Monday, May 12, 2025

New Franz Mayer exhibition showcases artistic perspectives on the Spanish conquest

A new show at the Franz Mayer Museum in Mexico City invites viewers to reexamine the conquest through the art of the 16th through 18th centuries. The exhibition, “Artistic Accounts of the Conquest,” brings together for the first time a number of important works belonging to the museum and other organizations.

The works show the conquest from various perspectives, including European and New Spanish, according to a museum press release.

The exhibit tracks the fall of the Mexica capital of Tenochtitlán and the subjugation of Mexica lords by the Spanish invaders. Through paintings, sculpture, textiles, furniture, books and more, the show reveals “the political, philosophical and theological imaginaries” of past centuries with respect to the conquest.

The show includes 81 works, 66 of which belong to the Franz Mayer Museum. The remaining 15 belong to the National History Museum, the Museum of the Cultures of Oaxaca and others.

The exhibition, which opened September 29, can be viewed during museum hours Tuesday through Friday, 11 a.m. to 5 p.m. and Saturday and Sunday, 11 a.m. to 6 p.m. Admission is 70 pesos, and children under 12 enter for free.

Starting on October 20, the museum will also host an exhibition for the National Design Award, with winners in five categories: products, digital design, experiences and interiors, visual communication and fashion design. The exhibition will present recent trends and explore the theory, practice and technique behind contemporary design.

Mexico News Daily

Have something to say? Paid Subscribers get all access to make & read comments.
President Trump displays a recently signed bill renaming the Gulf of Mexico

Mexico sues Google over ‘Gulf of America’ renaming

10
Sheinbaum said the U.S. can only rename places within its own territorial waters — a 12-mile-wide strip along the U.S. coastline.
Aerial view of unfinished Nichupté bridge.

Completion of Cancún’s Nichupté bridge delayed to December

0
The bridge, which will connect downtown Cancún to the hotel zone, promises faster commutes and improved hurricane evacuation for residents.
A white and black axolotl in a tank

Good news for axolotls: Study finds captive breeding works, bringing hope for the species’ future

2
The survival odds for Mexico City’s favorite critically endangered amphibian just got much better.