Introduction to Juan de Pareja in under 2 minutes

Juan de Pareja, Afro-Hispanic Painter opened on 3 April at The Met Museum in New York. It is the first institutional exhibition dedicated to the painter, bringing together his paintings (some of which have been specially conserved). Although the most famous image of Pareja is the portrait made by Diego Velázquez in 1650, this show brings together Pareja’s own paintings (all made in the last 10-20 years of his life) with paintings of Spain’s Black and Morisco populations by artists working at the time. The exhibition also traces the fundamental role of enslaved artisanal labour in 16th- and 17th-century Spanish visual culture. Find out who Juan de Pareja was!

We created a short video to help bring Juan de Pareja’s important story to more people:

(Created by Esme Garlake on behalf of Athena Art Foundation, April 2023)