History of Hispanism: Spain and Beyond

  • Sep 23, 2024Jan 17, 2025
  • Washington, D.C.

Exhibition

This exhibition, curated by Richard Kagan in conjunction with SIGA’s triennial conference and hosted at the Spanish Cultural Center, explores the history of “Hispanism” in the United States.

Hispanism, especially as practiced in the United States, is a field in flux. Originally defined by scholarship devoted to the arts, literatures, and cultures of peninsular Spain, by the start of the twentieth century, influenced by the Pan-American movement, it broadened its reach to include Mexico and other parts of Spanish America. That trend continues today, so much so that Hispanism, as the current exhibition will explain, also embraces the study of hispanophone cultures in other parts of the world, including that of the United States.

The exhibition is made up of six different sections:

  1. Spain’s Golden Age in the United States: Collecting the Spanish Old Masters (Ellen Prokop)
  2. Architectural History of Early Modern Spain and Spanish America in the United States (Luis Gordo Peláez)
  3. Pioneering Women Hispanists in the United States (Rebecca Teresi)
  4. Spanish Golden Age Theater and Literary Hispanism (Amy Sheeran)
  5. The “Spanish Idiom” and Spanish Virtuosity in America (Louise Stein)
  6. Historiographies of Islamic and Imperial Spain: Art, Literature & History from the Caribbean, Philippines, and Harlem Renaissance, 19th-20th centuries (Amy Chang)

Learn more

Free. Open during scheduled events, and by appointment. Book your visit from Monday to Friday (except holidays and special events days), from 10 am to 3 pm, at [email protected].