Accompanying the exhibition was _WILLIAM SPRATLING AND THE MEXICAN SILVER RENAISSANCE,_ published by Harry N. Abrams, Inc. in association with the San Antonio Museum of Art and containing essays by Penny C. Morrill, John W. Scott, Helen Delpar, Adriana Williams, Gobi Stromberg, Jaime Castrejón Diez, Christie Romero, Patrick Kapty, Phyllis Goddard and Jill Crawford. A DVD, “MAESTROS DE PLATA,” containing footage and interviews with silversmiths from Taxco workshops, played continuously throughout the course of the exhibition.
The exhibition featured some 500 pieces of jewelry, tableware, and decorative objects created between the 1930s and the present.
MAESTROS DE PLATA traced the remarkable changes in Mexican silver design begun by William Spratling in the 1930s. In the silver-producing city of Taxco, he trained silversmiths using the workshop as a setting for creativity. From his workshop emerged talented Mexican silver designers who in turn began their own workshops, many of which continue to create today. In addition to Spratling’s creations in the exhibition, there are works by a number of Mexico’s renowned silver designers — Héctor Aguilar, Valentin Vidaurreta, Margot de Taxco, Ana Brilanti, Antonio Pineda, Salvador Terán, Matilde Poulat, Hubert Harmon, Agnes Seebass, Tane and the Castillo Family.
The exhibition was organized by the San Antonio Museum of Art through a major grant from The Russel Hill Rogers Fund for the Arts. Penny C. Morrill served as Exhibition Curator. Mingei International Museum’s presentation of this exhibition was funded in part by the City of San Diego Commission for Arts and Culture and the County of San Diego Community Enhancement Program.