The Washington Diplomat

A Continent of Art
IDB Exhibit and Book Reflect Diversity, Trends of Latin America
by Gary Tischler

If you want to talk about contemporary Latin American art, you have to talk about the effects of modernity, globalization and a remarkable burst of diversity.

At least that’s what appears to be evident in the exhibition “Paradox and Coexistence: Latin American Artists of the Last Two Decades,” now at the Inter-American Development Bank (IDB) Cultural Center Art Gallery, and in the long-awaited publication of “Art of Latin America 1981-2000,” published by the IDB Cultural Center.

The book, by noted art historian Germán Rubiano Caballero, is an interpretative survey of trends and movements in Latin America over the past 20 years. It is also a culmination and continuation of an earlier book, “Art of Latin America 1900-1980” by the late Marta Traba.

“It is very difficult to readily recognize Latin American art or art from a particular country as such,” said Félix Angel, general coordinator and curator for the IDB Cultural Center. Angel, a native of Colombia, is also represented in the book as one of the noted Latin American contemporary artists.

“The strength of Latin American art today—and perhaps its contradictions, too—is in its diversity, in form, themes, style. That’s reflective of Latin American society and culture, too. The second thing you have to deal with are the effects of multi-culturalism and globalization and how the artists respond, embrace, criticize, react to them,” Angel said. “You can find strands of that all over Latin America—artists are the ones who react, who lead, who respond. They see themselves as protectors or representatives of the classes who suffer adversely from the effects of modernization in Latin America.”

While Caballero’s book is an obvious continuation of the book by Traba, it is also very different, in the way that art and artists are different. Traba’s exhaustive survey and study lends itself to a degree of categorization in the manner of history: There are sections on Mexican muralism, for instance, and its effects on other Latin American artists, the inroads of the avant-garde on Latin American art, its embrace and resistance to it, and the changes that occurred over the years up until 1980.

Nineteen-eighty is by no means a watershed year—the various movements and new blood that infused the regions’ art were already at work. But even newer things are evident in Caballero’s book—conceptual art, an emphasis on photography, sculptural constructions and the use of video are all prominent among Latin American artists. The question of dealing with social and political issues in visual art—always a concern and theme in Latin American literature—is also dealt with.

The book and the exhibition are based only on countries whose heritage is both native and Portuguese and Spanish. Thus, the Bahamas, for instance, are out. “Here is what is truly interesting about Latin American art, so-called,” Angel said. “There is always a conflict between native art and European influence, between the traditional and the avant-garde. Mexican mural art, for instance, stemmed directly from the influence of native art and social subject matter. The avant-garde was carried overseas from Europe and the degree of its embrace is what separates various Latin American countries. But those differences are also disappearing or becoming muted.”

The exhibition features 20 artists from 13 countries working in all sorts of genres and mediums. One of the most contemporary and startling works is “Make-up Lesson,” a video by Costa Rican artist Priscilla Monge, which is a direct assault on the physical abuse of women by men. But consider also “Guitarra” by Wifredo Díaz Valdés of Uruguay, a cedar -wood and rope construction that is both a deconstruction of the guitar and a beautiful work. The guitar as a subject is of course about Latin American clichés.

“The thing about Latin American art and the art of particular Latin American regions and countries is that to look at it is to abandon cultural clichés,” Angel said. “People are used to thinking in Latin American stereotypes—the subject—but not the genre of murals are a kind of example. Today’s work resists stereotypes or attacks them.”

What is evident is the richness and the diversity that characterizes Latin American art, something the IDB has been doing all along with its individual exhibitions over the past few years, emphasizing movements, regions and the art of individual countries. In the exhibition and the book, you get to see the continent of Latin American art.

“Paradox and Coexistence: Latin American Artists of the Last Two Decades” runs through Feb. 8 at the IDB Cultural Center, 1300 New York Ave., NW, Monday to Friday, 11 a.m. to 6 p.m. For more information, please call (202) 623-3774.

Gary Tischler is a regular contributor to The Washington Diplomat.