Professor Ray Hernández-Durán Joins National Think Tank to Redefine American Art and Identity

Over the summer of 2024, Associate Department Chair of Art and Professor of Art History, Ray Hernández-Durán, was invited to join a national “Think Tank” of 18th century experts. The Think Tank was co-organized by the Museum of Fine Arts (MFA) in Boston and the Lunder Institute for American Art (Lunder Institute) at Colby College in Maine. In October 2024, a series of meetings were held at the Lunder Institute to initiate conversations aimed at reconsidering the nature of American identity and thus, how we think of American art. With the planned reinstallation of the American Art Galleries at the MFA, Think Tank members will be advising curatorial staff as they rethink the gallery themes, acquire new works, and reinstall the collections to better reflect national demographics and the status of American identity today.

Prof. Hernández-Durán has been working with MFA curators and the Director of the Lunder Institute, Erica Wall, to develop a series of programs focused on critically addressing the nationalist project in the U.S. and expanding the idea of what it means to be American through the display and interpretation of a more inclusive and representative American visual and material culture. The first of several convenings to come out of this collaboration will take place in 2026 and focus on the global and hemispheric network of art academies; a second session will focus on the nature of archives.

As a full professor of Art History, Professor Hernández-Durán is an established and internationally recognized scholar of Spanish colonial and 19th century Mexican art. This, and other similar appointments he has held, provides the opportunity to shape broader conversations around American history, identity, and art outside of the Southwest. He has also served as a consultant for the National Gallery of Art in Washington, D.C. in their quest to acquire their first ever Spanish colonial painting, which they did in 2024. Working with the MFA Boston will allow him to advise curators on how to best proceed in their reinstallation of the American Art Galleries to provide a more inclusive and accurate representation of the American experience, one that acknowledges the longstanding presence and contributions of Mexican/Hispanic/Latino communities nationally and across the hemisphere.

Prof. Hernández-Durán completed his M.A. in the Art of Africa and the African Diaspora at the University of Wisconsin-Madison and earned his Ph.D. in Pre-Hispanic and Colonial Latin American Art at The University of Chicago. He is currently the Professor of Spanish Colonial Art and Architecture in the Department of Art at UNM and is affiliated with Latin American Studies, Chicana/Chicano Studies, Africana Studies, and Museum Studies. Central to his research and teaching has been a critical exploration of historiography, colonialism, institutional histories and practices, and the political nature of knowledge production.

STUDY WITH PROFESSOR HERNÁNDEZ-DURÁN in the fall 2025, by registering for ARTH 455/555: Art of New Spain during the Hapsburg Period (1521–1700) and during spring 2026: ARTH 456/556: Art of New Spain during the Bourbon Period (1700–1821).

LEARN MORE
About Professor Ray Hernández-Durán by visiting his faculty profile, within the UNM Department of Art at https://art.unm.edu/profile/ray-hernandez-duran