Pepón Osorio by
Pepón Osorio is an internationally recognized artist whose richly detailed installations challenge the stereotypes and misconceptions that shape our view of social institutions and human relationships. Osorio's colorful, often riotous installations are constructed from found objects and things that he customizes or creates. With a wry sense of humor, he probes sober topics, including prison life, domestic violence, AIDS, and poverty. Osorio's collaborative site-based works develop from his immersion into a community--residents of urban ethnic neighborhoods, employees who provide social services, children in foster care--and the discussions that result. As he addresses difficult themes such as race and gender, death and survival, and alienation and belonging, Osorio asks his audience to reconsider their assumptions and biases. In this book, Jennifer A. González shows that although Osorio draws on his Puerto Rican background and the immigrant experience for inspiration, his artistic statements bridge geographical barriers and class divides. Osorio's installations have been exhibited internationally, and his work is represented at the Smithsonian American Art Museum in Washington, D.C., the Museo de Arte de Puerto Rico in San Juan, the Whitney Museum of American Art in New York, and other major museums. He has received numerous awards, including a MacArthur Foundation Fellowship in 1999.
Artists from Latin American Cultures by
Latin Americans have long been relegated to the cultural background, obscured by the dominant European culture. This biographical dictionary profiles 75 artists from the United States and 13 nations of Central and South America and the Caribbean, including painters, sculptors, photographers, muralists, printmakers, installation artists, and performance artists. Some of their works recall pre-Columbian times; others confront the cultural imperialism of the U.S. over Latin America; and many explore how the dominant elements of culture can affect identities of class, gender, and sexuality. Profiled artists range from the renowned to the little-known: Frida Kahlo; Tina Modotti; Diego Rivera; Myrna Baez; Raquel Forner; Patrocino Barela; and many more. Color photographs are provided for many of the works. Each entry includes information about the artist's childhood, schooling, creative growth, and artistic styles and themes. Exemplary artworks and influences are described, along with a look at popular and critical responses. Supplemental features include artist cross references, a glossary of essential terms from the art world, and a number of vivid photos portraying the artists in their creative environments.
Our America by
Is Latino art an integral part of modern American art? Presenting over one hundred major artworks from the Smithsonian American Art Museum,Our America seeks to "recalibrate" enduring concepts about American national culture by exploring how one group of artists--those of Latin American descent and heritage--express their relationship to American art, history, and culture. E. Carmen Ramos addresses the whole issue of the definition of "Latino art" and how this emerged within the context of the Civil Rights movement of the 1960s as American artists of Latino descent (Mexican American, Puerto Rican, Cuban American, and, more recently, Dominican) began to give a tangible face to their culture and history. Highlights include an installation altar by Amalia Mesa-Bains, the "recycled" films of Raphael Montañez Ortiz, and a 1960 geometric painting by Carmen Herrera. Other notable artists include Olga Albizu, Melesio "Mel" Casas, Maria Magdalena Campos-Pons, Margarita Cabrera, Enrique Chagoya, Teresita Fernández, Ken Gonzales-Day, Luis Jiménez, Ana Mendieta, Pepón Osorio, Sophie Rivera, Freddy Rodríguez, and John M. Valadez, among many others. Winner of first prize in the Association of Art Museum Curators (AAMC) award for excellence, 2014 Author and curatorE. Carmen Ramos is the Smithsonian American Art Museum's curator of Latino art. She has organized numerous shows, including the fifth biennial at El Museo del Barrio in New York City in 2007. Tomás Ybarra-Frausto, PhD, the "grandfather" of this subject, and formerly associate director for creativity and culture at the Rockefeller Foundation in New York, has written and published extensively on US/Latino cultural issues. Accompanies an exhibition with the following venues: Smithsonian American Art Museum, Washington, DC, October 25, 2013-March 2, 2014 The Patricia and Phillip Frost Art Museum at Florida International University in Miami, FL,March 28, 2014-June 22, 2014 Crocker Art Museum in Sacramento, CA, September 21, 2014-January 11, 2015 Utah Museum of Fine Arts in Salt Lake City, UT, February 6, 2015-May 17, 2015 Arkansas Art Center in Little Rock, AR, October 16, 2015-January 17, 2016 Delaware Museum of Art in Wilmington, DE, March 5, 2016-May 29, 2016
Tapestries of Hope, Threads of Love by
This book tells the story of ordinary women living in terror and extreme poverty under General Pinochet's oppressive rule in Chile (1973--1989) and how their lives did and did not change following his reign. These women defied the military dictatorship by embroidering their sorrow on scraps of cloth, using needles and thread as one of the boldest means of popular protest and resistance in Latin America. The arpilleras they made -- patchwork tapestries with scenes of everyday life and memorials to their disappeared relatives -- were smuggled out of Chile and brought to the world the story of their fruitless searches in jails, morgues, government offices, and the tribunals of law for their husbands, brothers, and sons. Marjorie Agosín, herself a native of and exile from Chile, has spent over twenty years interviewing the arpilleristas and following their work. She knows their stories intimately and knows, too, that not one of them has ever found a disappeared relative alive. Still, many of them maintain hope and continue to make their arpilleras. Includes a history of the women's movement, testimonies from the women in their own words, and, for the first time, full-color plates of their beautiful, moving, and ultimately hopeful arpilleras. Anyone interested in the history of contemporary Latin America will want to read this powerful story.
