Reporters may contact: Craig Boleman
cboleman@mail.smu.edu
SMU Meadows School of the Arts
(214) 768-3785

 

TIMELINE: MEADOWS MUSEUM

1950s
 Texas philanthropist Algur H. Meadows is introduced to Spanish art during several business trips to Spain and visits to the Prado.
1962
 Through The Meadows Foundation, Algur H. Meadows donates funds to Southern Methodist University for the construction and endowment of a museum to hold his growing collection of Spanish art.
1965
 The Meadows Museum opens as part of a new arts center at SMU.
1967
 The authenticity of several works in the Museum is questioned. Algur Meadows determines that the new museum should contain works of the finest possible quality and a search is begun for a curator to remove and replace the questioned pieces.
1967
 A specialist in Spanish art, William B. Jordan, joins the Museum as founding director. Through the next ten years, Jordan helps guide $10 million worth of acquisitions to expand and reshape the Meadows Museum Collection.
1967
 The Museum acquires Goya's Yard with Madmen (Corral de locos), oil on tin-plated iron, 1794. The painting had not been seen by the public since 1922.
1969
 Algur Meadows makes another major donation of works of art to the Meadows Museum, this time in the form of a collection of modern sculptures by European and American artists. Included in the collection are works by Alberto Giacommetti, Auguste Rodin, Henry Moore, David Smith, and Aristide Maillol.
1969
 The Museum acquires Picasso's synthetic cubist Still Life in a Landscape, oil on canvas, 1915.
1974
 The Museum acquires Velázquez's Female Figure (Sibyl with Tabula Rasa) or Mujer (Sibila con tábula rasa), oil on canvas, 1644-48. The eloquent figure is among the most enigmatic of Velázquez's canvases, representing the work of the artist at the height of his powers.
1978
 Algur H. Meadows dies in an automobile accident.
1979
 Isamu Noguchi's sculpture, Spirit's Flight, is commissioned by the Meadows School of the Arts to symbolize the Algur H. Meadows Award for Excellence in the Arts. A smaller cast bronze version is given to each award recipient.
1982
 A major group of graphics by Goya is acquired.
1986
 The Meadows Museum is renovated for the addition of special exhibition galleries.
1988
 Grand Noir, one of the most important works of living Spanish master Antoni Tàpies, is acquired.
1994
 A rare major work by Juan Bautista Maino, The Adoration of the Shepherds, is acquired.
1997
 May - The Meadows Foundation provides $1.5 million for the architectural design of a new museum building, intended to significantly expand facilities for research, exhibition and educational programming. Chicago-based architectural firm Hammond Beeby Rupert Ainge is selected.
1998
 April - The largest single gift ever given by The Meadows Foundation, $18.5 million, is awarded to SMU for the construction of the new museum building and for the establishment of endowments for ongoing building maintenance and expanded educational programming.
2000
 September - El Greco's Saint Francis Kneeling in Meditation, oil on canvas, 1605-10 is unveiled as the most recent addition to the Meadows Museum Collection, purchased in January 1999 for $1.3 million.
2000
 April - The exhibition "Pintura española de la Colección Meadows" opens at the Thyssen Bornemisza Museum of Art in Madrid, with the loan of 27 works of art from the Meadows Museum Collection.
2000
 September - "Pintura española de la Colección Meadows" opens in Barcelona's Museu Nacional d'Art de Catalunya.
2001
 March 20-31 - International Festival of Opening Events in new Meadows Museum.
2001
March 25 - Grand Opening! Community Celebration (Open House) in new Meadows Museum.

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