13 Visual Arts and Architecture

Art

Until relatively recently the art of twentieth-century Latin America was dismissed by European and North American critics as a pale imitation of the mainstream of the United States and Western Europe. Such critics argued that Latin American art was intrinsically hybrid, an eclectic and sometimes incompatible mix of traditions and styles. Al- though there is no question that the majority of the most acclaimed artists from Latin America studied abroad or at least participated in wider aesthetic movements, today it is precisely this hybrid quality that is seen as one of the great features of painting and other forms of visual culture produced in Latin America. The racial and ethnic diversity of the region, where Amerindian tribes still coexist with the descendants of Spanish or Portuguese colonizers, of African slaves, and of European, Middle Eastern, or Far Eastern immigrants, has contributed to the vital- ity and originality of artistic production. Ideas from abroad have been as- similated but creatively adapted to the New World context, breathing new life into established artistic styles. Cubism, for example, influenced many Latin American artists, not least the Cuban Wifredo Lam and the Brazilian . They adapted the new European style to their local environments, combining it with indigenous sources. The visual arts in Latin America have related more closely to their so- ciopolitical context than their European or North American counterparts have traditionally done. The association between the literary avant-garde and visual artists, an association that began in the 1920s when Latin American modernism first formally emerged in the arts as a whole, has tended to raise artists’ awareness of social and political problems. This social commitment was reflected in particular in the of the 1920s and 1930s, still sometimes considered the only “authentic” Latin American art of the twentieth century. Marxist theory has had a powerful influence on artists and their work in many Latin American countries. For example, the Mexican muralist , who served as secretary of the Communist Party of Mexico, combined his 318 POP CULTURE LATIN AMERICA! artistic career with trade union activities. Bibliography His political activities resulted in his impris- Ades, Dawn. 1989. Art in Latin America: The onment and subsequent exile. Modern Era, 1820–1980. London: Hayward Gallery. Certain Latin American governments Lucie-Smith, Edward. 1993. Latin American have also been instrumental in commis- Art of the 20th Century. London: Thames sioning works of art and, notably, for draw- and Hudson. ing on the talents of avant-garde and poten- tially controversial artists to carry out major government and other official proj- José Clemente Orozco (1883–1949) ects. After the Mexican Revolution (1910– The Mexican artist José Clemente Orozco, 1920), the Mexican government invited a native of the state of Jalisco, is best three painters, , José known for his giant in the expres- Clemente Orozco, and David Alfaro sionist style. He is closely associated with Siqueiros, to decorate a number of govern- Diego Rivera and David Alfaro Siqueiros. ment buildings to inspire a sense of na- His most impressive works can be found in tional identity. Likewise, in the highly the state capital, Guadalajara. Orozco is nationalistic regime of Getúlio Vargas perhaps the least overtly political of the (1930–1945) called upon the services of the three Mexican muralists, and his later muralist Cândido Portinari to similar ends. work often seems politically ambiguous. Like writers, artists enjoy a privileged Most of his early work can be found in position within the consciousness of Latin Mexico City, where he painted murals be- American nations, where political institu- tween 1922 and 1927. He then spent seven tions have traditionally proved ineffectual years in the United States, but it was on his at forging a sense of belonging to a wider return to Mexico that his artistic powers community. Artists and other intellectuals reached their peak, in the late 1930s and enjoy a status and credibility rarely af- 1940s. forded their overseas counterparts. This Like Rivera and Siqueiros, Orozco’s chief celebrity status sometimes extends beyond patron was the state, and most of his im- Latin America, as in the cases of Mexican portant works were created to decorate painters Diego Rivera and Frida Kahlo. public buildings, such as the Palacio de Go- Many Latin American artists of the twen- bierno (Government Palace) and the uni- tieth century, including, for example, Frida versity in Guadalajara. His murals on the Kahlo, drew inspiration from the rich tradi- Palacio de Gobierno depict the Mexican tion of religious folk art, which survives all people’s oppression and struggle for lib- over Latin America and increasingly caters erty, from pre-Conquest Eden to post-revo- to the tourist market. Women painters, in lutionary emancipation. Orozco’s murals particular, including the Chicana artist Car- decorate the chapel ceiling of the nearby men Lomas Garza, have used this personal, Hospicio Cabañas, a former orphanage. naïve form of self-expression to convey These more spiritual works depict the women’s concerns in art, as an alternative Spanish conquistadors as the Horsemen of to the visual idioms preferred and prized the Apocalypse, trampling the indigenous by the male-dominated art world. peoples of Mexico underfoot. In Mexico —Lisa Shaw City, Orozco’s work can be found on the VISUAL ARTS AND ARCHITECTURE 319

Detail of a mural depicting scenes from Mexican history by José Clemente Orozco that decorates the Palacio de Gobierno (Government Palace) in the city of Guadalajara. (Courtesy of Lisa Shaw)

main staircase and around the first floor of mouth College. The latter work, composed the main patio of the Colegio de San Idel- of twenty-four individual panels or scenes fonso (also called the Escuela Nacional and covering approximately 3,200 square Preparatoria, or ENP). In spite of his en- feet, depicts the history of the Americas thusiasm for the Mexican Revolution from the migration of the Aztecs into Cen- (1910–1920), as elsewhere, these works re- tral America to the development of modern flect his doubts about its prospects, and industrialized society. Orozco’s work in the they caricature modern Mexico almost as United States challenged traditional con- brutally as they do the nation prior to the servative views, attacking hypocrisy, greed, Revolution. and oppression, and often proved highly Orozco’s time in the United States gave controversial. rise to the mural Mankind’s Struggle, Born in Zapotlán (now Ciudad Guzmán), painted in 1930 for the New School for So- as a child Orozco moved to Guadalajara, cial Research in New York City. His North and later to Mexico City, where he was in- American murals also include , fluenced by the renowned folk artist José painted between 1932 and 1934 for Frary Guadalupe Posada. Much of his work is Hall at , and the acclaimed painting, executed directly on wet work Epic of American Civilization plaster. (1932–1934), for the Baker Library at Dart- —Lisa Shaw 320 POP CULTURE LATIN AMERICA!

See also: Visual Arts and Architecture: Art ples, and post-revolutionary society. Like (Diego Rivera; David Alfaro Siqueiros) Siqueiros, however, he took a scientific view of his work, continually experiment- Bibliography ing with the new techniques that emerged Ades, Dawn, ed. 2002. José Clemente Orozco in with industrialization. the United States, 1927–1934. New York: Rivera’s most ambitious project, a series Norton. Cruz, Barbara C. 1998. José Clemente Orozco: of epic murals based on Mexican history Mexican Artist. Berkeley Heights, NJ: for the Palacio Nacional (National Palace) Enslow. in Mexico City, remained unfinished owing Orozco, José Clemente. 2001. José Clemente to his death on 25 November 1957. Begun Orozco. Mineola, NY: Dover. in 1929, these murals epitomize Rivera’s style and are among his greatest works. Diego Rivera (1886–1957) Around the walls of the main staircase the Diego Rivera was the most famous and ar- vast panorama of Mexican history com- guably the greatest of the three renowned bines brutal imagery with attention to de- Mexican mural artists (along with José tail. The main section depicts the Spanish Clemente Orozco and David Alfaro Conquest, subjugation of the native inhabi- Siqueiros). The husband of artist Frida tants, war, Inquisition, invasion, Indepen- Kahlo, Rivera interpreted Mexican history dence, and the Mexican Revolution. The and particularly the Mexican Revolution depiction of post-revolutionary Mexico and (1910–1920) through the medium of huge the future features Karl Marx pointing the murals principally created to decorate pub- way forward for the workers. Frida Kahlo lic buildings in Mexico City. He was largely and her sister Cristina are also depicted. responsible for bringing Mexican art to the By the 1930s Rivera’s fame had spread attention of international audiences. to North America and beyond, and his Greatly influenced by the Mexican Revo- work was exhibited in New York. From lution and its Russian counterpart (1917), 1930 to 1931 he carried out two commis- Rivera believed that art should help em- sions in San Francisco, the murals Alle- power the working classes to understand gory of California, for the Stock Ex- their histories. He believed that art should change building, and The Making of a be accessible to everyone, not isolated in Fresco, for the California School of Fine museums and galleries. To this end he trav- Arts. He returned to the city in 1940 to exe- eled to Italy to study early Renaissance cute the mural for fresco painting. In 1921 a new cultural pro- the Golden Gate International Exposition. gram was introduced in Mexico to take art He was also asked to paint large murals to the masses, and the government com- for the Detroit Art Institute and the mural missioned Rivera, along with Orozco and (1934) for the Siqueiros, to paint a series of frescoes for Rockefeller Center in New York City. Man public buildings across the country. Many at the Crossroads, however, proved highly of Rivera’s early murals are deceptively controversial because one of the figures simple, even naïve, and give technique less depicted in it resembled Lenin, and the importance than the themes: Mexican his- work was thus considered by some as rep- tory, the oppression of the indigenous peo- resenting anti-capitalist ideology. As a re- VISUAL ARTS AND ARCHITECTURE 321

Detail of one of the epic murals by Diego Rivera that adorn the Palacio Nacional (National Palace) in Mexico City, depicting Mexican history. (Courtesy of Lisa Shaw) sult, the Rockefeller Center destroyed this 1949 interview he is quoted as saying, “I’ve mural and replaced it with one by another never believed in God, but I believe in Pi- artist. However, Rivera later reproduced it casso” (The Virtual Diego Rivera Web Mu- for the Palacio de Bellas Artes (Museum of seum, http://www.diegorivera.com). While Fine Arts) in Mexico City. in exile in Paris, he and Siqueiros planned a Born in the city of Guanajuato, Rivera popular, native style of art to express the moved to Mexico City in 1892, where he new society that was emerging in Mexico. studied traditional European artistic styles Rivera was a member of the Communist in the San Carlos Academy from the age of Party from 1923 until 1930 and then again ten. He also learned his trade in the work- from 1954 until his death. He was not only shop of folk artist José Guadalupe Posada, a renowned artist but also a political ac- as did Orozco. By the age of sixteen Rivera tivist who incited debate in Mexico, the had emerged as an accomplished painter United States, and the former Soviet with a distinctly Mexican style. In 1907 he Union. traveled to Spain to study the work of From the end of the 1930s onward, artists such as Goya and El Greco in the Rivera painted landscapes and portraits. Prado art museum in Madrid. From there These later paintings, with indigenous sub- he moved to Paris, where he absorbed the jects and a social realist style, such as latest trends, most importantly cubism. In a Nude with Calla Lilies (1944) and The 322 POP CULTURE LATIN AMERICA!

Flower Seller (1949), are frequently repro- Humanity on Earth and towards the Cos- duced on postcards and posters today. mos (1964–1971), painted by Siqueiros. —Lisa Shaw Siqueiros studied art at the San Carlos Academy in Mexico City and went to Eu- See also: Visual Arts and Architecture: Art rope on a government grant in 1919. There (Frida Kahlo; José Clemente Orozco; David he made contact with Diego Rivera and in Alfaro Siqueiros) 1921 launched from Barcelona his “Mani- festo to the Artists of America,” the tone of Bibliography which owed much to the futurist mani- Hamill, Pete. 2002. Diego Rivera. New York: Abrams. festos of the period before World War I. In Marnham, Patrick, and Elise Goodman. 2000. it he declared, “Let us live our marvelous Dreaming with His Eyes Open: A Life of dynamic age!” and “Let us love the modern Diego Rivera. Berkeley and Los Angeles: machine that provokes unexpected plastic University of California Press. emotions.” More significantly, he recom- Portrait of an Artist: The Frescoes of Diego mended a return to indigenous sources, Rivera (1986). 2002. Home Vision Entertainment (video). but combined with a modernist aesthetic. Rivera, Diego. 1992. My Art, My Life: An His manifesto continued: Autobiography. Mineola, NY: Dover. Rochfort, Desmond. 1998. Mexican Muralists: Let us, for our part, go back to the work of Orozco, Rivera, Siqueiros. San Francisco: the ancient inhabitants of our valleys, the Chronicle Books. Indian painters and sculptors (Mayas, The Virtual Diego Rivera Web Museum. http://www.diegorivera.com (consulted Aztecs, Incas, etc.). . . . They demonstrate September 2003). a fundamental knowledge of nature that can serve as a point of departure for us. Let us absorb their synthetic energy, but David Alfaro Siqueiros (1896–1974) avoid those lamentable archaeological re- The career of Mexican mural painter David constructions (“Indianism,” “Primitivism,” Alfaro Siqueiros was more erratic than “Americanism”) which are so in vogue those of his fellow muralists and compatri- here today but which are only short-lived ots, Diego Rivera and José Clemente fashions. (Lucie-Smith 1993, 62–63) Orozco, because of his interest in politics. His life was marked by a series of dramatic On his return to Mexico in 1922 he events, such as imprisonment and exile, worked alongside Rivera and Orozco on and his personal legend became intrinsi- large murals at the Escuela Nacional cally linked to the powerful and often bru- Preparatoria in the Mexican capital, and tal artistic images he created. He took part his work there, like Orozco’s, was inter- in the first mural campaign commissioned rupted by the student protests of 1924. by the Mexican government in 1922. His Siqueiros’s mural remained unfinished, and most famous work is Mexico City’s Polyfo- he completed his first mural in his home- rum Cultural Siqueiros, a building that he land only after his return from the Spanish designed and decorated and that houses Civil War (1936–1939). Entitled Portrait of what is allegedly the world’s largest mural the Bourgeoisie (1939–1940), it adorned (about 4,500 square meters), The March of the headquarters of the Electricians’ Union VISUAL ARTS AND ARCHITECTURE 323 in Mexico City. With its twisted perspective which would prove to be highly influential and dramatic tone, it is characteristic of his on subsequent generations. Later, in New flamboyant, unrestrained style. While in York, he went on to run an experimental prison in Mexico at the beginning of the group for young painters, one of whom 1930s, Siqueiros produced some of his best was . work, namely a series of paintings that —Lisa Shaw were small and simple but monumental in design; they clearly show the influence of See also: Visual Arts and Architecture: Art the fresco painters he had studied in Eu- (José Clemente Orozco; Diego Rivera) rope. Most of his major mural projects were executed during the last thirty years Bibliography Lucie-Smith, Edward. 1993. Latin American of his life, ironically when muralism was Art of the 20th Century. London: Thames beginning to face challenges from other and Hudson. styles and ideas. Rochfort, Desmond. 1998. Mexican Muralists: Siqueiros fought in the civil wars in Mex- Orozco, Rivera, Siqueiros. San Francisco: ico and became involved in trade union or- Chronicle Books. ganization. He was one of the leading ac- Rodriguez, Antonio. 1992. David Alfaro Siqueiros: Pintura Mural. Mexico City: tivists in the Union of Technical Workers, Bancomext. Painters, and Sculptors, and he edited its Siqueiros: Artist and Warrior (1998). 2002. journal, El Machete. By the mid-1920s his Home Vision Entertainment (video). political and trade union interests occu- Stein, Philip, and Ann Warren, eds. 1994. pied almost all his time and energy. He Siqueiros: His Life and Works. New York: served as secretary of the Communist International. White, D. Anthony. 1994. Siqueiros: A Party of Mexico and as president of the Na- Biography. Mountain View, CA: Floricanto. tional Federation of Mineworkers. Most of his activities were centered on the north- ern Mexican state of Jalisco, but in 1930 he Cândido Portinari (1903–1962) took part in a prohibited May Day march in Cândido Portinari, a Brazilian painter of Mexico City; as a result, he was imprisoned Italian descent, enjoyed critical acclaim for a year. He fought on the side of the Re- both at home and abroad and is best publicans in the Spanish Civil War, and known for his large murals, including those upon his return to Mexico he led an unsuc- at the Ministry of Education building in Rio cessful attempt to assassinate the exiled de Janeiro and at the build- Leon Trotsky. Once again he was forced ing in New York. As his career developed, into exile, returning in 1944. From 1962 to he became increasingly distanced from 1964 he served another, and final, period of homegrown subject matter rather than imprisonment in Mexico. closer to it. Although his style as a muralist In 1932 Siqueiros fled Mexico for the initially owed much to his Mexican coun- United States, becoming a teacher at the terpart Diego Rivera, putting across a polit- Chouinard School of Art in California. ical message was always less important to There he began to experiment with new Portinari than creating a pleasing decora- techniques, such as the use of photo- tive effect. Nevertheless, he was an active graphic projectors and spray painting, member of the Brazilian Communist Party; 324 POP CULTURE LATIN AMERICA! he ran for party deputy in 1945 and as the of Nazism and fascism and the horrors of party’s candidate for senator in 1947. Some the war in Europe reinforced the social and of his later work, created in collaboration tragic aspects of his work, inspiring the se- with the acclaimed Brazilian modernist ar- ries entitled Migrants and the Brodósqui chitect , consists of wall Children, both of which were painted from decorations made of ceramic tiles known 1944 to 1946. In 1949 he produced the im- in Portuguese as azulejos, which were tra- pressive mural Tiradentes, which recounts ditionally used in Brazilian colonial archi- the story of the trial and execution of the tecture. eponymous Brazilian hero who fought for Portinari was born on a coffee plantation independence against Portuguese colonial near Brodósqui, a town in the state of São domination in the eighteenth century. For Paulo. A child of poor Italian immigrants, this work Portinari was awarded the gold he left school with only a primary-school medal by the committee of the Interna- education. At the age of fifteen he went to tional Peace Prize in Warsaw, Poland, in to study painting and en- 1950. rolled in the Escola Nacional de Belas Recognition abroad came for the first Artes (National School of Fine Arts). In time in 1935, when Portinari won second 1928 he was awarded a foreign travel and honorable mention at the Carnegie Insti- study prize and went to Paris, where he tute’s International Exhibition in Pittsburgh lived for a year in 1930. Homesick, Porti- with a large canvas entitled Coffee (1935), nari decided that when he returned to his depicting with dignity poor migrant work- country in 1931, he would concentrate on ers and the descendants of African slaves depicting the Brazilian people in his work, toiling in the Brazilian coffee fields. In the embracing an experimental, antiacademic, late 1930s Portinari’s prestige in the United modernist approach. States was consolidated. In 1939 he painted In 1936 Portinari painted murals for the three large panels for the Highways Monument located on the Rio de at the New York World’s Fair. In the same Janeiro– highway and began year, New York’s work on frescoes for the new Ministry of (MOMA) purchased his canvas The Shanty- Education building in Rio de Janeiro, com- town (1939). In 1940 he took part in an ex- pleted in 1944. These works epitomize hibition of Latin American art at New York’s Portinari’s art, evidencing his adoption of Riverside Museum, and he put on success- social themes, which was to be the hall- ful one-man shows at Detroit’s Institute of mark of all his later work. In 1943 he cre- Arts and New York’s MOMA. In December ated eight panels known as the Biblical Se- 1940 the University of Chicago published ries, reflecting the impact of World War II the first book on the painter, Portinari: His and strongly influenced by Pablo Picasso’s Life and Art, with an introduction by the Guernica. In 1944, invited by Niemeyer, he artist Rockwell Kent and a large number of began decorative work for the Pampulha reproductions of Portinari’s work. In 1941 architectural complex in , in he painted four large murals on Latin Amer- the state of Minas Gerais, creating the mu- ican historical themes for the Library of rals St. Francis and The Stations of the Congress’s Hispanic Foundation, in Wash- Cross (1944) for the local church. The rise ington, D.C. In 1946 he returned to Paris to VISUAL ARTS AND ARCHITECTURE 325