Cecilia Vicuña: about to Happen by
Vicu a makes art of gathered materials from the ocean, the river and the street Beginning and ending at the edge of the ocean, Chilean-born artist and poet Cecilia Vicu a's (born 1948) artist's book serves as both a lament and love letter to the sea. Vicu a collects the detritus that washes up on shore and assembles out of the refuse tiny precarios and basuritas--little sculptures held together with nothing more than string and wire. About to Happen, which accompanies an exhibition at the Contemporary Arts Center New Orleans, traces a decades-long practice that has refused categorical distinctions and thrived within the confluences of conceptual art, land art, feminist art, performance and poetry. In an era of increasing climate change and economic disparity, Vicu a's nuanced visual poetics--operating fluidly between concept and craft, text and textile--transforms the discarded into the elemental, paying acute attention to the displaced, the marginalized and the forgotten.
Photography in Argentina - Contradiction and Continuity by
From its independence in 1810 until the economic crisis of 2001, Argentina has been seen, in the national and international collective imaginary, as a modern country with a powerful economic system, a massive European immigrant population, an especially strong middle class, and an almost nonexistent indigenous culture. In some ways, the early history of Argentina strongly resembles that of the United States, with its march to the prairies and frontier ideology, the image of the cowboy as a national symbol (equivalent to the Argentine gaucho), the importance of the immigrant population, and the advanced and liberal ideas of the founding fathers. But did Argentine history truly follow a linear path toward modernization? How did photography help shape or deconstruct notions associated with Argentina? Photography in Argentina examines the complexities of this country's history, stressing the heterogeneity of its realities, and especially the power of constructed pho-tographic images--that is, the practice of altering reality for artistic expression, an important vein in Argentine photography. Influential specialists from Argentina have contributed essays on various topics, such as the shaping of national myths, the adaptation of gesture as related to the "disappeared" during the dictatorship period, the role of contemporary photography in the context of recent sociopolitical events, and the reinterpreting of traditional notions of documentary photography in Argentina and the rest of Latin America.
Making Art Concrete by
In the years after World War II, artists in Argentina and Brazil experimented with geo-metric abstraction and engaged in lively debates about the role of the artwork in society. Some of these artists used novel synthetic materials, creating objects that offered an alternative to established traditions in painting--proposing that these objects become part of everyday, concrete reality. Combining art historical and scientific analysis, experts from the Getty Conservation Institute and Getty Research Institute are collaborating with the Colección Patricia Phelps de Cisneros, a world-renowned collection of Latin American art, to research the formal strategies and material decisions of these artists working in the concrete and neo-concrete vein. Making Art Concrete presents works by Lygia Clark, Willys de Castro, Judith Lauand, Raúl Lozza, Hélio Oiticica, and Rhod Rothfuss, among others, with spectacu-lar new photography. The photographs, along with information about the now-invisible processes that determine the appearance of these works, are key to interpreting the artists' technical choices as well as the objects themselves. Indeed, this volume sheds further light on the social, political, and cultural underpinnings of the artists' propositions, making a compelling addition to the field of postwar Latin American art.
Sur Moderno: Journeys of Abstraction by
Presents highlights from the transformative gift of nearly 150 works of modern art from Latin America offered to The Museum of Modern Art by Patricia Phelps de CisnerosSur moderno: Journeys of Abstraction presents a richly illustrated overview of the significant cultural transformations propelled by the abstract and concrete art movements in South America between the mid-1940s and the late 1970s. Published to accompany a major exhibition at The Museum of Modern Art, the catalogue features works by artists working in Argentina, Uruguay, Brazil, and Venezuela - including Lygia Clark, Hélio Oiticica, Lygia Pape, Jesús Rafael Soto, Alejandro Otero and Tomás Maldonado - who advanced the achievements of geometric abstraction in the early twentieth century, and built a new modern vision of the region.The catalogue highlights a selection of works gifted to MoMA by Patricia Phelps de Cisneros between 1993 and 2016, which had a transformative impact on the Museum's holdings of Latin American art. The Cisneros collection, which includes paintings, sculptures, and works on paper, allows for in-depth study of art produced in the region during this period, allowing the Museum to represent a more comprehensive, plural, and robust narrative of artistic practices that demonstrate the integral role of Latin America in the establishment of modern art.
