Latinx Art Midterm 1
Arturo Michelena, Miranda in La Carraca, 1896, oil on canvas
- History painting of independence -Venezuelan independence hero Francisco de Miranda (designed flag) -depicts arrest by rival Bolivar, later sent to Spain -Neoclassicism's influence on America: rejection of Spanish Baroque -a parallel to Jacques Louis David's Death of Socrates. ie comparing Miranda's imprisonment to Socrate's resistance of injustice and authority
Pedro José Figueroa, Simon Bolivar, Liberator and Father of the Nation, 1819, oil on canvas.
- Independence: Simon Bolivar was leader of greater Colombia -emphasis of military triumph through uniform and medals -female allegory embodiment of America, indigenous woman as America, her racial ambiguity, native headdress vs European pearls -social and historical importance -portraiture
Leopoldo Méndez / Taller de Gráfica Popular, Deportation to Death, 1942, linocut. Art Institute of Chicago.
-1st image of holocaust outside of Europe -movement of train -German expressionism -Taller de Grafica Popular -antifascist -from book of illustrations
Gerardo Murillo (Dr. Atl), (Mexican, b. 1875 - d. 1964), Rayos de sol entre los montes, undated, Atl-colors on masonite. C. 1930
-Atl colors: crayons of pigment resin wax used over watercolor or oil to heighten intensity -interest as volcanologist painting mountains and volcanos -futurism, impressionism curvilinear perspective -color used for symbolic meaning (frees color from academy) -Dr. Atl changes San Carlos academy, fusing art and politics
José María Jara, The Wake, 1889, oil on canvas.
-Costumbrismo: depiction of everyday life, popular art, Mexican fulk customs -depict jealously preserved religious practices of peasants, immune to modernity -still neoclassical European flair lighting -World fair in Paris
Joaquin Clausell (Mexican, b. 1866 - d. 1935) Late Afternoon by the Sea (The Red Wave), 1910, oil on canvas.
-Impressionism, means for artists to focus on native culture and popular roots (open air schools) -bold perspective, like viewer was inside landscape -resemblance to Monet, bold complementary colors concerned with vibrations of light -inspired by photography: bold cropping -momentary atmospheric effect of locations -featured water in myriad of ways: seascapes, becahes. waves
Tarsila do Amaral, Caipirinha (Little Hick), 1923. Oil on canvas.
-Leger like cubist piece, studied with him in Paris -generic figure of woman carrying pitchfork in landscape with house and tree -attachments to her rural Brazillian roots, she was raised on farm -title from poem of Oswaldo de Andrade -nationalist rural identity, ie outside of academy
Diego Rivera, The Creation, 1922-1923. Encaustic and gold leaf.
-Mexican avant-garde receive government support -mural painters -> tool of new postrevolutionary government -alvaro Obregon and minister of education Jose Vasconcelos: populist objective -first mural in College of San Ildefonso, where Siquero and Orozco also painted theirs -traditional Christian and Hellenistic models, used materials of fresco and encaustic (durable and permenant) -symmetrical composition around central recessed area -blue semicircle studded with gold stars: evoke Byzantine mosaics (symbolizes primal energy) hands point in 3 directions -male figure grows out of leafy pyramidal background surrounded by symbols of 4 evangelist: lion, man, eagle, ox(based on Byzantine version of crucified christ) -darkskinned woman and lightskinned man look at personification of arts (theological virtues of wisdom vs cardinal virtues of science) -allegorical figures converted to Mexican types from regions -snake = adam and eve -despite biblical references, no expulsion of sin -central figure is christ as not redeemer but emergent man (cosmic rebirth of race as written by Vasconcelo)
Julio Ruelas (Mexican, b. - d. ), Initiation of Jesús Luján into the 'Revista Moderna', 1904, oil on canvas.
-Mexico symbolist =rejection of bourgeois value -death lust and greek mythology -he was illustrator of Revista Moderna -tribute toe Jesus Lujan who saved the journal manner of French illustrator Goustave Moreau -colleagues as mythological creatures -writer as centaur greeting Don Jesus who is in 17th century costume on white unicorn -birds with colorful plummage= role as spokesman and critic -quadruped=homosexuality -Izaguirre is satyr in tree -Ruelas is dead satyr hanging
Francisco Laso, The inhabitant of the Cordillera of Peru, 1855, oil on Canvas.