Detail of a painting by . (Time Life Pictures/Getty Images) hold his first exhibition in Europe, at the 1955 Portinari was awarded the gold medal Galerie Charpentier. The exhibition was for best painter of the year by New York’s highly successful and earned Portinari the International Fine Arts Council. In 1956, in- Légion d’Honneur award. In 1947 he exhib- vited by the Israeli government, he traveled ited at Salón Peuser in Buenos Aires and at to Israel, where he exhibited at several mu- Comisión Nacional de Bellas Artes (Na- seums and made drawings inspired by his tional Fine Arts Museum) in Montevideo. In contact with the then recently founded 1948 he sought political asylum in , country, which were later exhibited in where he produced the panel The First Bologna, Lima, Buenos Aires, and Rio de Mass in Brazil (1948), commissioned by a Janeiro. In the late 1950s Portinari held a Brazilian bank, Banco Boavista. In 1952 he number of exhibitions abroad, and in 1958 began studies for the panels War and Peace, he was the only Brazilian artist represented which the Brazilian government offered to at the “50 Ans d’Art Moderne” exhibition at the new headquarters of the United Na- Brussel’s Palais des Beaux Arts (Museum of tions. Completed in 1956, the panels— Fine Arts). In 1959 he exhibited his paint- measuring about fourteen meters by ten ings at New York’s Wildenstein Gallery, and meters each, the largest ever made by Porti- together with other great Latin American nari—decorate the entrance hall of the artists, such as José Clemente Orozco and United Nations building in New York. In Diego Rivera, he participated in the Collec- 326 POP CULTURE LATIN AMERICA! tion of Inter-American Art at the Museo de quently marked by images of pain and ill- Bellas Artes (Museum of Fine Arts) in Cara- ness, strongly influenced by two major in- cas, Venezuela. Portinari died on 6 Febru- cidents in her life: a serious bout of polio, ary 1962 while preparing an exhibition of which she contracted at age seven, and a about two hundred of his works that had traffic accident at age eighteen, in which been proposed by the city of Milan. It is she suffered horrific injuries. It was when said that he was poisoned by the cumula- convalescing from this latter incident that tive effect of the toxins in the paints he Kahlo first began to paint, and several of used throughout his life. her self-portraits address pain and bodily —Lisa Shaw mutilation; many also depict her tumul- tuous relationship with the muralist Diego See also: Visual Arts and Architecture: Rivera, to whom she was married twice, Architecture and Landscape Design (Oscar once in 1929 and again in 1940. Niemeyer); Art (José Clemente Orozco; Kahlo’s work challenges the representa- Diego Rivera) tion of the female body in art, refusing to offer the female body as an object of beauty Bibliography Bento, Antonio. 2003. Portinari. Rio de and consumption. For example, in The Bro- Janeiro: Leo Christiano Editorial. ken Column (1944) Kahlo paints herself Fabris, Annateresa. 1990. Portinari: Pintor with nails stuck in her flesh and with her social. São Paulo: Edusp. torso split open to reveal a crumbling and ———. 1996. Cândido Portinari. São Paulo: shattered architectural column inside. In Edusp. My Birth (1932) she subverts the tradi- Lucie-Smith, Edward. 1993. Latin American Art of the 20th Century. London: Thames tional nativity scene: the mother’s head is and Hudson. covered, suggesting death, while the baby’s Projeto Portinari Official Website. http://www. head appears grotesquely large and has the portinari.org.br (consulted 30 September trademark Kahlo bushy eyebrows. 2003). Arguably the best known of Kahlo’s paintings is The Two Fridas, painted in the Frida Kahlo (1907–1954) autumn of 1939, in which (as in several of Frida Kahlo is probably the best known of her other works) she appears in dual form. all Latin American women artists. Her One Frida is depicted in European dress; work has made a major contribution to the other wears the traditional Tehuana Mexican art, and her striking images have costume that Diego Rivera is said to have made her one of the most prominent Latin preferred her to wear. The two figures rep- American artists worldwide. Born Mag- resent, according to Kahlo, the woman dalena Carmen Frida Kahlo y Calderón, Rivera loved and the one he no longer she was the daughter of Matilde Calderón loved. In this painting, done during the pe- and the prominent photographer Guillermo riod when she and Rivera were divorcing, Kahlo. She gained an insight into the artis- the female body is again shown muti- tic world from her father during her child- lated—the hearts of both of the Fridas are hood and went on to paint some two hun- removed, depicting emotional pain. dred works between the mid-1920s and her Although Kahlo is most famous for these death in 1954. Kahlo’s paintings are fre- very personal paintings, others combine the VISUAL ARTS AND ARCHITECTURE 327

Married Mexican artists Diego Rivera and Frida Kahlo (1907–1954) read and work in a studio. Kahlo’s self-portrait, The Two Fridas (1939), hangs in the background among other works. (Hulton Archive/Getty Images) focus on the self with a wider examination side is replete with images relating to that of issues of nationality. For example, in the country’s pre-Columbian heritage, such as 1932 work Self Portrait on the Border Line the temples shown in the background and between Mexico and the United States, fertility idols in the middle ground. In con- painted while the artist was on a trip to the trast, the side of the painting representing United States, Kahlo located herself in the the United States has a series of motifs de- center of the picture, standing on the bor- picting that nation’s industrial status, such der stone separating Mexico from the as skyscrapers and smoke emanating from United States, with the two countries de- four chimneys. Thus, this painting, titled a picted on either side of her. The Mexican self-portrait, at the same time presents the 328 POP CULTURE LATIN AMERICA! contrasting cultures and lifestyles of the became one of the so-called group of five, neighboring countries and has a wider sig- along with fellow female painter Anita Mal- nificance beyond the purely personal. fatti and writers Oswald de Andrade, Mário —Claire Taylor de Andrade, and Menotti del Picchia. Amaral was greatly influenced by cub- See also: Cultural Icons: Latin Americans in ism and studied with the great cubist mas- Hollywood (Salma Hayek); Visual Arts and ters Albert Gleizes and Fernand Léger Architecture: Art (Diego Rivera) upon her return to Europe in 1923. There, Bibliography she mixed with other modernist intellectu- Alcántara, Isabel, and Sandra Egnolff. 1999. Frida als and forged a close friendship with the Kahlo and Diego Rivera. London: Prestel. French-Swiss poet Blaise Cendrars. Her Billeter, Erika, ed. 1993. The Blue House: The second visit to Europe was brief but deci- World of Frida Kahlo. Seattle: University of sive. In April 1923 she wrote to her family Washington Press. Herrera, Hayden. 1992. Frida Kahlo: The in Brazil: “I feel myself ever more Brazilian. Paintings. London: Bloomsbury. I want to be the painter of my country” Turner, Robyn. 1993. Frida Kahlo. Boston: (Tarsila do Amaral Official Website, http:// Little, Brown. www.tarsiladoamaral.com.br). In Decem- Zamora, Martha. 1990. Frida Kahlo: The Brush ber of that year she returned to Brazil and, of Anguish. London: Art Data. accompanied by Cendrars and Oswald de Andrade, began to explore the rich popular culture, colonial architecture, and land- Tarsila do Amaral (1886–1973) scapes of her homeland. Thus began a new Tarsila do Amaral, the most influential fe- phase in her painting, known as the brazil- male Brazilian painter, was closely associ- wood phase for its use of typically Brazil- ated with the modernist movement in ian colors and themes, which combined lo- Brazilian arts, which officially began in cal naïve art with cubism. Some of her 1922. Amaral (or Tarsila, as she is always most famous works from this period in- referred to in Brazil) combined cubist tech- clude The Black Woman (1923) and Fruit niques acquired in Europe with visual Seller (1925). themes that were typical of her homeland. The second and most creative period in Her best-known works fall into two dis- Amaral’s artistic career, known as the an- tinct phases: the pau-brasil (brazilwood) thropophagist, or cannibalistic, phase, phase and her anthropophagist, or canni- took its name from the literary manifesto balistic, period. Antropófago, published by Oswald de An- After studying in Europe, Amaral re- drade in 1928. In January of that year Ama- turned to Brazil in 1922 and joined the ral had given her most famous work, Aba- group of artists and intellectuals who made poru (1928, the title literally meaning “man up the modernist movement. Although she who eats” in the indigenous Tupi-Guarani did not participate in the important Mod- language of Brazil), as a birthday present ern Art Week event held at São Paulo’s Mu- to Oswald, whom she had married in 1926. nicipal Theater in February 1922, when she The painting shows a single monstrous fig- was still in Paris, Amaral was at the heart ure with huge hands and feet and an enor- of this iconoclastic artistic movement. She mous head. The simplified landscape is re- VISUAL ARTS AND ARCHITECTURE 329 duced to a single oversized cactus and a Bibliography large sun. The underlying idea of the an- Ades, Dawn. 1989. Art in Latin America: The thropophagy movement was that Brazilian Modern Era, 1820–1980. London: Hayward Gallery. artists should devour foreign influences, Gotlib, Nádia Battella. 1997. Tarsila do digest them thoroughly, and turn them into Amaral: A Modernista. São Paulo: Senac. something new, just as some cannibalistic Lucie-Smith, Edward. 1993. Latin American tribes had done more literally in the early Art of the 20th Century. London: Thames colonial period. In Abaporu Amaral assimi- and Hudson. lated the surrealist aesthetic and the influ- Tarsila do Amaral Official Website. http://www. tarsiladoamaral.com.br (consulted 19 ence of Fernand Léger’s reclining women September 2003). subjects, combining them with an intrinsi- cally Brazilian theme. Her canvas Factory Workers (1933), which vividly captures the Fernando Botero (1932– ) racial and ethnic mix of Brazil’s workforce, The work of Fernando Botero, perhaps the signaled the beginning of social painting in contemporary Latin American artist who is Brazil. most popular internationally, is regularly Amaral was born into a very wealthy reprinted on posters, calendars, and greet- family from the state of São Paulo. She ing cards. In fact, his imagery, with its studied art at the Colégio Sion in the city of smooth lines and bold colors, its faux-naïf São Paulo and subsequently in Barcelona, style, and its characteristically inflated fig- Spain, where she painted her first picture, ures, is more instantly recognizable than at the age of sixteen, entitled Sacred Heart the name of the artist himself. Neverthe- of Jesus (1902). In 1906 she married for the less, despite its massive popularity with first time, but in 1916 she separated from the consumers of greeting cards, Botero’s her husband and the father of her only work is not simply decorative. Instead, per- daughter, Dulce. She then began studying haps confusingly, it plays with questions of sculpture in São Paulo. In 1920 she left artistic lineage and political message. Brazil for Europe to study in the Académie Botero was born in Medellín, Colombia, Julian in Paris and in the workshop of the and after a brief stint as a trainee bull- conservative painter Émile Renard. In 1922 fighter, he started work as an illustrator for she had her first canvas accepted by the a local newspaper at age sixteen. His early Official Salon of French Artists. In 1926 she work—drawings and watercolors—be- exhibited her work in Paris to great ac- trayed the influence of the great Mexican claim. In 1929 she had her first solo exhibi- muralist tradition and was particularly tion in Brazil. In the 1950s she returned to reminiscent of the work of José Clemente the brazilwood theme in her work. In 1963 Orozco. However, by the mid-1950s, those her work was honored at the seventh bien- Latin American artists who did not wish to nial art exhibition of São Paulo, and the fol- follow the predominant trend toward ab- lowing year at the thirty-second Venice bi- stract art also began to find the muralist ennial exhibition. tradition too limiting. In search of inspira- —Lisa Shaw tion, some turned to the repertoire of clas- sical art, combining it with the “distorting” See also: Language: Indigenous Languages techniques of such European avant-garde 330 POP CULTURE LATIN AMERICA!

