CCNY’s Vanessa K. Valdés is co-curator of The Met’s Juan de Pareja: Afro-Hispanic Painter

Vanessa K. Valdés, associate provost for community engagement at The City College of New York, is co-curator of The Metropolitan Museum of Art’s exhibition: Juan de Pareja, Afro-Hispanic Painter. The exhibit runs from April 3-July 16 and is co-curated by David Pullins, associate curator in The Met’s Department of European Painting.

Valdés was the former interim dean at the Macaulay Honors College and director of the Black Studies Program at CCNY. She is the author of “Diasporic Blackness: The Life and Times of Arturo Schomburg” and wrote the essay “Arturo Schomburg, Juan de Pareja, and Afro-Hispanic Studies,” which appears in the exhibition catalog “Juan de Pareja, Afro-Hispanic Painter in the Age of Velásquez.”

“The story of Juan de Pareja and of communities of African descent throughout early modern Europe is relatively unknown. As a scholar of Afro-Latin American and Afro-Latinx studies, it was my honor to assist in bringing his story to the public. It is my deepest privilege to continue sharing the story of Arturo Schomburg, this Black Puerto Rican man whose life's work was the recovery of global Black history,” said Valdés. “My hope is that with this exhibition more people not only learn about these men, but are inspired to visit the Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture in Harlem as well as visit these countries, go to the archives, and share this knowledge. There are so many histories of Black peoples languishing in archives around the world: we have so much left to learn.”

This exhibition offers an unprecedented look at the life and artistic achievements of seventeenth-century Afro-Hispanic painter Juan de Pareja (ca. 1608–1670). Largely known today as the subject of The Met’s iconic portrait by Diego Velázquez, Pareja—who was born in Antequera, Spain—was enslaved in Velázquez’s studio for over two decades before becoming an artist in his own right. 

This presentation is the first to tell his story and examine the ways in which enslaved artisanal labor and a multiracial society are inextricably linked with the art and material culture of Spain’s “Golden Age.” A fully illustrated catalogue accompanies the exhibition. Published by The Metropolitan Museum of Art and distributed by Yale University Press, it is available for purchase from The Met Store.

The Met is offering programming, including gallery talks, several access events, and a family afternoon on June 4, a panel discussion with scholars will focus on the topics of institutional histories, collecting strategies, and the potential to rewrite history through the presentation of objects that reshape the canon. Programming details are available on The Met website.

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