-Peruvian painter represented Indian as a single figure with idealized European features dressed in black holding a Mochica portrait jar -for the universal audience, symmetry between man and jar -Mochica people lived on northern Peruvian coast, known for ceramic vessels of rulers -ceramic reps a prisoner: subjugation of Peruvian indians -frontal rep of a single Indian man - reproduced as an engraving in ISIllustration and Magasin pittoresque, caricatured in the Journal pour rire -French critics mis-understood
Diego Rivera, The Liberated Earth and National Forces Controlled by Humanity in the Chapingo Chapel, 1926, fresco. National Autonomous University of Chapingo (Mexico)
-Rivera satisfied a favorable vision of Mexican Rev, t/f the Obregon administration (Orozco did not) -Calles gov: optimistic depiction bright color -revolution and evolution program at Chapingo Chapel: sequence of scenes leading from struggle to fruitful outcome -converge at the arched apse, this scene dominated at the top by monumental reclining nude who holds budding plant and points up to center -surrounded by other nude figures who control natural elements water wind fire complex composition balances horizontals, verticals diagonals, at times thru use of golden section -excursions into pictorial depth intricate yet legible -location at apse end of chapel emphasizes idea that humankind, not supernatural forces controls nature -vaulted ceilings of male figures, sistine chample -death regeneration recall Giotto (here it's revolution and industriousness)
Diego Rivera, Man, Controller of the Universe, 1934, fresco. Museum of Fine Arts (Mexico City).
-Rockfeller center mural destroyed because of Lenin -painted identical version in Mexico city -worker controlling central figure is central figure of composition -two intercrossed diagonal wings, one with planetary formation, the other bacteria -capitalist world vs communist world, communist favored where workers are main subject -Lenin clasping hands with workers -critique of Bourgeois class
Oswaldo Guayasamín (Ecuador, b. 1919 - 1999), The Strike, 1940, oil on canvas. Guyasamín Foundation (Quito).
-adopted dramatic indigenist style of Egas and Kingman -early painting combine torture and somber style of Orozco and Siqueiros with hints of Picasso blue period -frightened woman surrounded by dead bodies trying to hold one up -words today i strike on house wall -cropped figures in background = aftermath of brutal shooting by the police -shirtless= vulnerability -bodies fill large parts of their compressed zone of space -meaning comes from what things imply rather than obvious narrative
Emilio Pettoruti , My Window in Florence, 1917, oil and collage.
-avant garde in Argentina launched by manifesto of Martin Fierro -cubism see influence by Juan Gris -theme of city streets viewed from windows -small postcard of Florence cathedral, newspaper from Argentine daily (collage like cubists) -window pane= easy way to fragment composition, as do folded papers and tipped up viewpoint -strong diagonal, avoids horizontal of typical still life -mix of analytical and synthetic cubism
Hector Hyppolite (Haiti, b. 1894- d. 1948), Creator (Zombies), c. 1945, oil on board. Museum of Saint-Pierre (Port-au-Prince, Haiti).
-best known self taught artist of Haitian renaissance using voudoo symbolism -Baron Samedi the vodou spirit guardian of gave yard guiding 2 undead female figures out of cemetary -tomb skull various symbolic figures -mixture of vodou and christianity -Discovered by Breton, spins primitive narrative -conciliation between realism and surrealism -pictoral flatness, lack of depth perspective
Oswaldo Guayasamín, Origin, 1951, oil on canvas. Casa de la Cultura Ecuatioria (Quito)
-by mid 40s he no longer painted naturalistically -instead incorporated geometric elements in a late-cubist manner with flatter areas of red tan yellow creamy white black *reminiscent of Siqueiros and Rufino Tamayo -abstract scene of fertility birth
Saturnino Herrán, The Offering, 1913, oil on canvas.