Fernando Botero’s The Presidential Family (1967). (AFP/Getty Images)

movements as cubism. In 1952 Botero him- on figurative art. Rather, abstract expres- self traveled to Europe, where he studied sionism’s spirit of revolt against tradition the work of the great masters in Madrid stimulated his interest. Botero’s first sale and Florence and also became familiar to a major international gallery (Mona Lisa with the work of cubists such as Pablo Pi- at Age Twelve, 1959) held the conflicting casso and Georges Braque. By the late currents of classicism and revolt against 1950s Botero had also incorporated ab- tradition in a fine balance. stract expressionism into his work, al- By the mid-1960s Botero had developed a though without, of course, losing his focus distinctive style of his own, combining clas- VISUAL ARTS AND ARCHITECTURE 331 sical compositions (often “quotations” of Colombian drug barons, such as Pablo Es- well-known works of art) with a distorting cobar). Furthermore, when he does opt to technique frequently referred to by his crit- paint a scene depicting life in Latin Amer- ics as “gigantism” in which objects, particu- ica, his choice of subjects (politicians, larly people, appear inflated like balloons prostitutes, or bureaucrats), together with or cartoon characters. Botero has always his style of gigantism, suggests that he is claimed that his aim is to be “sensually adopting an ironic, detached, even frivo- provocative” rather than satirical, although lous attitude toward his own culture. How- some satirical impact is inevitable. This ever, Botero’s irreverent, highly self-con- technique was already apparent in his early scious paraphrases of the work of the Old preference for the rotund forms of certain Masters rework Spanish and Italian Re- musical instruments, such as the lute, and naissance painting in ways that call into again in his distortion of the Mona Lisa’s question the ideals, styles, and values of head in Mona Lisa at Age Twelve. Never- the Enlightenment and the validity of the theless, from the mid-1960s onward Botero imposition of that culture upon Latin moved away from the rough, painterly ap- America. proach of his earlier, more avant-garde —Thea Pitman work, and the influence of the Old Masters was apparent in the types of paint and See also: Visual Arts and Architecture: Art brushstrokes he began to use. Despite the (José Clemente Orozco; Diego Rivera) potentially comic effect of his work, egg tempera and smooth, meticulous strokes Bibliography Ades, Dawn. 1989. Art in Latin America: The make it seem much more traditional and Modern Era, 1820–1980. London: Hayward hence, his less generous critics assume, Gallery. less rebellious or politically incisive. Baddeley, Oriana, and Valerie Fraser. 1989. Another reason Botero has not found fa- Drawing the Line: Art and Cultural vor with art critics is his choice of sub- Identity in Contemporary Latin America. jects. He has cited Diego Rivera as the London: Verso. Lucie-Smith, Edward. 1997. Latin American artist who showed other, younger Latin Art of the 20th Century. London: Thames American painters how to create “indepen- and Hudson. dent,” mestizo (mixed-race) Latin Ameri- Spies, Werner, ed. 1992. Fernando Botero: can art through his combination of hetero- Paintings and Drawings. Munich: Prestel. geneous influences. However, Botero’s choice to produce “quotations” of the works of the Old Masters and other, more Wifredo Lam (1902–1982) recent European painters often seems to Wifredo Lam is the most famous Cuban suggest that he has turned his back on his painter of the twentieth century and the own cultural tradition. Certainly, he paints first Latin American artist to express the neither indigenous subjects nor even im- African component of Latin American cul- ages that reflect the harsher realities of ture as the predominant focus of his work. Latin American life (although recently he Lam was also strongly associated with the has started to produce a series of paintings international artistic and literary move- that depict the lives and times of infamous ments of cubism, surrealism, and négri- 332 POP CULTURE LATIN AMERICA!

Both cubists and surrealists were inter- ested in African and other “primitive” art forms, and Lam benefited from this inter- est in so-called exotic black culture to dis- cover his own ethnocultural roots. This was evident in the geometric style of paint- ing he now adopted. Lam’s work was given a further push in the direction of black cul- ture when, fleeing the Nazi invasion of Paris in 1941 and on his way back to Cuba after nearly twenty years’ absence, he was detained in Martinique. There he made the acquaintance of the Martinican black poet (and one of the main exponents of the négritude movement) Aimé Césaire. The Wifredo Lam’s The Jungle (1943). (The Museum négritude movement had originated in of Modern Art/Licensed by SCALA/Art Paris in the 1930s, stimulated perhaps by Resource, NY) the cubist and surrealist interest in African culture, but it aimed to go beyond such tude, balancing the different demands of artists’ exoticist, de-historicized interest in these movements in his work. black culture to express an awareness of Lam was the son of a Chinese immigrant black social reality (the history of slavery father and an Afro-Cuban mother. He grew and discrimination) and to celebrate the up in the working-class, mulatto sector of difference of the black experience. After Cuban society, experiencing the popular this key encounter, Lam started to depict culture of this society at first hand. His elements of Afro-Cuban culture in works godmother was a practitioner of Santería that clearly conveyed a political message. (the syncretic Cuban religion that com- His work, nevertheless, continued to use bines West African religious practices and the styles of cubism and surrealism as the beliefs with those of Roman Catholicism). medium for such messages. His artistic training was very traditional: he Lam’s most famous work, The Jungle started painting still lifes and landscapes at (1942–1944), a huge mural-like piece that the Escuela de Bellas Artes (School of Fine took him over two years to paint, caused a Arts) in Havana, and in 1923 he made the scandal when it was first exhibited be- inevitable journey to Europe to study strict cause of the supposed ferocity and overtly academic rigor. Nevertheless, he was soon sexual nature of the imagery, which of- inspired by the artists of the European fended bourgeois ideas of good taste. It de- avant-garde, and even his work of the picts four polymorphic figures (combining 1920s showed signs of cubist influence. By human and animal body parts in grotesque the late 1930s Lam had become a close and chaotic forms) that blend seamlessly friend of Pablo Picasso’s, and soon after, he with a background of sugarcane and to- joined André Breton’s group of surrealist bacco leaves and brandish masks and scis- artists and writers. sors. The composition as a whole seems to VISUAL ARTS AND ARCHITECTURE 333 suggest a Santería ritual in which partici- Herzberg, Julia P. 1996. “Rereading Lam.” Pp. pants become possessed by certain deities: 149–169 in Santería Aesthetics in a person in a state of possession is referred Contemporary Latin American Art, edited by Arturo Lindsay. Washington, DC: to as being el caballo (the horse), hence the Smithsonian Institution Press. frequent equestrian imagery in the paint- Mosquera, Gerardo. 1995. “Modernism from ing. Furthermore, the jungle of the paint- Afro-America: Wifredo Lam.” Pp. 121–132 in ing’s title does not refer to any real location Beyond the Fantastic: Contemporary Art but, rather, to the Santería term for the site Criticism from Latin America, edited by where a religious ritual takes place. Thus, Gerardo Mosquera. London: Institute of International Visual Arts. the painting clearly incorporates a particu- Poupeye, Veerle. 1998. Caribbean Art. London: larly defiant version of Afro-Cuban culture Thames and Hudson. as its theme. But in the presence of sugar- cane and tobacco leaves, a reference is also made to the history of slavery and the Hélio Oiticica (1937–1980) Afro-Cuban’s typical place of enslavement: The Brazilian experimental artist Hélio the tobacco and sugarcane plantations. Oiticica is perhaps best remembered for The image therefore combines references his installation Tropicália, exhibited in to both servitude and resistance, via the vi- 1967, which gave its name to the epony- sual idioms and thematic predilections of mous movement within Brazilian popular both cubism and surrealism. music. Oiticica was a leading figure in the After a trip to Haiti in 1945–1946 in the Brazilian art movements Grupo Frente company of Breton, Lam’s work lost the (Front Group, 1954–1956) and neo-con- colorful exuberance of his initial rediscov- cretism (1959–1961). ery of Cuba, developing a darker, more vio- Oiticica’s work rebelled against the tradi- lent tone, expressed in browns, blacks, tional values of the art world and formed grays, and white. His later work from the part of the cultural explosion that occurred 1950s until his death gradually became in Brazil in the middle to late 1950s and even more abstract and monochromatic. 1960s. He coined a series of terms to refer References to Afro-Cuban cultural prac- to his artworks, including bólides (bolides, tices such as Santería and its orishas sometimes translated as fireballs or nuclei), (deities) can still be spotted in this work, parangolés (not literally translatable, but but these never form a coherent narrative encompassing cape and tent forms), and support to the image. penetráveis (penetrables). Bólides were —Thea Pitman initially objects containing color as a mass, in the form of pigment, earth, dust, liquid, See also: Popular Religion and Festivals: or even cloth, and thought of as forming a Santería kind of energy center. Later bólide became the term Oiticica used for a container in a Bibliography very broad sense. Such containers were en- Fletcher, Valerie. 1992. Crosscurrents of visaged as a means of focusing perceptions Modernism: Four Latin American Pioneers (Diego Rivera, Joaquín Torres-García, when looked at, entered, occupied, or Wifredo Lam, Matta). Englewood Cliffs, NJ: worn. Bólides were given titles that re- Prentice Hall. ferred to the materials that they were made 334 POP CULTURE LATIN AMERICA! of, such as the Bólide Caixa (Box Bolide) which was spearheaded by popular song. In series, the Bólide Vidro (Glass Bolide) se- 1968 he and other artists demonstrated ries, and the Bólide Cama (Bed Bolide) se- against the military regime in the chic Rio ries, all created between 1963 and 1968. de Janeiro district of Ipanema. They dis- These works were numbered sequentially. played a banner stating “Seja marginal, He called these structures “Transobjetos” seja herói” (Be a marginal, be a hero); the (Transobjects) in his text entitled “Bólides,” slogan was later incorporated into a show written on 29 October 1963. In 1964 he cre- by the singer-songwriter ated his first three parangolés, composed that was subsequently banned by the police. of tents, banners, and flags. The fourth was In 1973 Oiticica created the concept the first to incorporate a cape, which would known as quasi cinema and began to work become a central element of this type of with filmmakers and to produce slides, work. In 1965 at the Museum of Modern Art such as the series “Helena inventa Angela in Rio de Janeiro, Oiticica staged Maria” (Helena invents Angela Maria, “Parangolé Inauguration,” a public demon- 1975). In this set of slides he evoked the fa- stration involving capes, tents, and flags mous Brazilian singer of the 1950s Angela and the participation of a group of his Maria. He participated in Brazilian cinema friends from the Mangueira samba school. in the late 1960s, acting in the film O câncer The photographer Desdémone Bardin (Cancer, 1968) by iconoclastic filmmaker recorded the event. Oiticica’s so-called pen- . His work also featured in etrables were pieces of installation art, the the documentary films Arte pública (Public most famous of which were PN2 and PN3 Art, 1968) by Sirito and Apocalipopótese (1967), better known as Tropicália, which (Apocalypopothesis, 1968) by Raimundo explored the stereotypical representation Amado and Leonardo Bartucci. In 1975, of Brazil as a tropical paradise. The work when in New York, he acted in Andreas consists of two structures, the two penetra- Valentin’s film One Night on Gay Street, bles, made of wood and brightly colored and in 1979 he appeared in O segredo da printed fabric, which are reminiscent of múmia (The Secret of the Mummy) by Brazil’s favelas (shantytowns). Sand and Brazilian filmmaker Ivan Cardoso. pebble paths and tropical plants circle the Oiticica began studying painting at the structures, and live parrots flutter about in Museum of Modern Art in Rio de Janeiro in a large cage. The main penetrable invites 1954. On 31 March of that year he pro- the participants into a dark, labyrinthine duced his first written text on the subject passage, at the end of which is a function- of the plastic arts, and he went on to write ing television. a diary of his reflections on art. His early In 1969 a one-man show of Oiticica’s work was displayed at the second, third, work was held at the Whitechapel Gallery and fourth exhibitions of the so-called in London, and he was invited to be artist Grupo Frente during 1955 and 1956. He in residence at the University of Sussex, went on to show his work at the first na- England. In 1970 his work was exhibited at tional exhibition of concrete art at the Mu- the Museum of Modern Art in New York. seum of Modern Art in São Paulo and par- Oiticica was associated with the wider ticipated in the exhibition of contemporary cultural movement known as Tropicália, in Montevideo, Uruguay, VISUAL ARTS AND ARCHITECTURE 335 in 1956. The following year he took part in leisure time, or disposable income to en- the fourth biennial art exhibition of São able it to absorb this information in any Paulo. other format. Indeed, even for the artists —Lisa Shaw and activists themselves, this kind of com- munity art (together with agitprop theater See also: Popular Music: Samba; Tropicália; troupes and poetry readings) was not only Visual Arts and Architecture: Architecture the best but also one of the only means and Landscape Design (Favelas) available to communicate with their audi- ence, since Chicano issues were not being Bibliography dealt with fairly in the mainstream U.S. me- Basualdo, Carlos, ed. 2002. Hélio Oiticica: Quasi-cinemas. Ostfildern, Germany: Hatje dia. Furthermore, murals were often Cantz. painted by groups of people and regularly Favaretto, Celso. 1992. A invenção de Hélio involved the help of local community mem- Oiticica. São Paulo: Edusp. bers, so their creation strengthened a Oiticica, Hélio. 1997. Hélio Oiticica. Rio de sense of solidarity. Janeiro: Centro de Arte Hélio Oiticica. In the movement’s heyday in the 1970s there were three main groups of muralists. Chicano Muralism Los Four and Asco were the most promi- Chicano muralism, a vibrant popular art nent. Los Four was made up of Carlos Al- movement, emerged in the late 1960s, coin- maraz, Gilbert Sanchez Lujan, Roberto de ciding with the rising awareness of Chicano la Rocha, and Frank Romero. These mural- identity and rights promoted by the cultural ists had trained in art school and took a and nationalist Chicano movement. rather theoretical, didactic approach to Chicano muralists often sought to ex- mural art. The influence of the work of the press the Chicano spirit formally through three great artists of Mexican muralism, an eclectic mixture of visual idioms taken José Clemente Orozco, Diego Rivera, and from fine art and from popular culture, David Alfaro Siqueiros, is clear in their ap- thus representing the hybrid nature of proach to their art and even in their ironic, Mexican American culture. Thematically, bilingual choice of name for their group. the Chicano muralists chose to focus on Asco (Disgust) was made up of Gronk the positive depiction of Chicanos and of (Glugio Gronk Nicandro), Willie Herron, icons of Chicano culture—such as Aztec Patssi Valdez, and Harry Gamboa Jr. and gods, the pachuco (the early twentieth-cen- represented the visions and issues of urban tury predecessor of the contemporary Chi- Chicano youth. The influences on this cano gang member), the Virgin of group were more eclectic, including main- Guadalupe, La Llorona (literally, the cry- stream U.S. popular culture (Walt Disney ing woman)—and on relevant social issues cartoons, advertising, and the like) and the such as racism, poverty, and bilingual edu- iconography of barrio gangs (for example, cation. The muralists attempted to raise their pachuco-related fashions and their awareness of Chicano culture and social graffiti art). Herron’s The Wall That problems by communicating directly with Cracked Open (1972), which combines pre- their target audience, an audience that did existing barrio graffiti with a mural exploit- not necessarily have the linguistic skills, ing an actual crack in the wall to illustrate 336 POP CULTURE LATIN AMERICA!

