Contested Visions in the Spanish Colonial World
Contested Visions in the Spanish Colonial World
Contested Visions in the Spanish Colonial World examines the significance of indigenous peoples within the artistic landscape of colonial Latin America. The exhibition offers a comparative view of the two principal viceroyalties of Spanish America—Mexico and Peru—from the fifteenth to the nineteenth centuries. Under colonial rule, Amerindians were not a passive or homogenous group but instead commissioned art for their communities and promoted specific images of themselves as a polity. By taking into consideration the pre-Columbian (Inca and Aztec) origins of these two vast geopolitical regions and their continuities and ruptures over time, Contested Visions offers an arresting perspective on how art and power intersected in the Spanish colonial world. The exhibition is divided into themes:
Contested Visions
Tenochtitlan and Cuzco Pre-Columbian Antecedents
Ancient Styles in the New Era
Conquest and New World Orders
The Devotional Landscape and the Indian as Good Christian
Indian Festivals and Sacred Rituals
Memory, Genealogy, and Land
In conjunction with the exhibition, LACMA hosted a 3-day international symposium with distinguished scholars in the field. In addition, a special film series curated by Marlene Dermer explored themes from the exhibition.
This exhibition was co-organized by the Los Angeles County Museum of Art and the Instituto Nacional de Antropología e Historia, Mexico. It was made possible in part by Camilla Chandler Frost, the National Endowment for the Arts, and the National Endowment for the Humanities. Additional support was provided by Alice and Nahum Lainer; Betty and Brack Duker; Ambassador Frank and Kathy Baxter; Carl and Marilynn Thoma Foundation; Derek Johns, Ltd., London; Coll & Cortés, Madrid; and Janet Dreisen Rappaport.
Links, Highlighted Objects
Image: Unknown, Folding Screen with Indian Wedding and Head-Flying Pole (Biombo con desposorio de indios y palo volador) (Detail) (circa 1690) Oil on canvas, 66 x 120 in. (167.64 x 304.8 cm), Purchased with funds provided by the Bernard and Edith Lewin Collection of Mexican Art Deaccession Fund. M.2005.54. Photo © 2011 Museum Associates/LACMA.
- Nov 6, 2011–Jan 29, 2012
- Resnick Pavilion
This exhibition was co-organized by the Los Angeles County Museum of Art and the Instituto Nacional de Antropología e Historia, Mexico. It was made possible in part by Camilla Chandler Frost, the National Endowment for the Arts, and the National Endowment for the Humanities. Additional support was provided by Alice and Nahum Lainer; Betty and Brack Duker; Ambassador Frank and Kathy Baxter; Carl and Marilynn Thoma Foundation; Derek Johns, Ltd., London; Coll & Cortés, Madrid; and Janet Dreisen Rappaport.
Links, Highlighted Objects
Image: Unknown, Folding Screen with Indian Wedding and Head-Flying Pole (Biombo con desposorio de indios y palo volador) (Detail) (circa 1690) Oil on canvas, 66 x 120 in. (167.64 x 304.8 cm), Purchased with funds provided by the Bernard and Edith Lewin Collection of Mexican Art Deaccession Fund. M.2005.54. Photo © 2011 Museum Associates/LACMA.
Media
Fernando Carrizosa Montfort, the Museo del Templo Mayor’s archeaologist, explains the complex meanings of Offering 7 during the installation at LACMA. One of many treasures on view in the exhibition , Offering 7 is one of some 130 offerings that were discovered within the Aztec’s Templo Mayor in recent years.
Unframed Blog Posts
— Los Angeles Times
— Los Angeles Times
— The New York Review of Books
— Los Angeles Times
