Curator of Decorative Arts and Design; Clare Kobasa, associate curator of prints, drawings and photographs; Judith W. Mann, senior curator of European art to 1800; and Amy Torbert, the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation Associate Curator of American Art.