The Chicano muralist movement, despite being a popular, alternative art movement, still needed support in order to finance mu- ral paintings, to broker deals over where murals could be painted, and even to com- mission particular murals. This support gen- erally came from the Chicano community’s own resources: the most significant source of this support was and still is the Social and Public Art Resource Center (SPARC). One of the most ambitious projects sponsored by SPARC was The Great Wall of Los Ange- les, which is over half a mile long and was worked on by more than 450 people over a period of five years (1978–1983). Signifi- cantly, over time SPARC’s commissions have broadened the thematic range of Chi- cano muralism to encompass issues that af- fect many minority groups in the United States, and The Great Wall achieves just this, retelling the history of a wide variety of minority groups in California. Chicano mural in Westlake, Los Angeles, 2003. Although today there is greater official (David McNew/Getty Images) acceptance of the Chicano muralists by the Anglo art world and although many former muralists have moved away from muralism the theme of gang violence, is one of the proper into the space of the gallery, murals most impressive and identifiable images of continue to be painted in Chicano neigh- Chicano mural art. borhoods across the United States and A third group, Las Mujeres Muralistas continue to have an impact. Most recently, (Chicana Women Muralists), based in San one of David Alfaro Siqueiros’s controver- Francisco, had as its core members Gra- sial Los Angeles murals, Tropical America ciela Carrillo, Consuelo Mendez, Irene (1932), which had been totally white- Perez, and Patricia Rodriguez, although vir- washed over by 1938, has been in part re- tually every Chicana artist of the epoch was painted and in part adapted and updated associated with it at one point or another. where it was originally located. Although The group was formed in the mid-1970s this new mural, Homage to Siqueiros with the aim of representing women’s is- (1998), won prizes in the Chicano commu- sues, otherwise largely ignored by the male- nity, it received no recognition by the main- dominated mainstream Chicano art move- stream Anglo media, thus proving the on- ment. The influence of Frida Kahlo and of going subversive potential of the Chicano Mexican folk art in general is frequently ap- muralist movement. parent in the works of these artists. —Thea Pitman VISUAL ARTS AND ARCHITECTURE 337

Examples of Mexican religious folk art. (Karen Huntt/Corbis)

See also: Cultural Icons: Regional and Ethnic Religious Folk Art Types (El Pachuco); Religious and Mythical In Latin America the production of artifacts Figures (La Llorona;Virgin of Guadalupe); for religious devotion existed before the ar- Language: Chicano Spanish; Visual Arts and rival of Christopher Columbus (1492) and Architecture: Art (Frida Kahlo; José Clemente Orozco; Religious Folk Art; Diego of the Portuguese in Brazil (1500). How- Rivera; David Alfaro Siqueiros) ever, since the time of the Conquest, when Roman Catholicism was first brought to the Bibliography region, there has been a need to produce Benvidez, Max. 2002. “Chicano Art: Culture, large quantities of artifacts for use in specif- Myth, and Sensibility.” Pp. 10–21 in Chicano ically Catholic religious devotions. It was Visions: American Painters on the Verge, cheaper and more convenient in most cases edited by Cheech Marin. Boston: Bulfinch. to produce these objects locally, copying Cockcroft, Eva, John Pitman Weber, and James Cockcroft. 1998. Toward a People’s Art: The them from Spanish and other European Contemporary Mural Movement. models, than to import them from Spain or Albuquerque: University of New Mexico Press. Portugal. Furthermore, over time, the craft Cockcroft, James D., and Jane Canning. 2000. was passed on to local indigenous or mes- Latino Visions: Contemporary Chicano, tizo (mixed-race) producers rather than be- Puerto Rican, and Cuban American Artists. ing kept in the hands of recently arrived, Danbury, CT: F. Watts. Keller, Gary D. 2002. Contemporary Chicano trained artists from Europe. The resulting and Chicana Art: Artists, Work, Culture, tradition of religious folk art still exists to- and Education. Tempe, AZ: Bilingual Press. day. European models are inflected by in- 338 POP CULTURE LATIN AMERICA! digenous Latin American preferences (for tor’s items today. (Artists Frida Kahlo and dark-skinned saints with indigenous facial Diego Rivera amassed a vast personal col- features, for example) and are further lection in the 1930s.) New retablos are transformed by the varying degrees of artis- rarely made, perhaps reflecting the present tic training received by the local artisans. lull in fervent Catholic belief or an unwill- The Virgin of Guadalupe, the national pa- ingness to spend money on this expensive troness of Mexico, is clearly mestiza (of form of gratitude, given the affordability of mixed race) in the depictions made of her, mass-produced images available at every and she is one of the most popular images church’s gates. However, fake “old” retab- in Mexican religious folk art. los are still painted for sale to tourists, and Within the field of religious folk art, thus the art form does still survive. there are paintings (retablos and ex-votos), Santos (usually fairly small carvings of carvings (santos or bultos), milagros saints), or bultos (literally “lumps” or “bun- (diminutively small metal casts of body dles”) as they are also known, also have a parts), nichos (reliquaries), and crosses. long tradition in Latin America. They were Strictly speaking, retablos are images of typically fashioned out of wood, sealed, saints, the Virgin, or Christ, painted by arti- and then painted, and were meant for dis- sans and meant to be displayed on altars in play on altars or in small chapels in private homes. Ex-votos, or votive offerings, are homes. In the Caribbean, in particular, depictions, accompanied by narratives, of these carvings have traditionally been moments when individuals have prayed to thought to have a life of their own, being a saint or the Virgin for intercession on offered food and drink and spoken to like their behalf. They are painted as an expres- any other member of the family. Unlike the sion of gratitude for that successful inter- retablo tradition, the santo tradition has cession. Ex-votos are meant for public dis- managed to survive in contemporary Latin play in the church where the particular America, despite the availability of mass- saint’s image is housed, and they may be produced religious “dolls.” In Puerto Rico painted by the individual in question or there is even a biennial exhibition of con- commissioned from a local artisan. In prac- temporary santos, and in the southwestern tice, however, the terms retablo and ex- United States some Chicano santeros voto are used interchangeably to indicate (makers of santos) still work full-time at items in this second category, which is by their craft. far the most important in terms of religious —Thea Pitman folk art. These images were traditionally painted See also: Cultural Icons: Religious and on wood, canvas, silver, or copper, but Mythical Figures (Virgin of Guadalupe); since the nineteenth-century explosion in Popular Religion and Festivals: Popular Catholicism (Mexico and Central America); tin mining in Latin America, they have typi- Visual Arts and Architecture: Art (Frida cally been painted on thin sheets of tin (a Kahlo; Diego Rivera) durable, nonrusting material to which paint adheres well). Few examples of ear- Bibliography lier retablos painted on other media sur- Cockcroft, James D., and Jane Canning. 2000. vive, and even old tin retablos are collec- Latino Visions: Contemporary Chicano, VISUAL ARTS AND ARCHITECTURE 339

Puerto Rican, and Cuban American Artists. urative and abstract artists are making Danbury, CT: F. Watts. their mark at home and abroad, including Egan, Martha. 1991. Milagros: Votive Offerings (1947– ) with his ecologically from the Americas. Introduction by Marion correct paintings, the abstract artist Iberê Oettinger Jr. Santa Fe: Museum of New Mexico Press. Camargo (1914–1995), and the British- Giffords, Gloria. K. 2001. Mexican Folk based Ana Maria Pacheco (1943– ), whose Retablos. Albuquerque: University of New striking work has been likened to the paint- Mexico Press. ings of the internationally renowned Paula Rego. But despite the buoyant scene and Contemporary and Folk Art in Brazil the promotion of access to canonical art- Influenced in part by the Brazilian mod- works, the popularity of art in Brazil is de- ernists of the first half of the twentieth cen- batable. A new generation of artists who tury and by the social, racial, and geo- are fascinated by popular culture and who, graphical disparities present in Brazil, like many contemporary artists, are keen contemporary gallery artists continue to be to experiment with new materials and fascinated with the juxtaposition of the ar- technologies stand a chance of gaining chaic and the modern, themes of everyday greater access to the public at large. For violence, cultural imperialism, rituals of example, Arthur Omar, who made his mark mass culture, the exploration of new mate- on the Brazilian cultural scene in the 1970s rials, and the importance of sensuality in as a documentary/experimental filmmaker Brazilian society. Brazil also continues to as well as a composer and photographer, have a rich tradition of folk art, such as has recently garnered plenty of publicity in clay figures, the woodblock prints that il- the Brazilian art world with his innovative lustrate chapbooks (literatura de cordel), use of video technology. His highly ironic and artifacts associated with the Afro- 1997 video installation MASSAKER!, ex- Brazilian religion Candomblé. Such folk art hibited in the Casa das Rosas in São Paulo, is produced chiefly in the poor northeast- depicted Michael Jackson’s 1996 arrival at ern section of the country by craftsmen of the Morro Dona Marta, one of Rio’s largest humble origin with little formal training. favelas, “and other kinds of massacres,” Particularly in Brazil’s larger cities, according to the video itself. (Jackson was works of art can be exhibited and viewed famously given safe passage through the at a surprisingly large number of venues, favela in order to film a music video by the often for free. Many are financed by state- notorious drug dealer Marcinho VP.) The run or mixed-ownership companies, such projected images of the installation were to as the Centro Cultural Banco do Brasil in be watched on exercise bicycles. Omar’s Rio de Janeiro. Over eleven million people more recent work has been exhibited in visited the art and culture exhibition that important modern art museums abroad, in- was held in 2000 in São Paulo and that later cluding the Reina Sofia Museum in Madrid toured throughout Brazil and abroad to and the Museum of Modern Art (MOMA) in commemorate the five-hundredth anniver- New York. sary of the “discovery” of Brazil by the Por- As in many countries in Latin America, tuguese. The contemporary art scene in since the 1970s both the artistic intelli- Brazil is thriving. A number of talented fig- gentsia and urban-based consumers have 340 POP CULTURE LATIN AMERICA!

Clay figures traditionally produced in the rural hinterland of Brazil’s northeast. (Courtesy of Alex Nield) appropriated the once-mocked examples tients, often in amusing and rather of popular or folk art. One of the most fa- grotesque situations or poses, such as a gy- miliar expressions of popular art is the necological examination or a dentist press- work produced by the clay modeler Vita- ing his foot against a patient’s chest in or- lino Pereira dos Santos (1909–1963), der to help extract a tooth. Some depict the known as Mestre Vitalino, from the north- retirantes (poor migrant workers) heading eastern state of Pernambuco, and by those east toward the coast in search of work, artists who have been inspired by him. The cow-herders, Lampião and other canga- clay figures produced by Mestre Vitalino ceiros (social bandits), the old Iberian tra- were initially criticized for their technical dition of personifying animals to parody crudeness, but the expressiveness and ex- undesirable human traits, and so on. In treme economy of the pieces have since Alto do Moura in Pernambuco, a small been acknowledged. The figures deal with group of craftsmen and craftswomen, in- everyday themes with both humor and re- cluding Mestre Vitalino’s children and spect. The best-known figures are those grandchildren, carry on his work (as do un- dealing with bourgeois professionals, for told imitators throughout the northeastern example doctors and dentists, and their pa- hinterland), creating figures destined for VISUAL ARTS AND ARCHITECTURE 341 the cheap end of the souvenir trade. Re- paintings depict lush green land, dark blue cent changes in the production of the fig- starry skies, and brightly painted match- ures include the use of industrially pro- stick-style people and animals in the mid- duced paints and the inclusion of new dle ground going about their business, sug- themes. The work therefore is similar to gesting a harmony among the different literatura de cordel (chapbooks) in that its elements of the natural world. creators reveal a gift for communicating —Stephanie Dennison their community’s view of the world. To some extent, the artists serve as the See also: Popular Literature: Literatura de guardians of local memory and knowledge. Cordel; Popular Religion and Festivals: Candomblé; Visual Arts and Architecture: Folheteiros, the writers of literatura de Architecture and Landscape Design cordel, took up printmaking in the 1940s, (Favelas) and a veritable school of chapbook illustra- tors grew up as a result. The covers of Bibliography chapbooks, traditionally black-and-white Armstrong, Elizabeth, and Zamudio Taylor. xilogravuras, or woodblock prints, gradu- 2000. UltraBaroque: Aspects of Post–Latin ally became larger and incorporated color, American Art. San Diego, CA: Museum of and from the 1970s onward the more tal- Contemporary Art. Tribe, Tania Costa, ed. 2001. Heroes and ented artists began to exhibit their work in Artists: Popular Art and the Brazilian galleries. Two such printmakers are José Imagination. Cambridge: BrazilConnects Francisco Borges (1935– ) and Dila (José and Fitzwilliam Museum. Soares da Silva, 1937– ), both born into poverty in Pernambuco. Another example of modern tourist “cu- Architecture and Landscape Design rio chic” from northeastern Brazil is the paraphernalia relating to the Afro-Brazilian Latin American architecture incorporates religion Candomblé. Mestre Didi (1917– ), ideas from abroad, but often with a distinc- the most celebrated Afro-Brazilian sculptor tive twist. For example, the Swiss-born and craftsman, is a high priest in Can- French architect Charles-Edouard Le Cor- domblé in the state of Bahia and is there- busier has had considerable influence on fore regarded as an unquestionably “au- such architects as the Mexican Juan O’Gor- thentic” producer of popular art. The man and the Brazilians Lucio Costa and Os- pieces he produces are inspired by his faith car Niemeyer. In Brazil, the modernist ar- and are used in religious celebrations, and chitectural aesthetic was modified on Latin they are thus of interest from both func- American soil in order to both reflect and tional and aesthetic perspectives. The function more effectively within the tropi- paintings of Rita Loureiro (1952– ), from cal setting. the state of Amazonas, depict expressions The wave of architectural innovation be- of rural popular culture, such as the festas tween the 1930s and 1980s in Latin America juninas, or June popular religious festi- had its chief expression in those countries vals. Her style has been widely imitated, with the greatest economic muscle and, in and once again the souvenir market pro- terms of social modernization, with the vides a useful outlet for this work. The most to prove, namely Mexico, Brazil, and 342 POP CULTURE LATIN AMERICA!

Venezuela, resulting in the monumental ef- forts of Carlos Raúl Villanueva in Caracas; Pedro Ramírez Vásquez, Juan O’Gorman, and former partners Abraham Zablu- dowsky and Teodoro González de León in Mexico City; and Lucio Costa and Oscar Niemeyer in Brasília. The work of Costa and Niemeyer has entered the international architectural canon. Furthermore, innova- tive constructions have been created in the Chilean capital by Cristián de Groote and Mathias Klotz and in the Colombian capital by Rogelio Saltona. The Andean countries have shown less tendency toward architec- tural auteurs, and new developments there Colonial architecture in the national heritage often take on the characteristics of an site of Villa de Leyva, Colombia. (Courtesy of anonymous, internationalized modernity. Claire Taylor) Meanwhile, the architectural heritage of many Latin American cities faces a series of pressing dilemmas. The dichotomy be- Paz, the administrative capital of Bolivia, tween conservation and modernization is steadily loses what little remains of its ar- proving irreconcilable: on the one hand, the chitectural past. colonial heart is ripped out of many urban The proud colonial legacy of many Latin centers like Lima and La Paz to make way American cities has been threatened for for unscrupulously utilitarian and aestheti- some time by a number of factors. Para- cally indefensible new structures. On the mount among these is the inexorable ad- other hand, UNESCO grants have helped vance of the motor vehicle, with its con- preserve certain smaller cities, such as Po- comitant destruction of urban communities tosí and Sucre in Bolivia, the Ecuadorian for the purpose of road building. The utili- capital Quito and the center of Cuenca, and tarian nature of much architecture from the Cartagena de Indias and Santa Cruz de 1960s and 1970s (a reflection of a trend that Mompox in Colombia. UNESCO funds are occurred slightly earlier in Europe) also also earmarked to preserve the old district produced a crass attitude toward the no- of the Chilean port of Valparaíso. Protected tion of patrimony, as many city centers Peruvian sites include the Incan remains of were wrecked to make way for ill-consid- Machu Picchu, the unique mix of Incan and ered brutal “developments.” Another factor Spanish colonial architecture at Cuzco, and has been the encroachment of rural mi- Arequipa, the white baroque city built of grant populations into urban areas, where volcanic stone in the south of the country. they have settled and have begun to create Other designated heritage sites include the distinct architectural features unencum- center of Lima, once the City of Kings and bered by European traditions and sensibili- head of a Viceroyalty, though much damage ties, such as in the favelas in Brazil and the has already been done there. Meanwhile, La pueblos jóvenes (young towns) in Peru. VISUAL ARTS AND ARCHITECTURE 343

