GALLERY GUIDE
DESTINATION:
LATIN AMERICA
ABOUT THE EXHIBITION Destination: Latin America offers a journey through twentieth- and twenty-first-century Latin American art. Drawn from the collection of the Neuberger Museum of Art, the exhibition is organized in five sections:
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work by artists affiliated with the artistic revolution that emerged after the Mexican Revolution sculpture and painting by key South American artists exploring color, form, space, and motion work by Caribbean and South American artists inspired by African art, Surrealism, and Magical Realism work by artists living under the dictatorships of the 1960s, 70s, and 80s, when most of South America was under military control concentrates on contemporary artists looking at themes of history, globalization, violence, and social criticism
MUSEUM FRONT DESK
RESTROOMS
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ARTISTIC EXCHANGE In the 1920s and 30s, New Orleans artists appreciated the social consciousness of Mexican revolutionary artists. Diego Rivera and Rufino Tamayo, included in this exhibition, were among the Mexican artists who exhibited alongside Louisiana artist Caroline Durieux at the New Orleans Arts and Crafts Club. Durieux studied with Rivera, among others, while in Mexico. LSU Museum of Art holds two portraits of Caroline Durieux by Mexican Revolution artists Diego Rivera and Carlos Orozco Romero. Romero began his career creating satirical cartoons for Mexican newspapers. Exaggerated facial features, especially the eyes in this watercolor portrait of Durieux, reflect political satire’s influence on even Romero’s more serious portraiture. Find portrait of Caroline Durieux by Diego Rivera in the portrait gallery
Carlos Orozco Romero, Portrait of Caroline Durieux, 1928, watercolor on heavy paper, Gift of Caroline Wogan Durieux, LSUMOA 74.1.3
COLLECTION CONNECTIONS Modernist Photography Compare Manuel Álvarez Bravo’s Window on the Agaves with Edward Weston’s gelatin silver print titled Artichoke Halved Police Violence Compare Teresa Margolles’ series La Huella (The Imprint) with Jonathan Bachman’s print from the Unrest in Baton Rouge series
DESTINATION: LATIN AMERICA START HERE
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POINTS OF ORIGIN THE ARTISTS MEXICO Manuel Álvarez Bravo José Raúl Anguiano Valadez José Luis Cuevas Rufino Tamayo José Clemente Orozco Dulce Pinzón Betsabeé Romero Teresa Margolles Nicolás de Jesús
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Betsabeé Romero
CUBA Julio Antonio (Cuban-American) Florencio Gelabert Wifredo Lam Maria Martinez-Canas Marta Maria Perez-Bravo Carlos Garaicoa VENEZUELA Henry Bermudez Carlos Cruz-Diez Jesús Rafael Soto
GUATEMALA Alfred Jensen
BRAZIL Leda Catunda Almir Mavignier
CHILE Roberto Matta Eugenia Vargas Arturo Duclos
URUGUAY Ignacio Iturria
Locate each artist in the gallery 4
ARGENTINA Lucio Fontana Eduardo MacEntyre Luis Tomasello Gerard Suter
MIGRATION | MATERIALS MEXICO CONNECTIONS
Mexico-born artists Bestabeé Romero, Dulce Pinzón, and Nicolás de Jesús use humble, unexpected, or culturally loaded materials to address immigration.
Dulce Pinzón
Betsabeé Romero (image 1) explores tensions between local traditions and industrialized societies dominated by speed, mass production, and emigration. She uses bubble gum to reference the tree gum, chicle, originally derived from Mesoamerican trees to make bubble gum. Synthetic rubbers were later substituted. The tire, made of synthetic rubber, references the global, industrial trade in rubber made from trees often found on plantations in developing countries.
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Feel the bottom of your shoe. It is likely made of rubber. Consider what imprint it would make.
Dulce Pinzón (image 2) appropriates superhero imagery by employing globally recognizable, massproduced superhero costumes. Worn by deliverymen, the unexpected juxtaposition of heroic and everyday pushes us to recognize the heroic action of migrating to another country and working long hours away from home for one’s family. Grab a cape from the “Migration” activity bag and read Carmella Full of Wishes near this photograph.
Pick up a “Day of the Dead” activity bag to touch a sample of amate paper.
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Nicolás de Jesús (image 3) uses amate paper. Amate paper is produced from bark and was used by de Jesús’ Aztec ancestors for painted manuscripts. He addresses global issues of capitalism, migration, and environmental collapse as well as local traditions such as Day of the Dead.
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KINETIC & OPTICAL ART Jesús Rafael Soto and Carlos Cruz-Diez were crucial to the development of Kinetic and Optical art. Kinetic art focused on movement—rotation, flicker, fade— activated by the viewer. Optical art played with the illusion of deep space and movement. Carlos Cruz-Diez conceived of color as a phenomenon happening moment to moment—color as a series of “occurrences.” He was interested in how light and color interact to constantly transform and generate new color. One of his first lines of research was additive color.