Julio le Parc by
Julio Le Parc: Form into Action accompanies the first retrospective survey in the United States dedicated to Julio Le Parc (b. 1928, Mendoza, Argentina; lives in Cachan, France), a central and influential figure in participatory Kinetic art. The book explores Le Parc's groundbreaking innovations in the fields of light, movement, and perception, which the artist began soon after his arrival to Paris in 1958 and developed over the course of nearly six decades. With contributing essays in both English and Spanish by Rodrigo Alonso, Estrellita B. Brodsky, Valerie Hillings, and Edward J. Sullivan, the publication examines Le Parc's leadership role as a founder of the artists collaborative Groupe de Recherche d'Art Visuel (GRAV), his frequent exchanges with members of the Paris avant-garde from the late 1950s on, his influence on other Latin American artists, as well as his writings on art and society. The volume includes a selection of Le Parc's paintings, sculptures, and light installations presented in full-color reproductions as well as an autobiographical chronology written by the artist.
Relational Undercurrents by
Relational Undercurrents accompanies an exhibition curated by Tatiana Flores for the Museum of Latin American Art in Long Beach, California, which forms part of the Getty Foundation's Pacific Standard Time: LA/LA. This initiative examines the artistic legacy of Latin America and U.S. Latinos through a series of exhibitions and related programs. This exhibition catalog and volume edited by Flores and Michelle Ann Stephens calls attention to the artistic production of the Caribbean islands and their diasporas, challenging the conventional geographic and conceptual boundaries of Latin America. The editors offer an "archipelagic model," which proposes a mapping of the Caribbean from the perspective of its islands as distinct from its continental coasts. The exhibition, organized around the four themes of Conceptual Mappings, Perpetual Horizons, Landscape Ecologies, and Representational Acts, highlights thematic continuities in the art of the insular Caribbean, placing Hispanophone artists in visual conversation with those from Anglophone, Francophone, Dutch, and Danish backgrounds. It includes over eighty artists, among them Tania Bruguera, Allora & Calzadilla, Christopher Cozier, Jorge Pineda, Edouard Duval-Carrié, and Ebony G. Patterson. In accompanying essays, curators, critics, and scholars discuss particular artistic traditions in Cuban, Puerto Rican, Dominican, and Haitian art and theorize the broader decolonial and archipelagic conceptual frameworks within which such works are produced. Relational Undercurrents will be on display that the Museum of Latin American Art from September 2017 through January 2018. Publication by the Museum of Latin American Art in collaboration with Fresco Books / SF Design, LLC. Distributed by Duke University Press.
Radical Women by
This stunning reappraisal offers long overdue recognition to the enormous contribution to the field of contemporary art of women artists in Latin America and those of Latino and Chicano heritage working during a pivotal time in history. Amidst the tumult and revolution that characterized the latter half of the 20th century in Latin America and the US, women artists were staking their claim in nearly every field. This wide ranging volume examines the work of more than 100 female artists with nearly 300 works in the fields of painting, sculpture, photography, video, performance art, and other experimental media. A series of thematic essays, arranged by country, address the cultural and political contexts in which these radical artists worked, while other essays address key issues such as feminism, art history, and the political body. Drawing its design and feel from the radical underground pamphlets, catalogs, and posters of the era, this is the first examination of a highly influential period in 20th-century art history. Published in association with the Hammer Museum.
Vida Americana - Mexican Muralists Remake American Art, 1925-1945 by
An in-depth look at the transformative influence of Mexican artists on their U.S. counterparts during a period of social change The first half of the 20th century saw prolific cultural exchange between the United States and Mexico, as artists and intellectuals traversed the countries' shared border in both directions. For U.S. artists, Mexico's monumental public murals portraying social and political subject matter offered an alternative aesthetic at a time when artists were seeking to connect with a public deeply affected by the Great Depression. The Mexican influence grew as the artists José Clemente Orozco, Diego Rivera, and David Alfaro Siqueiros traveled to the United States to exhibit, sell their work, and make large-scale murals, working side-by-side with local artists, who often served as their assistants, and teaching them the fresco technique. Vida Americana examines the impact of their work on more than 70 artists, including Marion Greenwood, Philip Guston, Isamu Noguchi, Jackson Pollock, and Charles White. It provides a new understanding of art history, one that acknowledges the wide-ranging and profound influence the Mexican muralists had on the style, subject matter, and ideology of art in the United States between 1925 and 1945.
