Introductory description

Brazilian art critic Mario Pedrosa famously remarked that his country was "condemned to be Modern." This module will attempt to discover what Pedrosa meant by his statement via an exploration of Modern art across Latin America, its critical reception, and international display. The module is thus both a history and a historiography of Latin American Modernism. We begin with the establishment of European-style academies across Latin America in the early nineteenth century and progress through the founding of Modern art museums, institutes, and biennials in the 1950s. We will consider how Latin American Modern art developed in dialogue with European styles as well as local and indigenous influences and decolonial impulses. Readings will cover the complementary practices of theoretical writing, art production, and exhibition curation that have shaped the discourse surrounding the Modernist period. While students are welcome to conduct research on any Portuguese, French, or Spanish-speaking
country for their independent research project, the module will focus primarily on the production of artists from Mexico, Venezuela, Argentina, Peru, Cuba, and Brazil.

Module aims

Outline syllabus

This is an indicative module outline only to give an indication of the sort of topics that may be covered. Actual sessions held may differ.

Modernity in the “Periphery”
(Latin) Americans in Paris
The Global Networks of Modernism
Joaquín Torres-García and Universalismo Constructivo
Brazil’s Semana de Arte Moderna
Muralism, Los Tres Grandes, and Mexican Popular Culture
The Rockefellers and The Latin-American Collection of the Museum of Modern Art
The Politics of Abstraction and Figuration in Latin America
Modern Architecture
Modern Art, Modernist Photography, and Film
Concrete, Neo-Concrete, and Tropicália
Op Art and other Sensorial Practices
Inverted Utopias and the Contemporary Rediscovery of Latin American Modernism
International Events and Recent Retrospectives

Learning outcomes

By the end of the module, students should be able to:

• Command a knowledge of Latin American Modern Art
• Demonstrate understanding of the regional discourses Latin American Art and their relationship with the West
• Develop an appreciation of the influence of politics and art markets on the exhibition of Latin American Modern Art
• Recognize omissions and fissures in the Latin American Modernist canon
• Present an argument, initiate and sustain group discussion through intelligent questioning and debate at an appropriate level
• Ability to undertake research and to write up the results in the form of a well-structured argument at an appropriate level
• Familiarity with essential ICT skills
• Ability to collaborate effectively with others
• Show understanding of diverse viewpoints
• Ability to find, select, organize and synthesize evidence
• Ability to formulate a sustained argument
• Think conceptually and independently at an appropriate level
• Sophisticated visual analysis
• Bibliographical skills at an appropriate level
• Critical analysis of cultural artefacts in their context

Indicative reading list

D. Ades, Art in Latin America: The Modern Era, 1820-1980 (1993)
J. Barnitz and P. Frank, Twentieth-Century Art of Latin America (2015)
P. Frank, Manifestos and Polemics in Latin American Modern Art (2017)
D. Craven, Art and Revolution in Latin America, 1910-1990 (2002)
N. Vicario, Hemispheric Integration: Materiality, Mobility, and the Making of Latin American Art
(2020)
M. Tenorio-Trillo, Latin America: The Allure and Power of an Idea, “Introduction” (2017)

View reading list on Talis Aspire

Subject specific skills

• command a knowledge of Latin American Modern Art.
• demonstrate understanding of the regional discourses Latin American Art and their relationship with the West
• develop an appreciation of the influence of politics and art markets on the exhibition of Latin American Modern Art
• Recognize omissions and fissures in the Latin American Modernist canon
• sophisticated visual analysis
• critical analysis of cultural artefacts in their context

Transferable skills

• present an argument, initiate and sustain group discussion through intelligent questioning and debate at an appropriate level
• ability to undertake research and to write up the results in the form of a well-structured argument at an appropriate level
• familiarity with essential ICT skills
• ability to collaborate effectively with others
• Show understanding of diverse viewpoints
• ability to find, select, organize and synthesize evidence
• ability to formulate a sustained argument
• think conceptually and independently at an appropriate level
• bibliographical skills at an appropriate level