The first-ever Sotheby’s Prize was awarded in Fall 2017 to a Nasher Museum exhibition planned for 2019, Pop América, 1965-1975.
The Nasher is one of two winners of the inaugural Sotheby’s Prize, meant to support exhibitions that explore underrepresented areas of art history. Pop América, 1965-1975, which will open here in February 2019, will showcase the significant contribution of Latin American and Latino/a artists working at the same time and alongside their U.S. and European counterparts in the time period. The second winner is an exhibition of Middle East art at the Museum of Contemporary Art in Chicago. Both shows will receive $125,000.
Nasher Museum Director Sarah Schroth said the Sotheby’s Prize encourages museums to break new ground and Pop América fulfills that mission.
“The exhibition has been years in the making and reflects groundbreaking research by guest curator and Duke professor Esther Gabara,” Schroth said. “As the first exhibition to present a vision of Pop in the American continent as a whole, Pop América makes a critical contribution to understanding this artistic period and Latin America’s rich artistic heritage.”
Pop América will feature nearly 100 works by a network of Latino/a and Latin American Pop artists connecting Argentina, Brazil, Chile, Colombia, Cuba, Mexico, Peru, Puerto Rico and the United States, introducing new historical frameworks that will reshape debates over Pop’s political neutrality, social inclusiveness and aesthetic innovations in the United States.
Pop América will open in October 2018 in San Antonio, Texas, at the McNay Art Museum, which is partnering with the Nasher to stage the exhibition. After visiting the Nasher, it will travel to the Block Museum at Northwestern University.