The Matter of Photography in the Americas by
Latin American and Latino artists have used photography to engage with modern media landscapes and critique globalized economies since the 1960s. But rarely are these artists considered leaders in discussions about the theory and scholarship of photography or included in conversations about the radical transformations of photography in the digital era. The Matter of Photography in the Americas presents the work of more than eighty artists working in Mexico, the Caribbean, Central America, South America, and Latino communities in the United States who all have played key roles in transforming the medium and critiquing its uses. Artists like Alfredo Jaar, Oscar Muñoz, Ana Mendieta, and Teresa Margolles highlight photography's ability to move beyond the impulse simply to document the world at large. Instead, their work questions the relationship between representation and visibility. With nearly 200 full-color images, this book brings together drawings, prints, installations, photocopies, and three-dimensional objects in an investigation and critique of the development and artistic function of photography. Essays on key works and artists shed new light on the ways photographs are made and consumed. Pressing at the boundaries of what defines culturally specific, photography-centric artwork, this book looks at how artists from across the Americas work with and through photography as a critical tool.
In a Cloud, in a Wall, in a Chair by
Expanding our understanding of Mexico's important role in the story of modern art and design through the works of six important women artists and designers This stunning book unites for the first time the pioneering work of six artists and designers: Clara Porset, Lola Álvarez Bravo, Anni Albers, Ruth Asawa, Cynthia Sargent, Sheila Hicks. Inspired by both local traditions and modern methods, these women made art that reflected and contributed to Mexico's rich artistic landscape at the height of the modern period. Their work--which included furniture design, jewelry, photography, photomurals, prints, sculpture, and textiles--was rooted in modernism and grounded in abstraction. This constellation of like-minded practitioners shared an affinity for Mexico, a country all lived in or visited between the 1940s and the 1970s. In bringing their works together, this book offers an entirely new lens on modernism in Mexico. Exploring the artistic culture of the country's postrevolutionary period, this book contains reproductions from the exhibition catalogue--no longer in print--that accompanied Clara Porset's groundbreaking 1952 exhibition in Mexico City Art in Daily Life as well as stunning illustrations of each artist's work. Essays written by an international team of esteemed scholars tell a more complete and nuanced story of Mexico's role as a center of modern art and design.
Beatriz González by
One of The New York Times Best Art Books of 2019 Explore the full range of the pioneering work of Colombian artist Beatriz González. At 80, Beatriz González is not only an internationally celebrated Colombian artist, but also a representative of the "radical women" generation from Latin America. Her work spans over six decades and her groundbreaking art has distinct figuration, involving the flattening of forms and use of strong and eccentric color palettes evocative of commercial advertising. Her work often has imagery associated with Western art history as well as mass media common to Colombia in order to shed light on the middleclass notions of taste, class, gender, and ethnicity. This book includes essays that explore González's early work, her late and current work, and her use of photography and archival images. It contextualizes her practice within Colombian history and major events that influenced her work. Filled with illustrations, this book shows the breadth of Beatriz González's oeuvre, which comments on domestic environments and vernacular traditions of her country with self-conscious irony. Published with the Pérez Art Museum Miami
Olga de Amaral by
The book traces Amaral's career over five decades, features more than 40 key pieces of work, and examines the Olga de Amaral's oeuvre through the lens of contemporary and fiber art. Olga de Amaral is one of the world's best-known artists in textile and one of the few South American women to be represented in the Arts and Crafts section at major international applied arts museums. De Amaral's origins are also displayed in her work: taken from the idyllic Columbian landscape and the urban architecture of Bogotá, her palette of colours is woven into monumental installations made of wool, horsehair and nylon. Using appliqués of plastic or gold leaf but also acrylic, the artist achieves new possibilities in design and in-tensity of colour within her textile creations. Her close relation to nature is also found in the title of the book and the accompanying exhibition that will travel the United States: To Weave a Rock, reflecting Olga de Amaral's 'weaving' of landscapes. Some fifty of her finest works from the 1960s to the present day are illustrated in both large-format and detail in the current publication and will be on display in the United States during the coming years -- at the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston; Cran-brook Art Museum; and the Museum of Arts and Design, New York.
Thirteen Ways of Looking at Latino Art by
The essayist and cultural commentator Ilan Stavans and the analytic philosopher Jorge J. E. Gracia share long-standing interests in the intersection of art and ideas. Here they take thirteen pieces of Latino art, each reproduced in color, as occasions for thematic discussions. Whether the work at the center of a particular conversation is a triptych created by the brothers Einar and Jamex de la Torre, Andres Serrano's controversial Piss Christ, a mural by the graffiti artist BEAR_TCK, or Above All Things, a photograph by María Magdalena Campos-Pons, Stavans and Gracia's exchanges inevitably open out to literature, history, ethics, politics, religion, and visual culture more broadly. Autobiographical details pepper Stavans and Gracia's conversations, as one or the other tells what he finds meaningful in a given work. Sparkling with insight, their exchanges allow the reader to eavesdrop on two celebrated intellectuals--worldly, erudite, and unafraid to disagree--as they reflect on the pleasures of seeing.