Groups of concerned architects, both lo- tions and local inhabitants as well as the cal and foreign, are making an effort to al- state, these poor neighborhoods are in- leviate the devastation and urban chaos. In creasingly coming under threat because of Havana the international conference The drug-related gang violence. The evolution Havana Project (December 1994–January of these communities and the dangers their 1995) examined ways to restore the city’s inhabitants encounter on a daily basis were former glory while responding to its cur- eloquently conveyed in the film Cidade de rent needs. Looking to the Future, a similar Deus (City of God, 2002). Despite the dan- event held in 2000 involving architects gers, some favela dwellers (known as fave- from Bolivia and the Netherlands, looked lados) prefer to take their chances in the at solutions for the difficulties experienced favela rather than move far away from by La Paz in an era of rapid change and de- their place of work and social life to a con- mographic explosion. The colonial center junto habitacional, the equivalent of the of Lima is similarly under threat, although housing projects in the United States or of under the guidance of Mayor Alberto An- council housing estates in the United King- drade in the 1990s, serious efforts were dom, where there is no guarantee that the made to restore and protect the old streets same violent elements will not eventually with their famous carved wooden bal- install themselves. Cidade de Deus de- conies. In the outskirts of the Peruvian picted this dilemma well: the 1960s hous- capital, though, a very different architec- ing project of the same name drew resi- tural prospect emerged: a swath of shanty- dents from a number of different favelas towns has grown up that in the early 1980s near the center to the then isolated West still consisted mostly of shacks made of Zone of Rio de Janeiro. As so often hap- wicker panels, often without even a roof. pens with such housing schemes, the resi- Families improved their dwelling as best dents of this new community were out of they could, acquiring bricks, mortar, and sight and were left to fend for themselves. other materials as they saved, and gradu- Without their old community ties and with ally making their houses more secure and wholly inadequate schooling, policing, and habitable. These euphemistically named transportation into the city center, lawless- pueblos jóvenes thus gradually acquire per- ness ensued, and self-declared gangster manency and respectability. A case in point leaders were quick to occupy the power is Villa el Salvador, which lies to the south vacuum. Although Cidade de Deus is not of Lima on the road to Ica and Arequipa. officially recognized as a favela, such are Within a few decades this settlement the conditions in which residents live that evolved from a pitiful collection of shacks most cariocas (the inhabitants of Rio de into an impressively well-coordinated sub- Janeiro) would not hesitate to give the urb, benefiting from the “informal” econ- place this label. omy that is the locals’ only viable source of Perhaps the least known yet one of the income. most original aspects of architectural proj- Although drastic improvements have ects in Latin America is innovative garden been made in the infrastructure of favela design, most closely associated with the communities in Brazil since the 1980s, on Brazilian . During the the initiative of nongovernmental organiza- presidency of Juscelino Kubitschek (1956– 344 POP CULTURE LATIN AMERICA!

1961), Burle Marx, along with modernist with recognition of Mexican traditional ar- architects Lucio Costa and Oscar chitecture and iconography from the pre- Niemeyer, was given free reign to design colonial period. More specifically, in order the new federal capital, Brasília. Architec- to express a sense of Mexican national tural projects in Brazil today still include a identity, such projects combine terracing focus on landscape gardening. Similarly, in with pyramidal constructions or integrate the northern Andes, topiary—particularly traditional building materials, such as the designs that reflect the natural world or volcanic stone tezontle, with concrete. pre-Columbian life—is used to enhance One of the most interesting and com- public spaces for the benefit of the local plex architects of the early post-revolu- population and tourists alike. tionary period was Juan O’Gorman —Keith Richards, Lisa Shaw, (1905–1982), whose contributions to the and Stephanie Dennison University City on the south side of Mex- ico City are his most famous landmarks. See also: Popular Cinema: The Brazilian Film His early work of the 1930s, such as the Industry (Box-Office Successes and house he designed for Frida Kahlo and Contemporary Film in Brazil) Diego Rivera in San Angel (now a suburb, then a village, south of Mexico City), is ex- Bibliography emplary of minimalism (two cubes—one Bayón, Damián. 1998. “Architecture, c. 1920–c. 1980.” Pp. 369–392 in A Cultural History of blue, one pink—linked by a bridge). How- Latin America: Literature, Music, and the ever, his University Library of the 1950s Visual Arts in the 19th and 20th Centuries, overuses pre-Columbian monumental ref- edited by Leslie Bethell. Cambridge: erences (the whole building is covered in Cambridge University Press. an Aztec-style mosaic), which combine Low, Setha M., ed. 1999. Theorizing the City: awkwardly with the functionalism of the The New Urban Anthropology Reader. New Brunswick, NJ: Rutgers University Press. building. Perhaps the most successful building in the modernist style to incorpo- rate references to pre-Columbian architec- Modern Architecture in Mexico ture is Pedro Ramírez Vásquez’s Anthro- Since the end of the Mexican Revolution in pology Museum, built from 1963 to 1965 in 1920, a huge number of architectural proj- Mexico City’s Chapultepec Park. In this ects have been commissioned by succes- structure, terracing is used to great effect, sive Mexican governments in order to em- usefully guiding the visitor around the mu- body the spirit of the new revolutionary seum and providing a visual link with the nation. These buildings tend to be mod- context of the artifacts exhibited. In the ernist in inspiration, often taking their lead 1970s and 1980s, former partners Abraham from the work of the Swiss-born French ar- Zabludowsky and Teodoro González de chitect Charles-Edouard Le Corbusier, and León won a significant number of competi- tend to project an image of Mexico as a tions to design impressive public buildings modern nation in the full sway of “interna- in Mexico, including the National Audito- tional style.” Nevertheless, many of the rium in Chapultepec Park, built in an offi- most successful buildings combine mod- cially endorsed modernist, monumentalist ernism and an interest in new technologies style. VISUAL ARTS AND ARCHITECTURE 345

Anthropology Museum, Mexico City. (Danny Lehman/Corbis)

The work of Luis Barragán (1902–1989), from scratch. However, his collaboration though no less influential than that of his with Mathias Goeritz on the Satélite Tow- contemporary O’Gorman, was conducted ers—five huge, purely decorative, brightly largely in the domain of private construc- colored concrete towers that mark the en- tion. Barragán’s main contribution to Mexi- trance to the Satélite city district to the can architecture is his use of color in con- north of Mexico City—remains a startling junction with a modernist style of reminder of the impact of his work on the construction. His choice of bold colors— face of the city. Barragán’s main disciple is ochre, cerise pink, intense sky blue—is Juan Legorreta, who, even though he is both very modern and very Mexican. Al- criticized for playing with color at the ex- though his work takes cues from the deco- pense of attention to detail in construction ration of colonial haciendas, it manages to or even functionality, is still one of Mex- do so without reminding Mexicans of a pe- ico’s internationally best-known and most riod of their history that in the post-revolu- identifiably “Mexican” architects. tionary era they were eager to forget. Bar- In contemporary Mexico, the taste for ragán’s work is mainly hidden away from buildings that make great use of the latest the public eye behind the high fences of technologies in building design, often im- such luxurious suburbs of Mexico City as ported from abroad, continues, although the Pedregal de San Angel, a suburb that now usually without reference to the na- Barragán was instrumental in designing tion’s specific geographical and historical 346 POP CULTURE LATIN AMERICA! context. Since the late 1980s the scene has cessively functional. Closely associated been dominated by commissions for build- with the rise of modernism in Brazilian ar- ings from private, often transnational, cor- chitecture, Costa worked alongside Oscar porations rather than from the Mexican Niemeyer on various projects. state, hence perhaps lessening interest in In 1957 Costa was chosen from among the expression of “Mexicanness” and even, other contenders to design the so-called pi- on occasion, leading to indulgence in post- lot plan, or layout, for Brasília. Costa’s fun- modernist eclecticism. Nevertheless, some damental idea for the city was unfashion- conversions of buildings in the old down- ably formal, based on two axes crossing town area of Mexico City show signs of a each other at right angles in the sign of a continued dialogue between the old and cross. Brasília’s site, on a high plateau in the new in Mexican architecture. central Brazil, is a triangle of land sloping —Thea Pitman southeastward down to an artificial lake. One axis of the cross, the so-called monu- See also: Visual Arts and Architecture: mental axis, runs down to the lake and Art (Frida Kahlo; Diego Rivera) contains the national and municipal cen- ters; the other curves around the contour Bibliography of a hill and contains the residential dis- Bayón, Damián. 1998. “Architecture, c. 1920–c. tricts. Where the axes cross is the central 1980.” Pp. 369–392 in A Cultural History of Latin America: Literature, Music, and the district of large shops, hotels, banks, cine- Visual Arts in the 19th and 20th Centuries, mas, restaurants, and other important edited by Leslie Bethell. Cambridge: buildings, such as the national theater. Cambridge University Press. Traffic is provided for by six-lane highways Burian, Edward R., ed. 1997. Modernity and along the monumental axis and a complex the Architecture of Mexico. Austin: of local and express highways along the University of Texas Press. Ingersoll, Richard. 1996. “A Silent Reproach: residential axis. Observations on Recent Mexican Costa was born in Toulon, France, to Architecture.” Pp. 6–16 in Mexico 90’s: Una Brazilian parents. His father was Admiral arquitectura contemporánea/A Joaquim Ribeiro da Costa. He studied at Contemporary Architecture, edited by the Royal Grammar School in Newcastle Miquel Adrià. Mexico City: Ediciones GG. upon Tyne, England, and in Montreux, Mutlow, John V. 2004. The New Architecture of Mexico. Victoria, Australia: Images. Switzerland. After returning to Brazil in 1917 he studied painting and architecture at the Escola Nacional de Belas Artes (Na- Lucio Costa (1902–1998) tional School of Fine Arts) in Rio de The Brazilian architect and urban planner Janeiro, graduating in 1924. In 1930 he was Lucio Costa is best remembered for design- appointed director of this prestigious art ing the layout of the purpose-built capital school and set about introducing impor- city, Brasília, inaugurated in 1960. One of tant changes to its curriculum, most im- the most significant examples of postwar portantly the study of the emerging mod- city planning, Brasília put Brazilian archi- ernist aesthetic. From 1930 to 1932 Costa tecture and urban planning on the interna- established a highly fruitful partnership tional map, despite criticism that it was ex- with the Russian architect Gregori War- VISUAL ARTS AND ARCHITECTURE 347 chavchik, who introduced modernism to invited to submit plans for the construction Brazil. of the new capital city of Nigeria, Abuja, a In 1936 Costa persuaded the Swiss-born project that was never carried out. French architect Charles-Edouard Le Cor- —Lisa Shaw busier to visit Brazil in order to contribute to the plans for the new headquarters of the See also: Visual Arts and Architecture: Ministry of Education in Rio. The decision Architecture and Landscape Design (Oscar Niemeyer) to invite Le Corbusier to sketch out the first lines of the new ministry design was an act Bibliography of protest against the plans of Archimedes Cavalcanti, Lauro. 2003. When Brazil Was Memória, whose art deco–style building Modern: A Guide to Architecture, had won the formal contest held to find the 1928–1960. New York: Princeton lead architect for the project. Costa’s bold Architectural Press. decision to override the result gave Brazil- Costa, Lucio. 1995. Lucio Costa: Registro de ian modernist architecture the official seal uma vivência. São Paulo: Empresa das Artes. of approval. ———. 1998. Lucio Costa: Documentos de In 1938 Costa was involved, along with trabalho. Rio de Janeiro: MEC/IPHAN. Oscar Niemeyer, in the design of the Brazil- Deckker, Zilah Quezado. 2000. Brazil Built: ian Pavilion for the New York World’s Fair The Architecture of the Modern Movement of the following year. This building com- in Brazil. London and New York: Routledge. bined Brazilian architectural expression with the ideas of Le Corbusier. Its slender pillars, known as pilotis, and ramps, inner Oscar Niemeyer (1907– ) courtyards, and terraces with tropical gar- Oscar Niemeyer was the most influential dens were characteristic of the Brazilian Brazilian architect of the twentieth century. modernist style. In 1948 Costa created two His works include the major monumental projects that would prove to be paradig- and government buildings in the capital, matic for architects throughout Brazil: the Brasília, and the new Museum of Contem- Parque Guinle residential complex in the porary Art in Niterói in Rio de Janeiro state. city of Rio de Janeiro and the Hotel do Niemeyer’s work epitomizes the modernist Park São Clemente in the mountain city of style, inspired by the Swiss-born French ar- Nova Friburgo in the state of Rio de chitect Charles-Edouard Le Corbusier. It is Janeiro. Costa played an important role in characterized by its graceful curved forms Brazil’s Institute of National Historical and and its use of concrete structures. Niemeyer Artistic Heritage (IPHAN), becoming a pio- began his career in the office of Lucio Costa neer in the protection of the urban and nat- in 1934 after graduating from the National ural environment. School of Fine Art in Rio de Janeiro. He re- Costa enjoyed international recognition, placed Costa in the group that worked on Le and in 1960 he was appointed to an hon- Corbusier’s design for the headquarters of orary position at Harvard University. Four the Ministry of Education in Rio de Janeiro, years later he was asked to lead a project built between 1936 and 1945. to restore the city of Florence, Italy, which The purpose-built capital city, Brasília, in- had suffered flood damage. In 1976 he was augurated in 1960, will remain a lasting tes- 348 POP CULTURE LATIN AMERICA!

Oscar Niemeyer’s MAC (Museum of Contemporary Art), Niterói, Brazil. (Courtesy of Alex Nield)

tament to Niemeyer’s vision and skill in cre- Beyond Brasília, Niemeyer was respon- ating strikingly simple forms. The city’s crit- sible for the following critically acclaimed ics refer to the rather timeworn “space-age” constructions: Rio’s cathedral and Sam- quality of the architecture, which was con- badrome (the open-air auditorium where sidered futuristic when the city was built, the annual Carnival parade is held); the but the most successful buildings combine Pampulha architectural complex, which function and structure to great effect. The includes the Church of St. Francis of As- concave and convex domes of the National sisi (decorated by Cândido Portinari), in Congress and the graceful columns (pilotis) the city of Belo Horizonte in Minas Gerais; of the Alvorada and Planalto Palaces and and the stunning Museum of Contempo- the Supreme Court are highly original fea- rary Art in Niterói, opened in 1996 and ini- tures and reflect the architect’s utopian tially nicknamed “the flying saucer” by lo- goals. Niemeyer also designed the city’s cals but now regularly cited as one of the cathedral, and because of his position as ar- most beautiful examples of contemporary chitectural adviser for the new capital, his architecture. Further afield, his works in- influence and authority extended through- clude the Museum of Modern Art in Cara- out the area of the original city plan. cas, the headquarters of the Communist VISUAL ARTS AND ARCHITECTURE 349

