Artist, educator, curator, and critic Luis Camnitzer has been writing about contemporary art ever since he left his native Uruguay in 1964 for a fellowship in New York City. As a transplant from the "periphery" to the "center," Camnitzer has had to confront fundamental questions about making art in the Americas, asking himself and others: What is "Latin American art"? How does it relate (if it does) to art created in the centers of New York and Europe? What is the role of the artist in exile? Writing about issues of such personal, cultural, and indeed political import has long been an integral part of Camnitzer's artistic project, a way of developing an idiosyncratic art history in which to work out his own place in the picture. This volume gathers Camnitzer's most thought-provoking essays—"texts written to make something happen," in the words of volume editor Rachel Weiss. They elaborate themes that appear persistently throughout Camnitzer's work: art world systems versus an art of commitment; artistic genealogies and how they are consecrated; and, most insistently, the possibilities for artistic agency. The theme of "translation" informs the texts in the first part of the book, with Camnitzer asking such questions as "What is Latin America, and who asks the question? Who is the artist, there and here?" The texts in the second section are more historically than geographically oriented, exploring little-known moments, works, and events that compose the legacy that Camnitzer draws on and offers to his readers.
Conceptualism played a different role in Latin American art during the 1960s and 1970s than in Europe and the United States, where conceptualist artists predominantly sought to challenge the primacy of the art object and art institutions, as well as the commercialization of art. Latin American artists turned to conceptualism as a vehicle for radically questioning the very nature of art itself, as well as art's role in responding to societal needs and crises in conjunction with politics, poetry, and pedagogy. Because of this distinctive agenda, Latin American conceptualism must be viewed and understood in its own right, not as a derivative of Euroamerican models. In this book, one of Latin America's foremost conceptualist artists, Luis Camnitzer, offers a firsthand account of conceptualism in Latin American art. Placing the evolution of conceptualism within the history Latin America, he explores conceptualism as a strategy, rather than a style, in Latin American culture. He shows how the roots of conceptualism reach back to the early nineteenth century in the work of Símon Rodríguez, Símon Bolívar's tutor. Camnitzer then follows conceptualism to the point where art crossed into politics, as with the Argentinian group Tucumán arde in 1968, and where politics crossed into art, as with the Tupamaro movement in Uruguay during the 1960s and early 1970s. Camnitzer concludes by investigating how, after 1970, conceptualist manifestations returned to the fold of more conventional art and describes some of the consequences that followed when art evolved from being a political tool to become what is known as "political art.
Starting with the groundbreaking 1981 exhibit called "Volumen I," New Art of Cuba provided the first comprehensive look at the works of the first generation of Cuban artists completely shaped by the 1959 revolution. This revised edition includes a new epilogue that discusses developments in Cuban art since the book's publication in 1994, including the exodus of artists in the early 1990s, the effects of the new dollar economy on the status of artists, and the shift away from socialist themes to more personal concerns in the artists' works. Twenty-four new color plates augment the more than 200 b&w illustrations of the original volume.
Drawing Room Confessions is a new printed journal named after a parlour game played by Marcel Proust, the Surrealists and others. It is made of words and exchanges, with no images. Six different sections (The Egoist, The Blind Man, Two to Tango, Ekphrasis, Time Lineand La Madeleine) comprise the Rules of the Game, which are the same in each issue. What changes are the players, or interviewers, who open each round of conversation with the featured artist and who come from a wide range of fields.
Contemporary Art in Latin America continues the ARTWORLD series, bringing to light innovative contemporary art from across the globe. Delving into the artistic work from specific major geographical regions, the series continues to showcase both established and unknown artists whose work connects with their roots. New in paperback, Contemporary Art in Latin America celebrates this intriguing region and its creative outputs, setting the vibrant artistic tradition within its historical and cultural contexts. The volume opens with a text section, including essays by valued figures in the contemporary art world, looking firstly at the historical origins of Latin American art and moving on to focus extensively on contemporary work being produced by artists from this region. This section of the book will also be supported by an artist interview, offering the reader a personal insight into the relationship between Latin America’s art and its cultural past, present and future. The second half of the book comprises a plate section showcasing a broad variety of the art and themes discussed elsewhere in the book. Contemporary Art in Latin America encourages readers to reflect upon the art in this region and by these artists in relation to its historical and geographical context and encompasses a wide spectrum of critical debates, including politics and curatorial practice. The artists featured include those considered the most influential to emerge from the region during the last 50 years, such as Brazilian conceptual artist Cildo Meireles, whose work is currently being exhibited at Tate Modern, London and Hélio Oiticica and Lygia Clark, who along with Ivan Serpa, founded the Neo-Concretist art movement. Doris Salcedo is also included, who caused a stir with her piece Shibboleth — creating a subterranean chasm that stretched the length of the Turbine Hall at the Tate Modern. The work of new and emerging talents is also featured, such as Miguel Calderon, labelled the “enfant terrible of contemporary art” and who has been described as having “a knack for pushing crass stereotypes and clichés to absurd and provocative extremes”. Encompassing the political and personal, Contemporary Art in Latin America is highly unique in its approach to exploring the artistic movements of this region, giving those with a genuine interest in art and culture an insight that is rich, engaging, shocking and inspiring.
Starting with the groundbreaking 1981 exhibit called "Volumen I," New Art of Cuba provided the first comprehensive look at the works of the first generation of Cuban artists completely shaped by the 1959 revolution. This revised edition includes a new epilogue that discusses developments in Cuban art since the book's publication in 1994, including the exodus of artists in the early 1990s, the effects of the new dollar economy on the status of artists, and the shift away from socialist themes to more personal concerns in the artists' works. Twenty-four new color plates augment the more than 200 b&w illustrations of the original volume.
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