-campesinos as subjects -emphasizes cultural values and rituals, regional types: develop national identity -folk customs day of the dead, family with bags of yellow flower taken to graves -figures seen from above are compressed within shallow pictorial space, some cropped, horizon near top of picture -symbolizes cycle of life thru 3 generations -san carlos painter
Pedro Figari, Candombe, c. 1925, oil on particle board.
-candombe-music and dance styles from Uruguayan slaves (dance of special occassions ) -representation of blacks was controversial during time -one of few artists to represent blacks as independent -Candombe was basically dead by time he was painting so he based off verbal accounts -figures wearing clothes inherited from masters: crinolines and tuxedos -elected king and queen watch over dance, altar of 3 cult figures have double attributes of African deities and Catholic saints -blacks as embodiment of his radical theories on Western society. believed blacks had spiritual integrity
José Guadalupe Posada, The Skeleton of the People's Editor, 1907, photo-relief printing. The Metropolitan Museum of Art (USA).
-celebrated Arroyo as Calavera -list of his publications
Diego Rivera, Agrarian Leader Zapata, 1931, portable fresco. Museum of Modern Art
-centers who the heroes are in Mexican Rev -humbles Zapata's image -idealizes Agrarian revolution -portable mural made at and for MOMA which replicates previous fresco at Cuernavaca -Emiliano Zapata had been a leader of the Mexican Revolution -painted him wearing the local costume of the Cuernavaca region (as opposed to military uniform) and carrying a sugarcane-cutter's machete
Saturnino Herrán, Our Gods (Coatlicue Transformed), 1918, oil on linen.
-central vertical painting of Aztec goddess Coatlicue -lady of serpent skirt -based on massive sculpture of deity -hybirdization of Christianity and Indigenous religion: merging her with crucified Christ, whose haloed head is visible near top center -unlike the history painters, Saturino invoked archaeological past as symbol of Mexican identity: fusion of legacies
Diego Rivera, History of Mexico: Mexico Today and Tomorrow in the National Palace (Mexico City), 1935.
-commissioned by interim president Emilio Portes Gil -history narrative on unprecedented scale, scenes from conquest to Mexican revolution -packed narrative unfolds over 5 arched spaces flanked on right side by scene of pre-Hispanic world -This is left side: world of future with Karl Marx beneath rising sun -crowded figures in regimented and geometric composition (impacted by stay in US) -indictment of capitalism and clergy attributed to destruction of his Rockfeller murals because of Lenin -but also fascination of industrialized world eveident thru cold gray steel pipes that frame and divide scene
Saturnino Herrán, Our Gods,(left panel), 1918, oil on linen.
-commissioned to paint a frieze for interior of National Theatre in Mexico city -sequence of 3 oil, lifesize figures, unfinished due to death -left panel Indians shown kneeling and carrying offerings of fruits to deity, chanting in trance like state -hybirdization of Christianity and Indigenous religion
Jose Sabogal (Peru, b. 1903 - 1962), Amauta. Museo Reina Sofia (Madrid, Spain).
-cover for cultural and literary journal founded by Jose Carlos Mariategui, Inca commune version of marxism -he called for indigenismo which focused on present life of Indian -Sabogal address issue of identity (also brought up by Mariategui)
José Clemente Orozco, The Epic of American Civilization, 1932-1934, fresco. Dartmouth College
-deconstruct US centric ideal of America -24 panels depicting the history of the Americas from the Aztec migration into Mexico to the industrialization of modern society. -Pre-Columbian golden age -duality of Indigenous and European (symmetry) -West wing: coming and departure of Quetzalcoatl *pre-columbian Golden age -East Wing:Cortez and Modern Era *machine key marker of communist newspaper *Gods of the modern world: critical of Western knowledge, against all institutions *Modern Industrial man 123: workers @ rest (communist manifesto)
Juan Manuel Blanes, Oath of the Thirty-Three Easterners, 1878, oil on canvas
-depicts members of revolutionary vanguard whose insurrection against Brazilian Empire resulted in Uruguyan independence -idea of a revolutionary collective -triumph, freedom etc: lighting focus on flag -colonial Spanish dress: Creole -mixture of classicism and realism
Frida Kahlo, Self-Portrait Along the Border Line Between Mexico and the United States, 1932, oil on metal.