Just as Pointillists used a series of interacting dots to generate new color, Cruz-Diez uses interacting parallel lines to create “chromatic event modules.”
Cruz-Diez’s Physichromie Nr 214 uses transparent colored strips—light is trapped between two surfaces to launch color into space. The color(s) we see is not the color painted on the surface. Cruz-Diez has created the conditions for us to perceive a new color. Visit the gallery to understand and experience this unique work, along with the other kinetic and optical artworks featured in Destination: Latin America.
interact with these works •Cruz-Diez’s Chromointerference •Cruz-Diez’s Physichromie Nr 214 • Soto’s Bleu sur le rectangle (Blue on the Rectangle) • Soto’s Untitled • Soto’s Jai-Alai #3 IMAGE (detail installation shot at LSU MOA): Jesús Rafael Soto, Bleu sur le rectangle (Blue on the Rectangle), 1965, oil on board, painted metal plates, Collection Neuberger Museum of Art, Purchase College, State University of New York, Gift of Arthur A. Goldberg, 1972.02.02
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ACTIVITY BAGS COLOR + LIGHT ACTIVITY BAG 1 PRISM play and learn how light refracts 2 SPINNING TOP see color blend in motion 3 OPTICAL ILLUSION SHEET see how the page vibrates 4 COLOR FLAG stare at the flag and then look away; what do you see? 5 FLASHLIGHTS mix light beams to create new colors 6 BINOCULARS take a closer look at works in the gallery
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Check out these Activity Bags from the Front Desk 1
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MIGRATION ACTIVITY BAG
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1 BOOK read Carmela Full of Wishes along with the activity sheet 2 BINOCULARS take a closer look at works in the gallery 3 PAPEL PICADA BANNER explore patterns 3 1
DIAS DE MUERTOS ACTIVITY BAG 1 2 3 4 5 6
BOOK learn more about this holiday PAPEL PICADA BANNER DIAS DE MUERTOS MASK BOOK learn emotions in Spanish AMATE PAPER feel hand-made paper BINOCULARS take a closer look at works in the gallery
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UPCOMING PROGRAMS JANUARY 11 STORIES IN ART
Fifth floor, 10:30 a.m. Free Spanish and English reading of Around The World With /Alrededor Del Mundo Con Cantinflas plus art activity; ages 0–6 with parent/caregiver
16 THIRD THURSDAY
Fifth floor, 6–8 p.m. Large-scale tire prints inspired by Betsabeé Romero and a deeper materials in Destination: Latin America
FEBRUARY 02 FREE FIRST SUNDAY
Fifth floor, 1–5 p.m. Free admission, family activities, and live music; Gallery talk with Joyce Jackson, PhD and Andrea Morris, PhD on the African legacy in Destination: Latin America followed by 3 p.m. totem-inspired art making
09 EXHIBITION CLOSES
IMAGES (detail): 1 Betsabeé Romero, Rastros Mudejar (Desde la Alhambra), 2007–2012, bubble gum, tow tire, vinyl, Collection Friends of the Neuberger Museum of Art, Purchase College, State University of New York, Gift of the artist, EL 06.2011.01a,b. Installation at LSU MOA. 2 Dulce Pinzón, Superman. Noé Reyes from the State of Puebla. Works as a delivery boy in Brooklyn New York. He sends 500 dollars a week, from the series The True Story of Superheroes, 2005–2010, digital color photograph on paper, 30 x 36 inches (image and sheet). From an edition of 7, 2 a/p, 2nd of 2. Collection Neuberger Museum of Art, Purchase College, State University of New York. Gift of the artist, 2017.01.01 3 Nicolás de Jesús (Mexican, b. 1960), En el Tren (On the Subway), 1990, etchingand aquatint on amate paper, 15 x 10 ¾ inches.Collection Friends of the Neuberger Museum of Art, Purchase College, State University of New York, Museum purchase with funds from the Friends of the Neuberger Museum of Art. EL 01.2014.02
Destination: Latin America is organized by the Neuberger Museum of Art, Purchase College, State University of New York, and curated by Patrice Giasson, the Alex Gordon Curator of Art of the Americas, with the curatorial assistance of Marianelli Neumann. Generous support for this exhibition has been provided by the Alex Gordon Estate, the Friends of the Neuberger Museum of Art and the Purchase College Foundation. This program is made possible in part by a project assistance grant from the Arts Council of Greater Baton Rouge (funded by the East Baton Rouge Parish Mayor-President and Metro Council). Additional support is provided by generous donors to the Annual Exhibition Fund. ON THE COVER (detail): Henry Bermúdez, Pájaro con pinta de tigre (Bird with a Tiger’s Appearance), 1991, oil on canvas, Collection Neuberger Museum of Art, Purchase College, State University of New York, Gift of Edith L. Calzadilla and family in memory of Luis P. Calzadilla, 2009.02.04
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