Speaking of Beauty: Six Centuries of Painting from Museo de Arte de Ponce at the Meadows

Chris Becker·
Dallas/Ft WorthVisual Art
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The Meadows Museum at Southern Methodist University in Dallas, whose extensive collection of Spanish art has earned it the nickname “Prado on the Prairie,” is the first stop for The Sense of Beauty: Six Centuries of Painting from Museo de Arte de Ponce, an exhibition of over sixty European, American, and Puerto Rican masterworks dating from the sixteenth century to the twenty-first. Featuring paintings by El Greco, Jusepe de Ribera, Francisco de Goya, Raimundo de Madrazo y Garreta, and Joaquín Sorolla y Bastida installed alongside complementary works from the Meadows’ permanent collection, The Sense of Beauty is on view from Feb. 23 to June 22, 2025, after which it travels to five other institutions, including the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston in March 2026.

The Sense of Beauty arrives as the Museo de Arte de Ponce (MAP) continues to repair the damage the building sustained in 2020 when a series of earthquakes occurred off the southern coast of the island. “This tour happens at a pivotal moment for the Museo de Arte de Ponce as we continue renovations on our historic building while also keeping alive our mission to share the beauty of our collection both in Puerto Rico and abroad,” says MAP curator Iraida Rodríguez-Negrón, who conceived and developed the exhibit. Indeed, several paintings in the exhibit are traveling to the mainland United States for the first time.

Meadows Museum Curator Patricia Manzano Rodríguez, a widely recognized scholar and expert on 17th-century painting and venue curator for The Sense of Beauty, sees several historical parallels between the Meadows and MAP. Both museums were founded by visionary collectors in the 1950s—oil tycoon Algur Meadows and millionaire industrialist Luis A Ferré respectively — who each believed in the importance of sharing art with their communities. In the years after World War II, Ferré traveled with his wife to Europe for his work, and while in Madrid, purchased copies of what were then contemporary paintings by Bartolomé Esteban Murillo, El Greco, and Luis de Morales.

“At some point, he decided that copies weren’t enough, and that he wanted original works by these artists,” says Manzano Rodríguez. “That’s when his art collection truly began.” Ferré was also enamored by Pre-Raphaelite art which, at the time, was considered by scholars and critics to be “kitsch.” One such example visitors to The Sense of Beauty will no doubt flock to is Frederic, Lord Leighton’s Flaming June, a sensuous portrait of a sleeping young lady, her body wrapped in orange, clinging, semi-transparent fabric, while a branch from the poisonous oleander tree looms above her like a memento mori. Ferré was gobsmacked when he first encountered the painting in 1963 and immediately purchased it for his purpose-built museum.

Manzano Rodríguez is equally enthused about the contemporary paintings selected for The Sense of Beauty, which will be installed in a gallery dedicated to works by Puerto Rican artists. She flags Francisco Rodón’s La matinée (Black Woman with Umbrella), a striking portrait of a young, nude Black woman, whose defiant posture matches the vertically balanced black umbrella in her hands, as one of her favorites. “It’s rare to see a female nude that isn’t created for the male gaze,” says Manzano Rodríguez. “This painting isn’t erotic; it’s powerful and triumphant.”

Like the Rodón, Waldemar Morales Logo’s Portrait of América is an oil-on-canvas portrait of a woman; the subject is of Cuban and Spanish heritage, and wears a loose-fitting Moroccan-inspired caftan, exposing her right shoulder. “What I love about this work is how it beautifully brings together different cultural influences,” Manzano Rodríguez. “It turns out, the model’s name was América!” And Maria de Mater O’Neill’s Patio, painted in 2000, is a dream-like assemblage of outdoor greenery and images contained in floating thought bubbles, including a young girl cuddling a cat and a white ladder. “It’s so full of life that it instantly transports me to Puerto Rico,” says Manzano Rodríguez of this strange and beautiful painting.

Speaking of beauty, the exhibit takes its name from the title of Ferré’s speech at the cornerstone laying ceremony of the Museo de Arte de Ponce building in April 1964. Ferré, who served one term as governor of Puerto Rico from 1969 through 1972, often spoke about the quality of art, and its power to bring people together. “I think it was probably that mentality,” says Manzano Rodríguez, “along with a desire to improve Puerto Rico and his hometown that influenced his decision to donate his collection.”

—CHRIS BECKER

Chris Becker

Chris Becker is a Houston-based composer and writer, and author of the critically acclaimed book, Freedom of Expression: Interviews With Women in Jazz. Learn more about Becker at beckeresque.substack.com. Photo by Mark Chen.