-duality of ancient pre-Hispanic Mexican world vs industrialized US -Mexico: cycle of life and death, US: lifeless -roots of Mexican flowers tied to American generators -Mexican flag -indigenous heritage -boundary stone she stands on -pre-Columbian fertility dolls
Tarsila do Amaral, Abaporú, 1928. Oil on canvas.
-elongated figure with large feet and tiny heads -title indicate they are indeigenous -Tupi Guarani group: canibalism -Anthropophagite Manifesto metaphor for cultural ingestion, appropriate European traditions -large foot: rooted in Brazilian soil, small head: minimize logic and intellect
Ernst Kirchner (Germany, b. 1880 - d. 1938), SelfPortrait as a Soldier, 1915, oil on canvas.
-expressionism emerges out of Germany -emphasis on rep of emotional psychological -distortion, color symbolism -juxtaposition of artist studio and war battlefield
Remedios Varo, Woman Leaving the Psychoanalyst, 1960, oil on canvas. Museum of Modern Art (Mexico City)
-fascinated by psychoanalysis -exorcised or buried her anxieties in painting -takes place in patio of ancient medieval or renaissance building -small fountain in center -claustrophobic scene closing in upon figure and viewer -figure ref to her self, enigmaic, veiled and clothed in green robe, carries small basket -left hand holds disembodied head with long beard, carries by tip of beard -emerged from doorway shrouded in darkness -inscription of Dr. FJA: Freud, Jung and Adler
Cecilio Guzmán de Rojas, Christ Aymara, 1939, oil on canvas.
-father of indigenismo in Bolivia -influential teacher -Aymara Indian embodied soul of Highland Indian culture -glorification of indigenist culture
Pedro Figari, Colts on the Pampa, 1930, oil on cardboard.
-fertile lowlands of Uruguay an Argentina inspired -low horizon line, emphasizing flatness -imaginative: horses in the clouds -mythical forces associated with plains
José Clemente Orozco, Prometheus, 1930, fresco. Pomona College
-first major mural in US -myth of Prometheus: stole fire from gods and gave to humanity, condemned to eternal punishment -fire represent enlightenment knowledge beginning of human civilization -tension between creative and destructive forces -he felt this allegory represented him -fire symbolism: lost his hand while making fireworks to celebrate Mexican independence -Titan reaches for fire, right hand disappears into flames -ceiling: stylized flames emerge from abstract composition of geometric forms (symbolic rep of God, from whom fire of knowledge emanates) -West wall: destruction of mythology, Zeus, Hera and lo look on in horror -East wall: panel Strangulation of Mythology, male centaurs and female creatures caught in the coils of great serpent -reflects tension in his practice, uneasy balance of commitment to political message vs private agency
Juan Cordero, Columbus at the Court of the Catholic Monarchs, 1850-1851, oil on canvas
-first work with American theme not European to be seen by Mexican public -shown at Academy exhibition -Columbus demonstrating his finds of New World -Indians dressed in skins, deep in shadow, one of which is self portrait -nationalist present informed by classical past -Academy San Carlos
Pablo Curatella-Manes (b. 1891- d. 1962), Rugby, 1927, bronze.
-futurism representation of motion, speed, dynamism -continuous plaster bands that project into surrounding spaces to convey dynamic movement -open organic configurations find parallel in Lipchitz -sculptural drawing in space -retain resemblance of human figure in motion
Anita Malfatti (Brazil, b. 1889 - d. 1964), The Fool, 1915-1916. Oil on canvas.
-her brightly colored expressionist paintings recieved with controversy in Sao Paolo -critics described her distortions as psychosis -lived in Germany, met Juan Gris -pure primary colors as shadows blue green (influence by German expressionism) -controversial upward gaze of a woman -pioneer of Brazillian Modernism
Leandro Izaguirre, Torture of Cuauhtémoc, 1893, oil on canvas.