Party in Paris, the head office of Editora Bibliography Mondatori in Milan, and Constantine Uni- Fundação Oscar Niemeyer Official Website. versity in Algeria. http://www.niemeyer.org.br (consulted 15 December 2003). Niemeyer’s signature techniques are the Museum of Contemporary Art of Niterói use of reinforced concrete to form curves Official Website. http://www.macniteroi.com or a shell and the exploitation of the aes- (consulted 15 December 2003). thetic possibilities of the straight line. He Niemeyer, Oscar. 2000. Curves of Time: Oscar has used such features in the construction Niemeyer Memoirs. London: Phaidon. of factories, skyscrapers, exhibition cen- Salvaing, Matthieu. 2002. Oscar Niemeyer. Paris and London: Assouline. ters, residential areas, theaters, places of Sharp, Dennis. 1991. The Illustrated worship, head office buildings for public- Encyclopedia of Architects and and private-sector companies, universities, Architecture. New York: Quatro. recreational clubs, and hospitals, among Underwood, David Kendrick. 1994. Oscar others. Niemeyer and Brazilian Free-Form Niemeyer has won many international Modernism. New York: George Braziller. prizes in recognition of his contribution to world architecture, such as the Gold Pueblos Jóvenes Medal of the American Institute of Archi- Pueblos jóvenes (young towns) is a term tecture (1970), a UNESCO prize (1980), used to refer to unofficial urban settle- the prestigious Pritzker architectural ments in Peru. The majority of Peru’s pueb- prize (1988), an award from the Catalan los jóvenes are grouped around its main College of Architects in Barcelona (1990), cities. Lima, the capital, and the cities of and the Gold Medal from the Royal Insti- Arequipa and Trujillo contain most of these tute of British Architects (1998). Closer to settlements, with Lima having the greatest home, in 1989 he was honored by the Rio concentration. These communities started de Janeiro samba school Unidos de Lucas, as a result of the mass migration of rural which based the theme of its Carnival pa- dwellers to Peru’s main cities in the mid- rade that year on his architectural de- twentieth century. signs. As Skidmore and Smith note, by the late When the military dictatorship came to 1960s, an estimated 750,000 rural migrants power in Brazil in 1964, Niemeyer, a com- were living in the Lima area alone, and the mitted Communist, was forced into exile in majority of these were housed in squatter France. In the late 1960s he resumed his shantytowns. According to recent esti- career in Brazil, teaching at the University mates (Ghersi 1997, p. 103), by the 1990s of Rio de Janeiro and working in private roughly half of Lima’s population of eight practice. million lived in these informal settlements. —Lisa Shaw The pueblos jóvenes frequently lack one or more of such basic services as water, sew- See also: Popular Music: Samba; Popular erage, public lighting, and roads. Religion and Festivals: Popular Festivals Although these settlements originally (Carnival in Brazil); Visual Arts and Architecture: Architecture and Landscape sprang up in an independent and unsystem- Design (Lucio Costa); Art (Cândido atic way, the Peruvian government came to Portinari) realize that buying a house by traditional 350 POP CULTURE LATIN AMERICA! means was beyond the resources of most Indians.” Pp. 185–220 in Modern Latin Peruvians. By the late 1960s the then mili- America. Oxford: Oxford University Press. tary government had decided that rather than quashing such illegal settlements it Favelas would encourage them to seek official The favelas—Brazilian shantytowns or recognition, and in 1968 it introduced the slum dwellings, particularly associated term pueblos jóvenes to replace the more in- with the picturesque hillsides of Rio de formal barriadas (shantytowns). Although Janeiro—were first set up in the early this did grant status to these developments, twentieth century and still exist on inhos- successive governments have been unable pitable land in Rio de Janeiro and other to keep up with their rapid growth, and large cities, such as the land alongside ma- many are still lacking essential services. jor roads and rivers in São Paulo and on The dwellings within pueblos jóvenes are swampland in the northeastern city of Re- usually constructed over a long period of cife. These shantytowns serve as homes time, with improvements and amendments for the millions of migrant workers who being made gradually. Homes are usually pour into these cities from the northeast- built by family members and friends rather ern countryside and other poor rural areas. than by established construction compa- The origin of the favelas can be traced to nies, and they are usually initially built of the beginning of the twentieth century in temporary materials such as wicker panels, Rio de Janeiro, then the Brazilian capital, to be replaced later by bricks and mortar. when, in an attempt to “civilize” the city in The phenomenon of pueblos jóvenes has the style of Baron Georges-Eugène Hauss- been instrumental in transforming tradi- mann’s reforms of downtown Paris, Mayor tional class relations in Peru. Whereas his- Pereira Passos ordered the cortiços, or torically the underprivileged were not overcrowded and unsanitary tenement property owners, the rise of these informal buildings of the city center, to be pulled constructions has provided a way for those down. This so-called bota-abaixo left a large at the bottom of the economic ladder to number of the city’s poorer residents with own their own homes. no choice but to set up makeshift homes on —Claire Taylor the steep hillsides (morros) that dot Rio’s landscape, the only spaces left on which to Bibliography build near the center and places of work. Batley, Richard. 1980. Access to Urban The favelas that they constructed on the Services: Studies of Squatter Settlement morros were originally groups of wooden Improvement in Lima and Caracas. Birmingham, UK: University of Birmingham. shacks (barracos) made of abandoned Ghersi, Enrique. 1997. “The Informal Economy planks of wood and other basic materials in Latin America.” Cato Journal: An left over from the bota-abaixo, erected on Interdisciplinary Journal of Public Policy unclaimed or illegally occupied land. Analysis 17, no. 1: 99–108. The term favela (literally, “beanstalk”) is Paerregaard, Karsten. 1997. Linking Separate said to have been brought to Rio de Janeiro Worlds: Urban Migrants and Rural Lives in Peru. Oxford: Berg. by soldiers returning from the battle of Skidmore, Thomas E., and Peter H. Smith, eds. Canudos (1897) in the northeastern state of 1992. “Peru: Soldiers, Oligarchs, and Bahia. One of the first favelas in Rio was VISUAL ARTS AND ARCHITECTURE 351 built on land covered in beanstalks, similar (neighborhoods) by integrating them into to a settlement called Favela in the state of the city’s municipal infrastructure. The Bahia, where many were posted during the project includes the important work of reg- war. In Rio de Janeiro the term morro is ularizing land titles: problems over owner- commonly used to refer to these communi- ship of the land on which residents’ homes ties today. are built are one of the reasons favelas The modern official definition of a favela have been (and in many instances continue is a collection of at least fifty-one to be) lawless. Shantytown community makeshift homes made with the most basic groups have also been instrumental in at- materials (cheap bricks and mortar have tempting to improve the quality of life of now replaced stucco and wood) on unoc- the local population. cupied land and having sparse access to Access to consumer goods has also im- public services such as sanitation, electric- proved: most favelados possess a refrigera- ity, and transportation. According to the tor and a television set, for example. Resi- year 2000 census, there are 3,905 favelas in dents of Rio de Janeiro’s Rocinha, the Brazil, and these are predominantly found largest slum in Latin America and home to in large cities: one in five cariocas (resi- 150,000 Brazilians, deny that their commu- dents of Rio de Janeiro) lives in such a nity is a favela. Public services have been home. In the modern middle-class imagina- set up in Rocinha, which is one of the old- tion the term favela describes frightening, est hillside settlements and is literally a crime-ridden, no-go areas (unless one stone’s throw away from some of Brazil’s wants to buy cocaine) that cannot be most exclusive condominiums in the São reached by public transport. Conrado district of the city. As a result, res- Many of the old problems encountered idents (or rather the fortunate and finan- by the favelados (favela dwellers) of the cially better-off ones who live at the bot- first half of the twentieth century continue, tom of the hill and often pay more rent such as the stigma associated with living in than cariocas living in apartments in de- such a place and its resultant social exclu- cent neighborhoods) have access to a sion; the risk of landslides, especially dur- range of services destined for Rio’s wealth- ing the rainy season, in favelas built on hill- iest class. There is a considerable differ- sides; and health risks in slums that have ence between the two- and sometimes yet to be provided with such basic sanita- three-story, brightly painted homes that tion services as running water and sewer- cover the Rocinha hillside and the “card- age. But in many ways the lives of favela- board cities” to be found underneath dos have improved: gradually public viaducts, for example, or the dilapidated services are reaching the slums via a num- wooden shacks with corrugated iron roofs ber of initiatives set up by state and federal built randomly alongside main thorough- governments, such as Rio’s Favela-Bairro fares. The latter, especially those that line (Favela-Neighborhood) project. This is the the routes from the airports into city cen- biggest informal settlement upgrading pro- ters and the wealthy South Zones of Rio gram in Latin America, which since the and São Paulo, have long been a headache early 1990s has sought to transform squat- for municipal governments. The billboards ter settlements into recognized bairros frequently placed in front of these 352 POP CULTURE LATIN AMERICA!

View of Rocinha, Rio de Janeiro. (Courtesy of Deborah Dwek) makeshift dwellings to hide them from the same color to confuse the police). Po- view have ironically been converted into lice regularly invade the favelas in search housing for the truly desperate. of criminals, and innocent residents are The quality of life has not improved over- frequently caught in the crossfire that in- all for favelados. In recent decades, the gap variably ensues. In April 2004 the American between rich and poor in Brazil’s cities has School in Rio de Janeiro had to be closed widened, and since the early 1980s many until further notice because it was located favelados have been facing a new and dan- in the middle of a three-way battle waged gerous challenge: residents are now living by rival drug gangs and police. This turf in the shadow of gangland violence. Orga- war over cocaine distribution points, nized criminal gangs, with names such as which swept down from the Rocinha slum Comando Vermelho (Red Command) and and involved a rival gang from Vidigal, a Terceiro Comando (Third Command), have neighboring favela, claimed fifteen lives in taken control of many favelas in Brazil’s just one week. As the fighting threatened large cities. Favelas make the perfect to engulf the wealthy district of São Con- space in which to hide out, given their con- rado, plans were floated to seal off fused, labyrinthine streets and houses that Rocinha inside a security fence. all look the same (in some favelas, the Of the 3,000 deaths that occur every year gangs force residents to paint their homes in Rio de Janeiro, most take place in the VISUAL ARTS AND ARCHITECTURE 353 favelas. The internal space of the favela lence in their community at the hands of community is no longer used for leisure or the drug bosses. Lopes, who had worked recreation as it once was, with the excep- on a number of high-profile stories about tion of churchgoing, particularly atten- corruption and drug culture in Rio, entered dance at the new Protestant (evangélico) the favela with nothing more than a hidden churches that allegedly have come to dom- camera. He is said to have lost his life at inate the favelas because of their tolerance the hand of the notorious drug baron Elias of the drug traffickers. Maluco (Elias the Mad): he was tortured Many police officers reputedly collabo- and executed, and his body was set on fire rate with the gangland bosses, as portrayed and dumped. vividly in the box-office smash Cidade de Despite the dangers, or perhaps because Deus (City of God, 2002). Owners of the of them, favelas are a source of great cu- few commercial outlets found in most riosity to outsiders. Favela tours are be- favelas, such as botequins (little bars) and coming increasingly popular in tourist the odd grocery store, depend on protec- cities such as Rio de Janeiro, where safe tion from the gangs that rule the slums. passage by Jeep through the shantytown is The violence, intimidation, and summary guaranteed by the gangland bosses at a justice meted out by drug traffickers have cost to the organizers. It is also possible to produced a culture of silence within the visit a favela during the run-up to Carnival favelas. As a result, even if the police were by attending a practice session of a samba effectual, residents would be loath to call school, many of the more traditional of upon their help. With an estimated 100,000 which, such as Mangueira and Salgueiro in members of drug gangs in possession of Rio, are based in hillside slums. 65,000 firearms, it is unclear what the —Stephanie Dennison poorly paid and badly equipped police could do anyway. Political leaders struggle See also: Popular Music: Samba; Popular with the issue of police occupations of Social Movements and Politics: Base Communities in Brazil; Travel and Tourism: favelas, which tend to produce untold tur- Ecotourism; Popular Cinema: The Brazilian moil for residents and only a temporary lull Film Industry (Box-Office Successes and in cocaine trafficking. That said, the Brazil- Contemporary Film in Brazil); Popular ian army occupied Rio’s favelas for one Religion and Festivals: New Protestantism week in 1992 during the international Earth (Brazil); Popular Festivals (Carnival in Brazil) Summit (Rio-Eco ’92), and most cariocas, including many favelados, reportedly felt Bibliography safe in their home city for the first time. Almanaque Abril: Brasil 2003. São Paulo: Abril. The extent to which drug culture is turn- Bellos, Alex. 2002. “Brutal Death Sours Cup ing favelas in cities like Rio de Janeiro into Joy.” Observer, London, 7 July. unimaginably dangerous places was Gamini, Gabriella. 2004. “Rio’s Rich Caught in brought home to cariocas in 2002 with the Crossfire of Drug Gang War.” Times, London, sadistic murder of Tim Lopes, a well- 17 April. known undercover TV investigator. Resi- Marins, Paulo César Garcez. 1998. “Habitação e vizinhança: Limites da privacidade no dents of the Favela da Grota asked Lopes surgimento das metrópoles brasileiras.” Pp. to help do something about the daily vio- 132–214 in História da vida privada no 354 POP CULTURE LATIN AMERICA!

An example of popular architecture in El Alto, Bolivia. This style is often scorned as part of a process of cholificación (deriving from the contemptuous cholo, an Andean term connoting indigenous origin and partial acculturation). (Courtesy of Keith Richards)

Brasil, vol. 3, edited by Nicolau Sevcenko. diately above La Paz. This type of popular São Paulo: Companhia das Letras. architecture, created by members of Ay- Perlman, Janice E. Marginality: From Myth mara-speaking groups, is often scorned as to Reality in the Favelas of Rio de Janeiro, part of a process of cholificación (deriving 1969–2002. www.idpm.man.ac.uk/cprc/ Conference/conferencespapers/ from the contemptuous cholo, an Andean Perlman02.04.03.pdf (consulted March term connoting indigenous origin and par- 2004). tial acculturation). Zaluar, Alba. 1998. “Para não dizer que não falei In the 1980s El Alto was a community of de samba: Os enigmas da violência no some 20,000 people, but currently it is Brasil.” Pp. 245–318 in História da vida home to around one million inhabitants. privada no Brasil, vol. 4, edited by Lilia Moritz Schwarcz. São Paulo: Companhia das Building here had to begin from scratch, Letras. with very little in the way of a guiding tradi- tion (this tendency is also evident in La Paz itself). The steep, narrow streets of the old Popular Architecture in Bolivia city are undergoing a barrage of “modern- A recognizable style of building is begin- ization” as older adobe buildings are al- ning to emerge in La Paz and in the city of lowed to deteriorate and are eventually re- El Alto, situated on the high plateau imme- placed by perfunctory brick dwellings, VISUAL ARTS AND ARCHITECTURE 355

