Following its successful New York run, The Aztec Empire travels to the Guggenheim Museum Bilbao in spring 2005. In New York the exhibition, curated by Felipe Solís, Director of the Museo Nacional de AntropologÌa in Mexico City, and designed by celebrated architect Enrique Norten, attracted an enormous audience (no small feat during the season that saw the reopening of the Museum of Modern Art) while garnering extraordinary critical attention: the New York Times called it "magical" and "totally mesmerizing," the New Yorker observed that "scarcely anything in the show . . . fails to enthrall," and Time pronounced it "the most comprehensive survey of Aztec art and culture ever assembled"; ABC World News Tonight even selected curator Solís as its "Person of the Week." The fact that this major show will now be presented to the Spanish public is a testament to the enduring power of a fallen empire.

Eagle Warrior (detail), Aztec, ca. 1440–69. Fired clay, stucco, and pigment, 66 15/16 x 46 7/16 x 21 5/8 inches. Museo del Templo Mayor, INAH, Mexico City. Photo: Michel ZabÈ, assistant Enrique MacÌas