Ángel Kalenberg
is participant at
Where is Art Contemporary? The Global Challenge of Art Museums II
Abstract
Retrospective on the recent Museum History in Latin America (and its problematic)
Latin America has been partaking of Western traditions in art for over five hundred years. The new globalization disseminated the varied languages of contemporary art and the model of contemporary art museums, through which it became feasible to surmount the “mandatory” authoritarianism of Modernism. Faced with homogenization, Latin American museums found that by highlighting national and regional artistic production they could present evidence of their singularity. The theme of globalization is not new to Latin America. It arrived with Christopher Columbus’ caravels in 1492. The art of the Renaissance, Mannerism and the Baroque disembarked with the conquest. From those movements, native painters adopted only those elements they felt close to. And, perhaps, it was from that dialetic of acceptance and rejection that came, for example, the Mestizo Baroque that, ultimately, returned to Europe as an influence on its metropolises. It was the time of the colony, but artists were not colonial. It is now time to again demonstrate that they are not so today. And museums are called upon to play a preponderant role by giving proof of this own route.
