Dallas’ Meadows Museum is about to make a 400-year-old art history lesson considerably more immersive. Opening Sunday, Aug. 23, ‘Spectacles of Power and Faith’ will bring 63 paintings from colonial South America to the museum, along with a chapel installation designed to engage more than just the eyes.
The exhibition will remain on view through Jan. 24, 2027, with admission ranging from $4 to $12, according to CultureMap Dallas. Meadows Museum members and children 18 and under can attend for free.
Rarely Seen Works From South America
The show marks the world premiere of a selection from the Carl & Marilynn Thoma Foundation’s Art of the Spanish Americas collection, assembled by Dallas arts patrons Carl and Marilynn Thoma. According to a Meadows Museum release, many of the paintings are recent acquisitions that will be displayed, studied, and published publicly for the first time.
The works were created between 1600 and 1850 in present-day Peru, Bolivia, Colombia, Venezuela and Ecuador. The SMU event listing says the exhibition highlights the work of Indigenous American, European and African artists who shaped South America’s major cultural centers.
Seven Sections And A Chapel With Music And Scent
Visitors will move through sections focused on saints, American Virgins, Spain in the Americas, jewels, sacred spaces, daily life at home and teaching faith. The chapel installation recreates the multisensory atmosphere of a place of worship with music and scent, according to the museum’s release.
That setup gives the exhibition a broader purpose than simply lining up old paintings on gallery walls. The museum says the works explore how art reinforced royal power, expressed devotion, reflected social identity and helped communicate complicated theological ideas in colonial society.
A Major Dallas Collection Gets A Local Spotlight
The Thoma Foundation’s collection includes more than 250 works from the late 16th through the 19th centuries, principally paintings from South America, along with religious images and portraits. The Thoma Foundation organizes the collection around themes including Marian devotion, saints, religious narratives, portraits and theological subjects.
The Meadows Museum is temporarily closed through Aug. 3 while staff prepares for the upcoming exhibition. Once the doors reopen, the museum will be gearing up for an opening that brings a distinctly Dallas collection into a wider conversation about art, faith and power across the Americas.
