This course considers artistic developments in Latin America, from early twentieth-century avant-garde movements to recent contemporary projects. With the understanding that the modern construct of Latin America encompasses an area of tremendous ethnic, racial, and linguistic diversity, we will survey a broad range of art practices throughout the Americas as well as major modern architectural projects in Brazil, Mexico, and Venezuela. Particular attention will be paid to cases in which artists and architects worked in the service of governmental regimes, as in Mexican muralism in the 1920s and the construction of Brasilia, a new national capital for Brazil, in the 1950s. We will also examine those cases in which artworks and artistic networks offered a means of challenging or subverting repressive policies. Beyond politics, this course focuses on the tensions of indigenous vs. cosmopolitan, urban vs. rural, rich vs. poor, and the international dialogues that have informed the production and reception of art and architecture in the region. Group and individual visits to museums are integral aspects of this course, so that we may consider the contributions of artists from Latin America to global modern and contemporary art. This course will be taught in Spanish.