Popular architecture in El Alto, Bolivia. (Courtesy of Keith Richards)

allowing the possibility for family expan- said of the destruction of government sion, which is accommodated by building buildings and other manifestations of privi- upward. Those who can afford it eventually lege during the political unrest of February decorate the houses with abstract designs and October 2003. in a variety of colors. The members of Ay- The inhabitants of El Alto and those mara-speaking groups who are largely re- looking in from the outside hold markedly sponsible for these transformations belong different attitudes toward the phenomena to a nouveau riche, marginalized bour- of urban migration and informal transfor- geoisie, hugely successful in bringing con- mation of the cityscape. Groups of con- sumer goods to these new markets through cerned architects, both local and foreign, contraband from Chilean ports and through are making efforts to alleviate such ten- uncannily efficient commercial pirating. sions. The architect Carlos Villagómez has The defiant political attitude demon- criticized other Bolivian architects for be- strated by Aymara speakers can also be ing too paternalistic, saying their middle- seen as a reflection of a cultural position: class viewpoints conditioned by periods of the demolition of colonial and republican European study leave them in a poor posi- buildings, ostensibly to make space for tion to understand the concerns of Aymara new construction, has been seen as a re- migrants. sponse to centuries of oppression by the In 2003 Villagómez founded the Fun- Spanish-speaking elite. The same might be dación de Estética Andina (FEA, Founda- 356 POP CULTURE LATIN AMERICA! tion for Andean Aesthetics), aimed at pro- Brasília, for which he planned the layout viding lasting and inclusive solutions to the and selection of plant varieties to add a problems of La Paz and El Alto. The vivid green backdrop to the otherwise dry, acronym “FEA” spells the Spanish word for yellow landscape of the local savanna veg- “ugly,” yet although this might suggest etation. more elitist sneering from the educated Burle Marx worked with Costa and classes, Villagómez is himself at pains to Niemeyer on the Ministry of Education emphasize his part-Aymara heritage. The building in Rio de Janeiro, which was begun foundation, which organizes numerous in 1936 and is generally considered the first outdoor events intended to raise questions great monument to modern Brazilian archi- of the use of public space for the widest tecture. He landscaped the building’s broad possible audience, takes chola architecture esplanade, one of the many open spaces as a fait accompli that can be incorporated that are characteristic of this new style of into Bolivia’s broader cultural life and architecture. The Costa–Niemeyer–Burle turned into a coherent aesthetic. Marx team was then, in the 1940s, invited to —Keith Richards create Pampulha Park in the city of Belo Horizonte in Minas Gerais state. Burle See also: Language: Indigenous Languages Marx’s talents for landscape design were shown off to the full in this expansive recre- Bibliography ational area, built around an artificial lake, Flores Troche, Northon. 2002. Mirando al which discreetly houses several public futuro/Looking to the Future. The Hague: buildings, including an art museum and the Prince Claus Fund for Culture and Development. Church of St. Francis of Assisi, designed by Low, Setha M., ed. 1999. Theorizing the City: Niemeyer and decorated with murals by The New Urban Anthropology Reader. New Cândido Portinari. Brunswick, NJ: Rutgers University Press. Burle Marx was born in São Paulo and ———. 2000. On the Plaza: The Politics of moved to Rio de Janeiro as a small child. In Public Space and Culture. Austin: University 1928 he studied painting in Germany for a of Texas Press. Villagómez, Carlos. 2004. La Paz ha muerto. La year. He spent a lot of time in Berlin’s Paz: Plural. botanical gardens, where he came across Villanueva, Paulina, ed. 2000. Carlos Raúl Brazilian plants in the hothouses. His first Villanueva. New York: Princeton landscape design was for an architectural Architectural Press. project by Lucio Costa and Gregori War- chavchik in 1932. Roberto Burle Marx (1909–1994) In 1949 Burle Marx bought a large estate Brazilian landscape designer Roberto in Barra de Guaratiba, Rio de Janeiro, Burle Marx worked alongside architects where he brought together a huge variety Lucio Costa and Oscar Niemeyer to create of plant species, which he had been col- some of the most striking examples of the lecting since early childhood. In an area of modernist aesthetic in Brazil. He is per- approximately 600,000 square meters he haps best known for the tropical gardens managed to create one of the most impor- that relieve the architectural austerity of tant collections of tropical and semitropi- the pragmatically designed capital city, cal plants in the world, containing more VISUAL ARTS AND ARCHITECTURE 357 than 3,500 different species. Today, the es- tate is also dedicated to research and teaching activities and houses Burle Marx’s private library of approximately 3,000 ti- tles. In 1985 he donated the estate’s farm, and all of its archives, to Brazil’s Institute of National Historical and Artistic Heritage (IPHAN). In 1955 Burle Marx founded the com- pany Burle Marx & Cia. Ltda., which car- ried out major landscape projects as well as the planning and maintenance of private and public gardens. Between 1965 and the year of his death, he worked alongside the Topiary created by José Franco in the cemetery architect Haruyoshi Ono, who is the com- gardens, Tulcán, Ecuador. (Courtesy of Keith pany’s current director. Richards) —Lisa Shaw

See also: Visual Arts and Architecture: cathedral on Cajamarca’s central square, Architecture and Landscape Design (Lucio the Plaza de Armas, are examples that Costa; Oscar Niemeyer); Art (Cândido mainly take the form of animals and birds. Portinari) At the Tulcán cemetery gardens created by José Franco in 1936, the style tends toward Bibliography Burle Marx Official Website. http://www. the abstract, with stylized zoomorphic burlemarx.com.br (consulted 15 December shapes, pre-Columbian and Christian de- 2003). signs, as well as geometric forms, arches, Eliovson, Sima, and Roberto Burle Marx. 1991. and tunnels. The Gardens of Roberto Burle Marx. —Keith Richards Portland, OR: Timber. Montero, Marta Iris. 2001. Roberto Burle Marx: The Lyrical Landscape. Berkeley and Los Bibliography Angeles: University of California Press. The Best of Ecuador Website. http://www. Vaccarino, Rossana, ed. 2000. Roberto Burle thebestofecuador.com/tulcan.htm (consulted Marx: Landscapes Reflected, Landscape 16 December 2003). Views 3. New York: Princeton Architectural Ministry of Tourism, Ecuador, Website. http:// Press. www.vivecuador.com (consulted 16 December 2003).

Topiary in the Andes The practice of topiary has become a com- Photography mon urban decorative feature in the north- ern Andes, particularly in the Peruvian city Photographers working in Latin America of Cajamarca and in Tulcán, capital of the have traditionally used their images to artic- northern Ecuadorian province of El Carchi ulate social, political, and, more recently, on the border with Colombia. Near the environmental concerns. Today the Brazil- 358 POP CULTURE LATIN AMERICA! ian photographer Sebastião Salgado raises cess of this and of her subsequent solo ex- awareness about issues such as refugees hibition in 1980, Iturbide’s work was exhib- and the impact of globalization on poor mi- ited at the Pompidou Center in Paris in grant workers, not just in Latin America. 1982, increasing her international expo- The vestiges of a rural way of life and of sure. Over the years her photographs have popular traditions have provided inspiration also been the subject of exhibitions in the for the work of many, including Mariana United Kingdom, Japan, Argentina, and Yampolsky and Graciela Iturbide. Iturbide’s Brazil. She has been the recipient of vari- work explores a frequent motif in the arts of ous prizes, including a Guggenheim Fel- Latin America, that of the dualities of life in lowship in 1988 for her project Festival a region where the rural and the urban, or and Death. the third world and the first world, come The theme of Iturbide’s photography is into contact on a daily basis. Artistic influ- frequently village life in rural Mexico, evi- ences from outside Latin America are also dencing her interest in the indigenous cul- present in the region’s photographic art, tures of her country, particularly such pop- such as in the work of Manuel Álvarez ular local practices as celebrations, feast Bravo, whose images bear the distinct im- days, and carnivals. Examples of this print of a surrealist vision of the world. theme can be seen in a series of photo- —Lisa Shaw graphs taken in La Mixteca, Oaxaca, during 1992 that take as their subject the practice of goat slaughter. The beautiful and moving Graciela Iturbide (1942– ) images depict different instances within Graciela Iturbide is one of the leading con- this tradition and portray animal alongside temporary Mexican photographers, and human, as in the photographs entitled “Be- her work has gained international expo- fore the Slaughter” and “The Sacrifice.” In sure and acclaim. It explores issues of these works the focus is on the animals, Mexican identity, and her photographs il- with humans forming an accompaniment lustrate the coexistence between indige- or backdrop; frequently it is the goats that nous, rural practices and aspects of mod- are photographed in full view or close-up, ern consumer society that characterize with the human figure appearing only par- contemporary Mexico. tially, in the form of shots from the waist Born in Mexico City, Iturbide studied down or of the feet only. during the early 1970s at the Centro Uni- In the majority of Iturbide’s other photo- versitario de Estudios Cinematográficos graphs, however, it is the human face and (University Center for Cinematic Studies) gestures that receive the most attention, as at Mexico City’s national university critics have noted. One of her most famous (UNAM) and also worked as an assistant to photographs of the human face is the par- Manuel Álvarez Bravo in 1970 and 1971. ticularly striking “Our Lady of the Iguanas” Iturbide’s work first appeared publicly in a (1979). At first sight its female subject ap- joint exhibition with two other female pho- pears to be wearing an elaborate hat, but tographers in 1975 in Mexico City, and on closer inspection her headgear is re- from there the exhibition went to the Mid- vealed to be a cluster of iguanas. This work town Gallery in New York. After the suc- is one of a collection of photographs that VISUAL ARTS AND ARCHITECTURE 359

Iturbide took during a lengthy period in Ju- photographic art in his country. His artistic chitán, a Zapotec town in Oaxaca. reputation was partly based on his associa- Another common feature of Iturbide’s tion with Tina Modotti, a fellow pioneer work is the juxtaposition of indigenous ru- whose life was closely entwined with that ral culture with modern consumer society. of Mexico. However, Álvarez Bravo devel- This juxtaposition is neatly illustrated by oped his own aesthetic, and his work con- one of her best-known works, “Angel sistently displays a surrealist influence, an Woman” (1979), taken in the Sonora Desert. interest in capturing movement, and a de- The woman who is the central figure in the light in catching ordinary people in very foreground stands with arms spread in a unusual circumstances. He was a mentor semi-angelic pose and surrounded by a vast, for many budding photographers, either by unspoiled natural habitat, yet she carries a example or, as in the case of his former as- transistor radio in her hand. This photo- sistant Graciela Iturbide, through instruc- graph reveals the coexistence of traditional tion and direct influence. ways of life and accelerated modernity in During the period after the Mexican Rev- contemporary Mexico. Another similar ex- olution (1910–1920), artists in various me- ample of the combination of the rural with dia were forging a new, revitalized imagery modern commercial features is “Keeper of befitting a revolutionized social reality. The the Roads” (1995), in which an old man legendary Italian photographer Tina Mo- seated in a rural landscape wears a modern dotti, Edward Weston from the United brand of baseball boots. States, and the German Hugo Brehme were —Claire Taylor but a few of the foreigners attracted to Mexico at a time when the muralists Diego See also: Popular Religion and Festivals: Rivera, José Clemente Orozco, and David Indigenous Religious and Cultural Practices Alfaro Siqueiros were at their creative (Mexico); Visual Arts and Architecture: peak. Together with Álvarez Bravo, all Photography (Manuel Álvarez Bravo) loosely collaborated in founding an imagi- nary for the redefined Mexican nation Bibliography Ferrer, Elizabeth. 1993. “Manos Poderosas: The based on an appreciation of what were Photography of Graciela Iturbide.” Review: seen as its essential characteristics. These Latin American Literature and Arts 47: comprised a reevaluation of indigenous 69–78. culture, a celebration of harmonious hu- Iturbide, Graciela. 1996. Images of the Spirit. man interaction with the natural surround- Photographs by Graciela Iturbide, preface by ings, and an acceptance of the socialist Roberto Tejada, epilogue by Alfredo López Austin. New York: Aperture. ethos. Kozloff, Max. 1999. “Images of the Spirit: Álvarez Bravo’s interest in photography Photographs by Graciela Iturbide.” Art in did not develop until his early twenties, America 87, no. 11: 122–127, 159. when he met and was influenced by Brehme. Modotti had an even more pro- Manuel Álvarez Bravo (1902–2002) found impact on him, specifically her de- Mexico’s best-known photographer, Man- pictions of Mexico in revolution and her in- uel Álvarez Bravo made his name in the terest in the country’s cultural depth and 1920s and is thought of as the founder of diversity. Modotti encouraged the young 360 POP CULTURE LATIN AMERICA!

Álvarez Bravo to devote himself to the camera, and when she was expelled from Mexico in 1930, she urged him to carry on her work, photographing the murals and scenes from contemporary reality that had become her hallmark. Like his compatriot, the poet Octavio Paz, Álvarez Bravo came under the influ- ence of surrealism. An example of his sur- realist vision can be seen in his juxtaposi- tions of objects not normally associated with one another, giving them new mean- ing. The photograph “Two Pairs of Legs” (1928–1929) shows an image from an ad- vertisement with well-clad male and fe- male lower limbs emerging from the side of a building as if they were extensions of the windows just above. Another such image, in which the tawdry and homespun nature of the advertising that signaled Mexico’s entry into capitalism creates an incongru- A portrait of photographer Manuel Alvarez Bravo, Mexico, 1997. (Keith Dannemiller/ ous, surreal effect, is “Optical Parable” Corbis) (1931), an ingenious take on a Mexico City optician’s hand-painted shopfront. What Octavio Paz praised as Álvarez rent images are sensuous yet strangely un- Bravo’s “lens of revelations” (Paz 1997) settling nudes, and “ordinary” people was also admired by the great French pho- caught in extraordinary situations. Al- tographer Henri Cartier-Bresson, himself though these images make some use of renowned for having an uncanny eye and Mexico’s rich popular traditions, they sense of timing. An example of Álvarez never descend into folkloric depictions of Bravo’s vision is “Scale of Scales” (1931), the picturesque, and above all they refuse which shows a doorway filled with objects to patronize their subjects or invite the ordered seemingly haphazardly but in a viewer to pity them. way that harmonizes the occupied and Álvarez Bravo portrayed many of Mex- empty spaces. Light and darkness interact ico’s most renowned artists, such as Frida in Álvarez Bravo’s work in a way that he Kahlo, the above-mentioned muralist likened to life and death: he saw the pho- painters, and the novelist Juan Rulfo. Yet tographer’s work as stealing images from despite the widespread admiration for his oblivion. His fondness for capturing move- work expressed by fellow artists in Mex- ment, usually with figures seen against ico, he remained almost unknown abroad blank backgrounds such as walls, streets, until the late 1930s, when he appeared in and deserts, also evokes this feeling of de- an exhibition of Mexican art set up by An- fiance of the passage of time. Other recur- dré Breton in Paris, and the early 1940s, VISUAL ARTS AND ARCHITECTURE 361 when he began to exhibit in the United Manuel Álvarez Bravo. 2001. Los Angeles: J. States. Further shows in France and the Paul Getty Museum. United States from the 1970s to 1990s con- Mraz, John. 1997. Review of Susan Kismaric, Manuel Álvarez Bravo (1997). Estudios firmed his reputation internationally. Interdisciplinarios de America Latina y el Unlike Modotti, Álvarez Bravo took little Caribe 2 (July–December). http://www. interest in ideology and shunned political tau.ac.il/eial/VIII_2/mraz.htm (consulted 10 gatherings, even in the militant 1920s and December 2003). 1930s. Nonetheless, his identification with Paz, Octavio. 1997. Manuel Álvarez Bravo: the lot of the ordinary people was always Vintage Photos. New York: Robert Miller Gallery. in evidence. Álvarez Bravo did not always Portal de las Artes Visuales, Venezuela, convey this identification in a political con- Website. http://www.portal.arts.ve/papeles/ text, as Modotti did in her shots of demon- alvarezb/manuelalvarez1.htm (consulted 10 strations, dignified workers, and socialist December 2003). insignia. He preferred to work on the minu- tiae of everyday life, carefully avoiding the Tina Modotti (1896–1942) photogenic and picturesque. His famous Tina Modotti was one of the leading photo “The Barber” (1924) is a prime exam- women photographers of the twentieth ple of this aesthetic, displaying a street bar- century in Mexico. Although not Mexican ber whose only apparatus is the chair on by birth, Modotti is best remembered for which his client sits. Both men are viewed producing some of the most striking and from behind, the barber’s hunched stance emblematic images of the Mexican cultural hinting at a kind of menace as he looms renaissance of the first half of the twenti- over the young customer’s exposed neck. eth century. Her photography evidenced Álvarez Bravo’s only work with an arguably her keen interest in the purity of form and explicit social content is the image “Strik- the art of careful composition, but she was ing Worker, Assassinated, Oaxaca” (1934), also deeply engaged in revolutionary poli- which draws its political content from the tics in Mexico, and many of her works have title applied to this shot of a young man’s a clearly defined political content. In addi- head bleeding onto the ground. tion to her own art, Modotti was involved —Keith Richards significantly in documenting the Mexican muralist movement led by Diego Rivera, See also: Visual Arts and Architecture: Art José Clemente Orozco, and David Alfaro (Frida Kahlo; José Clemente Orozco; Diego Siqueiros. From the late 1920s onward she Rivera; David Alfaro Siqueiros); Photography (Graciela Iturbide; Tina Modotti) was engaged in producing a series of pho- tographs of the murals, and her work en- Bibliography abled the muralists to gain greater promi- Hopkinson, Amanda. 2002. Manuel Álvarez nence internationally, since her photographs Bravo. London: Phaidon. were reproduced in magazines and journals Kaufman, Frederick. 1997. Manuel Álvarez worldwide. Bravo: Photographs and Memories. New Born Assunta Adelaida Luigia Modotti York: Aperture. Mondini in Italy, Modotti was called As- Kismaric, Susan. 1997. Manuel Álvarez Bravo. London and New York: Thames and Hudson; suntina (“little Assunta”) to distinguish her Museum of Modern Art. from her mother, who bore the same name; 362 POP CULTURE LATIN AMERICA! this was quickly shortened to “Tina,” which resents Mexican musical tradition, the am- became the name she used throughout her munition belt is symbolic of the Mexican life. By 1913 Modotti had left Italy for the revolutionary, maize is the quintessential United States, and while there she had a Mexican foodstuff, and the sickle is repre- brief career in cinema, playing a series of sentative of farmwork but is also clearly a supporting roles in silent movies. She also shorthand for communism. These photo- married the poet and painter Roubaix de graphs, by uniting elements of agriculture, L’Abrie Richey, and throughout 1921 she music, and war, function as revolutionary worked as a model for the famous photog- icons and transmit a political message. In rapher Edward Weston, with whom she “Composition with Guitar, Ammunition had an affair. After her husband’s death, Belt, and Sickle” (1927), for instance, there Modotti and Weston moved to Mexico in is a pleasing symmetry in the curved body 1923, and Weston encouraged Modotti to of the guitar and the curved shape of take up photography in her own right, ini- sickle, but at the same time there is an ob- tially as his apprentice. Modotti learned vious revolutionary theme. from Weston so-called pure formal values, In a further noteworthy series of photo- which can be seen in the clean symmetrical graphs, taken in 1929 in Tehuantepec, shapes of some of her earlier works. Pho- Modotti focuses on the human form and its tographs such as “Sugar Cane” and activities rather than on still-life composi- “Glasses” (both 1925) depict recurring tions. Modotti concentrates on the women shapes and neat geometry in the symmetri- of Tehuantepec, depicting them raising cal lines of the sugarcanes and the re- children and undertaking a variety of peated circles of the glasses; notably, there chores, such as in “Women in the Market- is no human presence in these works. place” and “Mother with Baby in Tehuante- A good example of Modotti’s skill in pec.” Although many of these photographs combining formal composition with revo- are less staged than Modotti’s earlier work lutionary content can be seen in her 1928 and have a more candid feel, several still work “Peasant Workers Reading El Ma- show her characteristic style of careful chete.” In this photograph, the peasant composition. workers can be seen reading the radical Modotti maintained close friendships newspaper El Machete, to which Modotti with the Mexican muralists and appears in herself contributed, and at the same time one of Diego Rivera’s most famous murals, the photograph maintains a pleasing for- Distributing the Arms (1928–1929), in the mal symmetry in the repeated circles Ministry of Education building, Mexico formed by their hats, shown in aerial view. City, in which she is depicted at far right, Modotti also produced a series of composi- holding an ammunition belt. Toward the tions of arranged objects, each of which end of the 1920s life in Mexico for Modotti carries revolutionary meaning. These pho- was becoming increasingly complicated tographs are aesthetically striking and for- because of her political activism, and she mally arranged; at the same time, the was eventually deported in 1930. She went choice of subject matter—a guitar, an am- to Europe, where she lived in several dif- munition belt, maize, and a sickle—con- ferent countries, including Germany and veys a revolutionary theme. The guitar rep- Russia, but found the opportunities for VISUAL ARTS AND ARCHITECTURE 363