-history painting depicting violence of Spanish colonialism -last aztec emperor, heroic figure as symbol of national resistance -dignity defiance pride (eye contact), -lighting: chiaroscuro, sense of drama -painted for Chicago World Fair
Xul Solar (Argentina, b. 1887 - d. 1963), Drago, 1927. Watercolor on paper.
-ignored by Martin Fierro colleagues because too complex -studied esoterics and mythology -Cosmopolitan artist -influenced by Kandinsky Klee -spiritual interrogation of Americas -cosmology: sun, moon star alchemical symbiosis -dragons nations and language (tongue)
Cecilio Guzmán de Rojas (Bolivian b. 1899 - d. 1950), Triumph of Nature, 1928, oil on canvas.
-indigenista whose earlier paintings belong to Modernismo -nude in classical poses, in local setting -Indian couple propped up against an anicent stone tomb bearing a half-hidden frontal image of God Viracocha -based on a relief carving on the gate of sun near La Paz -arabesque pattern of body, sensuous rhythm, blend with Bolivian mountains and siwrling clouds that echo contour of bodies -tomb symbolism: Couple awakening from sleep from remote past to foster new race like Adam and Eve -fusion make them part of nature
Diego Rivera (Mexico, b. 1886 - d. 1957), Zapatista Landscape, 1915, oil on canvas.
-influence of Picasso cubism -Campesino soldier: Sombrero, rifle, cartridge belt, serape: Mexican revolutionary symbols celebrated also by his teacher Velasco -synthetic cubism -wood alludes to amunition boxes -crater volcanp = central mexico -created during Mexican Revolution, Rivera was abroad, created this in Paris
Elizabeth Catlett (USA, b. 1915 - d. 2012), Sharecropper, c. 1952, linocut. Davis Museum at Wellesley College.
-influenced by her time at Taller de Gráfica Popular -socially engaged public art -democratic power of printed art -specialization of linocut
Tarsila do Amaral, Carnival in Madureira, 1924. Oil on canvas.
-inspired by Blaise Cendrars who pushed her to paint regional themes including blacks and mulattos -Brazilian folk culture, depicting fairs, carnival -acceptance of Brazil's cultural affiliation w PAris -Eiffel tower stands amidst tropical landscape populated by Afro-Brazillians -celebrates proximity of two worlds: transatlantic travel and wireless telegraphy
Arturo Borda (Bolivia, b. 1883 - d. 1953), Pachamama / Mother Earth, 1944, oil on canvas.
-landscape was constant in Bolivian art -nurturing protective assignment of landscape dates back to pre-Hispanic -mythical allegorical ancestral meanings -altiplano landscape considered feminine, female nude (connection also made by surrealists) -self taught artist from La Paz -Bosch like incongruities -> hard to classify him as indigenist -surrealist symbolist and ndigenist -mountain metaphors -mountain = andean earth mother whose milk filled breasts were believed to ensure successful harvest -naturalistic pyramidal mountain reveal to be veiled woman -inspired by Bosch hell scenes -vivid imagination psychologica; quirks
José Sabogal (Peru, b. 1888 - 1956), Indian Mayor of Chincheros: Varayoc, 1925, oil on canvas. Municipal Museum of Art, Lima.
-less confrontational than Ecuador -ancestral allegorical vision rather than contemp issues -traditional costumes, folkloric aspect of modernismo -altiplano setting (highland Indians) daily activities -influential teacher of indigenismo painters -ethnic pride?
Hector Hyppolite, Damballah La Flambeau
-male spirit serpent creator -loa -authenticity, free from Western conventions -Breton
José María Velasco, El Citlaltépetl, 1897, oil on canvas.
-modernization juxtaposed with landscape -capturing history thru landscape
Wifredo Lam, The Jungle, 1943, Gouache on paper mounted on canvas. Museum of Modern Art (New York).
