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In 2004, the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, presented Inverted Utopias, a critically acclaimed exhibition focusing on the development of avant-garde art in Latin America from 1920 to 1970. At the time of the exhibition, a major symposium was held at the museum. This handsome book brings together texts and commentary by leading art historians and critics who participated in the event. A wide range of topics is covered, including the avant-garde in America and Europe, Argentine art in the 1960s, La...

On the southern end of the Grand Rue, a major thoroughfare that runs through the center of Port-au-Prince, waits the Haitian capital's automobile repair district. This veritable junkyard of steel and rubber, recycled parts, old tires, and scrap metal might seem an unlikely foundry for art. Yet, on the street's opposite end thrives the Grand Rue Galerie, a working studio of assembled art and sculptures wrought from the refuse. Established by artists Andre Eugene and Celeur in the late 1990s, the...

By examining the stunning stone buildings and dynamic spaces of the royal estate of Chinchero, Nair brings to light the rich complexity of Inca architecture. This investigation ranges from the paradigms of Inca scholarship and a summary of Inca cultural practices to the key events of Topa Inca’s reign and the many individual elements of Chinchero’s extraordinary built environment. What emerges are the subtle, often sophisticated ways in which the Inca manipulated space and architecture in order...

Was the Royal Academy of San Carlos, founded in 1785 by the King of Spain, beneficial or detrimental to the development of a valid, living art in Mexico? The answer lies in the archives of the school, but nobody thought about constructing an aesthetic history from them until Jean Charlot accidentally discovered their extent and interest while searching for other material. In this straightforward, documented account he presents not merely opinions and criticism but evidence, including curricula a...

Focusing on the Anglophone Caribbean, The Making of a Caribbean Avant-Garde describes the rise and gradual consolidation of the visual arts avant-garde, which came to local and international attention in the 1990s. The book is centered on the critical and aesthetic strategies employed by this avant-garde to repudiate the previous generation's commitment to modernism and anti-colonialism. In three sections, it highlights the many converging factors, which have pushed this avant-garde to the foref...

The history of post-revolutionary political parties is told through the photographic archives of the group Tercerunquinto. This book analyses of the use of public murals as spaces for political party propaganda and the way in which murals become an economic opportunity for the inhabitants of Mexico's marginalised areas. Text in English and Spanish. Contents: Restoration of a Mural Painting by Taiyana Pimentel; Preface, José Woldenberg; Petrified Memory by Sergio Raúl Arroyo; Images of Restorat...

Axe Bahia examines the unique cultural role played by Salvador, the coastal capital of the Brazilian state of Bahia. An internationally renowned center of Afro-Brazilian culture, Salvador has been a vibrant and important hub of African-inspired artistic practices in Latin America since the 1940s. This volume represents the most comprehensive investigation in the United States of Bahian arts to date and features essays by eighteen international scholars. While adding to popular understandings of...

This is a study of the art and architecture created by the various cultures of the ancient Andes. The book examines the goldwork, intricate textiles, vast cities and tall pyramids that constitute one of the oldest artistic traditions in history which, although the Incas are famous as the masters of the largest empire in the Renaissance world, remains relatively little-known. A range of Andean art is covered , revealing the achievements of the Chavin, Paracus, Moche, Chimu and Inca cultures. Illu...