My Latest Lover! (1924) by photographer Tina Modotti. (Gelatin Silver Print, 9.2 x 4.4 cm; Center for Creative Photography) photography not as favorable as those in Hooks, Margaret. 1993. Tina Modotti: Mexico, preferring to concentrate instead Photographer and Revolutionary. London: on direct political action. Modotti was fi- Pandora. Lowe, Sarah M. 1995. Tina Modotti: nally able to return to Mexico in 1939, Photographs. New York: Abrams. where she died in 1942. Newman, Michael. 1983. “The Ribbon around —Claire Taylor the Bomb.”Art in America 71, no. 4: 160–169. See also: Visual Arts and Architecture: Art (José Clemente Orozco; Diego Rivera; David Mariana Yampolsky (1925–2002) Alfaro Siqueiros) The photographs of the well-known Mexi- can photographer Mariana Yampolsky typi- Bibliography Armstrong, Carol. 2002. “This Photography cally record indigenous, rural, and popular Which Is Not One: In the Gray Zone with traditions and evidence her commitment to Tina Modotti.” October 101: 19–52. social issues, but she also had a keen inter- 364 POP CULTURE LATIN AMERICA! est in photographing examples of popular (1989), whose main feature is a thin cross architecture. In all cases, her photography that cuts a vertical line down the right side aims to represent the customs and living of the image and from which hang two conditions of the marginalized and to give cobs of corn. Set against a bare back- value to popular forms of expression. Born ground of a cloudy sky, the corn, tradi- in Chicago, Yampolsky became a Mexican tional symbol of Mexico, dominates the citizen. She also worked as an engraver, il- shot. Another work that captures the popu- lustrator of books, editor, and museum cura- lar traditions of rural Mexico is “Day of the tor throughout her extensive artistic career. Dead, Mazahua” (1989), which conveys the After her childhood and studies in the Mexican tradition of the Day of the Dead, United States, Yampolsky left for Mexico in depicting a cross over a tombstone and 1944, part of a wave of artists who moved women dressed in rural costume lining up to Mexico inspired by the post-revolution- with flowers. Similarly, “Crucifixion” ary climate. Yampolsky became the first (1991) presents a traditional religious cere- woman member of the Taller de Gráfica mony with rural women standing before a Popular (Workshop for Popular Graphic reenactment of Christ upon the cross. Yet Art), a cooperative project of painters and at the same time this photograph includes artists that had a strong commitment to so- a modern car in the background, bringing cial issues and was dedicated to the pro- the viewer abruptly back to the present motion of art for the people. In 1949 she day. A similar effect is produced by “Death was asked to produce a series of photo- Also Drinks Coffee” (1992), in which a par- graphs of the members of this workshop, ticipant in the Day of the Dead procession images that made up the book The Work- appears in mask and full costume, holding shop for Popular Graphic Art: A Record of a coffee cup. Twelve Years of Collective Work. Another important body of Yampolsky’s By 1959 Yampolsky had left the work- work can be seen in her 1993 book Maza- shop and begun her photographic career in hua, which focuses on the Mazahuan In- earnest. Her first major photographic proj- dian women and their community and in- ect came in the 1960s, when she spent three cludes such photographs as “Mazahua years traveling around rural Mexico to re- School” and “Mazahua Women.” In addi- mote locations, photographing traditional tion to her photographs focusing on the hu- Mexican popular culture, such as festivals, man subject and its rituals, Yampolsky has ceremonies, dances, costumes, and folk art. taken an interest in the depiction of Mexi- These images formed the basis of the book can architecture, as illustrated in her 1982 The Ephemeral and the Eternal of Mexican book The House That Sings, which com- Popular Art (1970). Much of Yampolsky’s prises photographs of houses in rural Mex- work has been published along with text by ico, including pre-Hispanic buildings and Mexican writer Elena Poniatowska, noted popular architecture. for her dedication to giving a voice to the —Claire Taylor marginalized by means of testimonio, or See also: Popular Literature: Testimonio; testimonial writing. Popular Religion and Festivals: Indigenous One of Yampolsky’s most striking photo- Religious and Cultural Practices (Mexico); graphs is “The Blessing of the Corn” Popular Festivals (Mexico) VISUAL ARTS AND ARCHITECTURE 365

Bibliography mining company in the area, in 1908 Agosín, Marjorie. 1998. “Mariana Yampolsky: Chambi moved to Arequipa, where he Reading the Gaze.” Pp. 162–170 in A worked at the Max T. Vargas Studio as an Woman’s Gaze: Latin American Women assistant. However, an indigenous person Artists, edited by Marjorie Agosín. New York: White Pine. could not be successful in Arequipa, a city Berler, Sandra. 1995. “Mariana Yampolsky: An with too many pretensions linked to Euro- Artistic Commitment.” Occasional Papers: pean lineage, and Chambi moved on to Thomas J. Watson Jr. Institute for Sicuani, between Puno and Cuzco, to work International Studies 19: 29–42. independently. It was at this time that he Yampolsky, Mariana. 1998. The Edge of Time: began to do itinerant ethnographic work, Photographs of Mexico. Foreword by Elena Poniatowska; introduction by Sandra Berler. traveling particularly in Canchis Province Austin: University of Texas Press. to record the area’s rich heritage. He ———. 1999. Imagen memoria: Image— moved to Cuzco in 1924, attracted by its Memory. Texts by Elizabeth Ferrer, Elena unparalleled history as both the former Poniatowska, and Francisco Reyes Palma. center of Inca civilization and a stunning Mexico City: Conaculta. colonial city built largely on existing pre- Columbian walls. Martín Chambi (1891–1973) Although Chambi was the leading expo- Martín Chambi, a Peruvian photographer nent of his art in southern Peru in the of indigenous origin, made a major contri- early twentieth century, it should never- bution to the indigenista (indigenist) theless be remembered that numerous movement that celebrated and interpreted photographers were working in Cuzco at native culture in Peru during the early the same time. José Gabriel Gonzáles decades of the twentieth century. Chambi (1875–1952) and Avelino Ochoa (1900– was the first photographer to capture 1982) studied with and befriended Chambi; Machu Picchu, the so-called lost city of the their eye for social themes allied with ex- Incas, after its “discovery” by Hiram Bing- cellent technique was reminiscent of their ham in 1911. Chambi opened a studio in master. Another artist, Juan Manuel Cuzco in the early 1920s that produced Figueroa Aznar (1878–1951), provides an many thousands of images that, quite apart interesting point of comparison with from their undeniable aesthetic value, con- Chambi because of their respective social stitute fascinating social documents of the and economic situations. Figueroa was central Andean world in a period of crucial connected by marriage to a wealthy change. landowning family and thus could com- Chambi was certainly a contributor to fortably indulge his passion for painting, the ferment of ideas surrounding the indi- keeping photography as an amusing side- genista movement, and indeed he largely line that sometimes influenced his work embodied the notion of indigenous em- on canvas. By contrast, Chambi, of far powerment. He was born into a peasant more straitened means, knew that his fu- family in the village of Coaza, near the alti- ture lay in faithfully pursuing his chosen plano (high plain) city of Puno on the path of commercial photography, which banks of Lake Titicaca. Apprenticed to a gave him the possibility of social stability photographer who worked for a British if not advancement. 366 POP CULTURE LATIN AMERICA!

Chambi clearly aspired to a great deal Levine, Robert. 1989. Images of History: more than merely making a living by paint- Nineteenth and Early Twentieth Century ing family and individual portraits. He was Latin American Photographs as Documents. Durham and London: Duke fascinated by the cultural constitution of University Press. Cuzco and he undertook to portray the López Mondéjar, Publio, and Edward Ranney. area in all its cultural manifestations. The 1993. Martín Chambi: Photographs, Inca legacy is admirably represented, such 1920–1950. Washington, DC: Smithsonian as in his photographs of Machu Picchu. He Institution Press. took several further trips outside Cuzco to Poole, Deborah. 1997. Vision, Race, and Modernity: A Visual Economy of the record the magnificent Inca ruins in sites Andean Image World. Princeton: Princeton such as Ollantaytambo, Tambo Machay, University Press. and Pisac. Perhaps most telling, however, are the images revealing the depth of in- equality in Andean society in the early Sebastião Salgado (1944– ) twentieth century; Chambi photographed The internationally acclaimed Brazilian fellow Indians, often alongside whites or in documentary photographer Sebastião Sal- an alien urban environment, and captured gado is known for his powerful socially their traditions, sadness, difficulties, and aware images of marginalized people, such hopes. as migrants, refugees, exploited workers, Chambi achieved international recogni- and landless peasants. Salgado has been tion largely through the agency of Edward awarded many major photographic prizes Ranney. The terrible earthquake of 1950, and awards in recognition of his accom- which claimed over 35,000 lives, was pho- plishments. He became internationally tographed by Chambi but effectively cur- known in 1981, when he was the only pro- tailed his career. The depression into fessional photographer to document the which he sank upon viewing the devasta- assassination attempt on U.S. president tion never truly left him, and he resolved Ronald Reagan. Salgado combines con- never again to send his pictures out of cerns for humanitarian issues with envi- Cuzco. His legacy was safeguarded by his ronmental work, such as a project to pro- son, Víctor Chambi, who fortunately under- tect the remaining rainforest in the region took printing the glass slides containing where he was born. He said in an inter- some 18,000 images. view: “There is a direct relationship be- —Keith Richards tween poverty around the world and our destruction of the environment” (Sebastião Bibliography Salgado Official Website, http://www. Benavente, Adelma. 1996. “Photography in sebastiaosalgado.com.br). Southern Peru, 1900–1930.” Pp. 8–12 in Between 1977 and 1984 Salgado traveled Peruvian Photography: Images from the through Latin America, walking to remote Southern Andes, 1900–1945, edited by mountain villages to produce images for Pauline Antrobus. Colchester, UK: University the book and exhibition entitled Other of Essex. Facio, Sara, and José de Riva Agüero. 1985. Americas (1986), which deals with peasant Martín Chambi: Fotografías del Perú. cultures and the cultural resistance of Indi- Buenos Aires: La Azotea. ans and their descendants in Mexico and VISUAL ARTS AND ARCHITECTURE 367

Brazil. In the mid-1980s he worked for fif- ganization until 1973. In 1973, after borrow- teen months with a French aid group in the ing his wife Lélia’s camera on a trip to drought-stricken Sahel region of Africa and Africa, he decided to pursue a career in created Sahel: Man in Distress (1986), a photography and joined first the Sygma project on human dignity and endurance. photo agency (1974–1975) and then the From 1986 to 1992 he focused on Workers Gamma agency (1975–1979). In 1979 he (1993), a documentary project on the topic was elected to membership in the interna- of manual labor, shot in twenty-six coun- tional cooperative Magnum Photos and re- tries. After Terra: Struggle of the Landless mained with that organization until 1994. (1997), a project on the landless peasant From his base in Paris he covered news movement in Brazil, Salgado published the events such as wars in Angola and the photographic collection Migrations: Hu- Spanish Sahara and the taking of Israeli manity in Transition and The Children: hostages in Entebbe, and he also started to Refugees and Migrants (2000), on the pursue more personal and in-depth docu- plight of the displaced, refugees, and mi- mentary projects. In 1994 Salgado founded grants in over forty different countries. He his own press agency, Amazonas Images, said in an interview: “I believe that the way which represents him and his work. He the rich countries in the world live is the lives in Paris with his wife and collaborator right way to live. Everybody has the right Lélia Wanick Salgado, who has designed to healthcare, education, welfare, the right most of his books. and the need to be a citizen. I believe —Lisa Shaw that each human being on this planet must have the same rights” (Sebastião Salgado See also: Popular Social Movements and Official Website, www.sebastiaosalgado. Politics: MST com.br). Salgado was born in 1944 in Aimorés, in Bibliography Salgado, Sebastião. 1993. Workers: An the state of Minas Gerais, the sixth child Archaeology of the Industrial Age. New and only boy in a family of eight children, York: Aperture. the son of a cattle rancher. He studied eco- ———. 1997. Terra: Struggle of the Landless. nomics in Brazil from 1964 to 1967 and London: Phaidon. graduated with a master’s degree in eco- ———. 2000. Migrations: Humanity in nomics in 1968 from the University of São Transition. New York: Aperture. ———. 2003. The Children: Refugees and Paulo and Vanderbilt University in the Migrants. New York: Aperture. United States. In 1971 he completed his Sebastião Salgado Official Website. http:// coursework for his PhD in economics at www.sebastiaosalgado.com.br (consulted the University of Paris and worked as an 15 December 2003). economist for the International Coffee Or-