-mulata prostitute: Cuba degradation under colonialism -language of Santeria -Jungla: sacred space for Santeria -placed them in new rev context -Human vegetable hybrid, hybridity of gender -sugar plantation vs sacred place critique -4 main vertical axes resembling poles with feminine atttributes -ripening fruit, masklike horse faces, lunar crescents scissors -thick foliage background -Picasso influence
José María Obregón, The Discovery of Pulque (1869)
-natives romanticized as noble savage in Mexican paintings -history, academic painting -Pulque: national agave drink -young light-skinned Indian woman presents pulque to Aztec Emperor sitting on neoclassical throne with pre-Hispanic motifs -status and grandeur, hierarchy power -neoclassicism style: noble simplicity, quiet grandeur, europeanizing Indigenous narrative -discovery innovation exploration narrative that centers the pre-Columbian -Academy San Carlos
José Clemente Orozco The Man of Fire, 1936-1939, Fresco Instituto Cultural Cabañas, (Guadalajara, Jalisco, Mexico)
-painted after return to Mexico from US -largest mural project at Hospicio Cabanas -told story of Americas beginning with indigenous culture, to conquest, to modern struggle to adapt to mechanized civilization -expressive in brushwork and poses -doubtful of utopian themes, native culture not glamorized -Man of fire is most symbolic and multivalent work -ring of panels below dome symbolizes human tasks, arts offices central immolation= final apotheosis of humanity, final self transcendence of surpassing of history below -Orozco was too somber and pessimistic in depicition of Revolution for Calles -his greatest work: pessimism culminated -depict unhappy people react against their leaders while purifying fire radiates its menacing tongues -depicting tragic beauty -historical themes continue, intensity of anguish and despair -dome: only hope for salvation is the self-sacraficing creative man -cry against inhumanity, destruction of western modernization
Cândido Portinari (Brazil, b. 1903 - 1962), Coffee, 1935, oil on canvas. National Museum of Fine Arts, Rio de Janeiro.
-painted mulattos and black laborers -Vargas' dictatorial power -> nationalist propaganda art -his family (Italian immigrants) worked on coffee plantations -laborers were actively working -his works especially murals were well received (cordial US Brazillian relations) -use spatial compression and distortion to give figures solidity and mass -focus here is picking bagging transportation of coffee beans as collective task done by many races -large hands and feet = industriousness -background trees are packed -this work received honor in Carnegie Int Ex
David Alfaro Siqueiros, América Tropical, 1932. Olvera Street (Downtown Los Angeles)
-painted workers and Indians more controversial than Orozco or Rivera -political exile in LA -represent Mexican Indian as victim of racism and injustice -Indian crucified beneath eagle of US coins -denounced deportation of Mexican nationals and conditions of migratory worker -subdued colors -caused controversy, forced departure -mural was covered up painted over
Diego Rivera, Sugar Cane, 1931, portable fresco. Philadelphia Museum of Art
-pastiche of incongruous elements from disparate mural panels displaces the image of brutality found in the Cuernavaca panel and transforms the portable fresco into a picturesque genre scene, while the panoramic view accommodates the normative conventions of landscape painting. -removes naked indigenous workers monitored by guards, adds woman cutting fruit and boy with basket -original Cuenavaca mural was titled Slavery in the Sugar Mill -made the portable fit into genre of costumbrismo, idyllic depiction of native subjects -marxist ideas of class struggle
Pedro Figari, The Marketplace, c. 1935, oil on cardboard.
-plaza w colonial church in background -everyday activity of people socializing and selling -capture hustle and bustle movements of the moment -nostalgia of vanishing culture
José Guadalupe Posada, Calavera Maderista, c. 1910, relief etching (zinc). National Gallery of Art (USA).
-popular illustration, satirical newspaper -Calavera: rep of skull day of the dead -often commissioned by Antonio Vanegas Arroyo -inexpensive lit for lower class -politically acute -mortality -sombrero serape sandals -Francisco Madero connection to Maguey plantation and distillery
Pedro Figari (Uruguayan, b. 1861 - d. 1938), Off for the Honeymoon, 1918/1925, oil on particle board.
