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Accepted Paper:

Revisiting 20th century Strategies of Curating Latino and Latin American art in the USA  
Stefanie Kogler (University of Essex)

Paper short abstract:

I will re-examine the approaches and strategies of curators and institutions in framing Latin American and Latino art in the USA in the 20th century.

Paper long abstract:

This paper analyses the efforts undertaken in the USA to exhibit and collect Latin American and Latino art in the 20th century beginning with Alfred H. Barr at the Museum of Modern Art, New York (MOMA) in the 1930s, and culminating in the curatorial approach of Marí Carmen Ramírez at the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston (MFAH) today. The strategies for the representation and re-evaluation of Latin American and Latino art in the USA have shifted. While Barr began to collect and exhibit art from Latin America, Ramírez seeks to write Latino and Latin American art into the art historical canon. While Barr stepped into this foray in a 'spirit of discovery', Ramírez retraces its development through the archive in order to legitimise and manifest it within the academic discourse.

Unlike Latin American art, the field of Latino art developed from within the social, political and cultural context in the USA. Since the 1960s, Latino communities have demanded inclusion and representation in cultural institutions. Some argue that their situation differs from that of Latin Americans, since Latinos are culturally more aligned to the USA and experience their identity differently. Nevertheless, Latin American and Latino art have been depicted similarly by curators and institutions over the past thirty years during which both gained steady interest and exposure.

I will provide a historical framework and discuss the development of representation and inclusion of Latin American and Latino art in U.S. institutions which will highlight the resulting tensions and alignments.

Panel P39
Spaces of representation: the depiction of Latin American cultures in the United States
  Session 1