Politics in Painting
From WolfWikis
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Latin American Politics in Painting
Introduction
From artists in the pre-Columbian world to modern Latin America, painting has been a prevalent part of culture in Latin America. Although the mediums on which artists painted on have changed, the influence of politics on their work has not. Ever since the pre-Columbian times, art created by painters from different backgrounds has been influenced by politics and government.
Pre-Columbian Era: 1500 BC-1492 AD
The pre-Columbian era is the period of time before the Spanish colonized what is now known as Latin America. This era is divided into three major time frames. The Pre-Classic period, an age of experimentation, that lasted from 1500 BC to 300 AD, the Classic period, which went from 300 to 900 AD, and the Post Classical period, 900 to 1492 AD, which was characterized by frequent wars and an increase in population and technological development.
Throughout the pre-Columbian era, many different artistic mediums were used. Artists painted on various items like textiles, pottery and architecture. Most Native Americans used art to tell the stories of their ancestors, their beliefs and their land. The Huichol are a group of people who are famous for their yarn paintings. These people had no written language, so they relied on yarn paintings to tell their traditions, beliefs and history. One famous politically influenced mural is the Mayan Bonampak Fresco Cycle, which tells the story of the last dynastic succession at Bonampak. This huge fresco, painted in about 800 AD, stretches across several walls. The Mayans were believed to have many advanced paintings during the Classic Era; however, little evidence still exists of these sophisticated works of art.
Huichol Yarn Paintings
Mayan Bonampak Fresco Cycle
Despite the scarcity of paintings during the pre-Columbian era, archaeologists have revealed many politically influenced works of art, including yarn paintings and murals. Although the type of politics and government were very different during the pre-Columbian era, politics still influenced art, as documented in the paintings of war and ancient civilization.
Colonial Era: 1492- 1825 AD
On October 12, 1492, Columbus made landfall in the Bahamas and set up colonies in the New World. This major event changed Latin American painting considerably, due to the new European influences. In the early colonial era, the most documented artists were European immigrants whose purpose was to record the Spanish conquest and convert indigenous people to the Roman Catholic Church. By the 17th century, many painters in Latin America were Creole, or people who were born in Latin America, but claimed Spanish descent. Seventeenth century painters of colonial Latin America used the European Baroque style; however, they put a unique twist to their art by adding incredible embellishment, which was exclusive to Latin America. This extra embellishment was inspired by the unprecedented wealth of gold, silver and other natural resources that was pulled out of the New World. Painting during the colonial era was greatly influenced by the Spanish colonists and their descendants.
Melchor Pérez Holguín, Saint Michael Archangel, Bolivia, 1708
A popular set of paintings during the colonial era are the castas. These are a set of paintings that show different ethnic combinations, also known as castas. Mestizo, or Native American and European, mulatto, African and European, and lobo, Native American and African, are some of the basic castas; however, many other combinations are illustrated.
Mestizo
Mulatto
Lobo
Independence Era: 19th Century
The Haitian slave revolt in 1791 started the independence era in Latin America; by 1825, all of Latin America gained independence. During the wars for independence, cultural and art production declines. There is also a dramatic decrease in the influence of the Catholic Church on Latin American art. After the wars for independence are over, people began to realize how valuable the natural resources and land of Latin America is, causing native and foreign artists to take a more prominent role in art by painting landscapes and people.
Frederic Edwin Church, In the Andes, 1878
Modern Era: 20th Century
In the early 20th century, many upper class Latin American artists traveled to Europe for inspiration and study, which resulted in schools of art opening in Latin America and European Impressionist style to emerge in art. The Impressionist technique became widely popular throughout Latin America and was used by many Latin American painters.
Teófilo Castillo, Paisaje de la laguna de Llanganuco
In many Latin American countries, the 20th century is plagued by political and economic instability. Latin American artists, inspired by this state of distress, use popular European styles such as cubism and surrealism to respond to the conditions of Latin America.
Diego Rivera, Emiliano Zapata, the Agrarian Leader, 1932 (cubism)
Wilfredo Lam, Nativité, 1947(surrealism)
Bibliography
Pre-Columbian Era: 1500 BC- 1492 AD
- "Yarn Paintings: Huichol Myths and Stories". McGee, Charmayne. 1998. 20 September 2007 <www.planeta.com/planeta/98/1198yarn.html>.
This site contained useful information about the Huichol Yarn Paintings, as well as great pictures of these paintings.
- "Maya". 20 September 2007. <www.solarnavigator.net/history/maya.htm>.
This website contained extensive amounts of information about the Mayan people, including information on political structures, art, academics, religion, and agriculture. I found the sections about art particularly helpful.
Colonial Era: 1492- 1825 AD
- "Magical Realism and the New World Baroque". Zamora, Lois Parkinson. 30 September 2007. <www.uh.edu/~englmi/ObjectsAndSeeing_3.html>.
This is a website from the University of Huston that explains various aspects of baroque art. There are many paintings that display Latin American Baroque style that I found useful.
- "'The Arts in Latin America: 1492-1820' opens at LACMA". Knight, Christopher. August 2007. 30 September 2007. <www.calendarlive.com/galleriesandmuseums/cl-et-latinamerica4aug04,0,2386195.story?coll=cl-nav-arts>.
This is an article from the Los Angeles Times commenting on the new exhibit about Latin American art at the Los Angeles County Museum of Art. The article contains much of the historical information that the exhibit displays.
- "Castas". 30 September 2007. <http://faculty.smu.edu/bakewell/BAKEWELL/thinksheets/castas.html>.
I found this site to be very useful because it contains good information about the castas paintings. It also contains pictures of the set of castas paintings, which I used in my wiki page.
Independence Era: 19th Century
- "South America, 1600–1800 a.d" Metropolitan Museum of Art. 30 September 2007. <www.metmuseum.org/toah/ht/09/sa/ht09sa.htm>.
This site is a timeline of South American art history. I not only used it for information on the Independence Era, but also for the Modern era.
Other
- "Ancient and Colonial Latin American History Time Line". Slatta, Richard W. 30 September 2007. <http://legacy.ncsu.edu/classes/hi300001/hi215time.htm>
This website outlines the history of Latin America up to the 19th century. I used it to compare what was happening historically in Latin America to the different trends in art. I also used the dates and time periods as an outline for my wiki site.