-post impressionist Uruguayan/ Argentinian landscapes of Criollos and blacks -poetic quality -landscape, rituals, culture dissappearing -painted on cardboard, sinuous Van gogh esque strokes, abandoned models -vanishing Plantense history -paint from imagination (no shadows value more flattened perspective) -timelessness (Cezanne) -methodical unfocused brush work-> made regional scenes transcendental -blurred dreamy effect filtered through imagination -criollo and black dances -symbolic meanings of colors -joyful exuberance rather than anguish/ alienation (so unlike Van Gogh) -rep of special ocassion
Diego Rivera, History of Mexico: The Aztec World in the National Palace (Mexico City), 1929.
-pre-Hispanic world beneath setting sun -organic and colorful style -showing Quetzalcoatl (feathered serpent) as ruler and deity: religious practice -everyday life: pottery, agriculture, motherhood, artisans -emphasis of sun, volcano
Leonora Carrington, Self-Portrait aka The Inn of the Dawn Horse, c. 1937- 38. Metropolitan Museum of Art (USA)
-protests against satires of patriarchal system -painted in France -seated in room with female hyena and wooden levitating rocking horse behind -white horse visible outside -characters from her short stories -rocking horse as symbol of games forebidden to girls by stern father -reluctant debutante who finds a hyena to dress up and replace her at ball -white horse = symbol of freedom
Xul Solar (Argentina, b. 1887 - d. 1963), Nana Watzin, 1923. China ink and water-color on paper mounted on cardboard.
-purification ritual occurs on altar -Nana Watzin is Solar's version of scabby Mexican god who threw himself into the fire to purify and rise up as sun -using language: Tlazoleotl written on altar (ancient mother goddess who cleaned humans of sins) -words = rising interest in linguistic games: spanish portuguese and words from his invented language insipired by indigenous language -think expressionism surrealism symbolism
Frida Kahlo, The Two Fridas, 1932, oil on wood. Museum of Frida Kahlo (Mexico City).
-response to divorce -Tehuana vs Victorian Frida -history of heart imagery -double image is surrealist device
Marco Tobón Mejía, The Bat, 1913, bronze.
-symbolism: rejection of naturalism. rationalism. subjectivity of individual -art nouveau -themes of desire death sexuality: gothic influence ie Goya -spirituality -small scale bronze relief, intimate experience -bat wings evil vs crucifixtion -jagged deep shadows
Emilio Pettoruti, The Quintet, 1927, oil on plywood.
-theme of musicians -faces are schematic and geometric -national identity thru Argentine element of tango: national dance -Recall Picasso's Three Musicians, but differs in color and content -not harlequins or monks but modern tango band (many Martin Fierro writers interested in Tango)
José María Velasco, View of the Valley of Mexico from the Hill of Santa Isabel, 1877, oil on canvas.
-translated Roman Campagna into Mexican idiom -dramatic lighting draws attention to center city -realism -volcanoes in the background -San Carlos -National identity -monumentality and an open quality
José María Velasco, The Valley of Mexico from the Santa Isabel Mountain Range, 1875.
-using lighting to draw from foreground to middle ground where Mexico City is -This unassuming hill was also an important sacred colonial site where the Virgin of Guadalupe first appeared to the indigenous man Juan Diego -elements of Costumbrismo: peasants Poblanas -breaks from Romanticism -> naturalism, Mexicanizes it infuses politics -panoramic views of valley of Mexico -recording history of Mexico, volcanic typography, flora -popocatepetl and Iztaccihuatl Aztec legend of love between warrior and princess
Felix Parra, Friar Bartolomé de las Casas, 1875, oil on canvas.
-vicious and violent aspect of Spanish colonial conquest -indigenous temple arch, god guardian, golden ritual pot -crucified body of Jesus Christ -Friar's change of heart, savior of indians
Felipe Gutiérrez,The Huntress of the Andes, 1874, oil on canvas.
-woman as rep of nature, land, America -display of nudity was not accepted by local culture, nude models even forbidden at academies -San Carlo painter
Cândido Portinari, The Coffee Plantation Laborer, 1939, oil on canvas. Museum of Art São Paulo.
-young male laborer stands resolutely as if he owned the land he worked on -Afro Brazilians was controversial subject bc of unspoken segregation, social econ inequities -does not exoticize, laborers are strong stoic heroic figures