Art Museums Of Latin America. Structuring Representation. Edited by Michele Greet y Gina McDaniel Tarver (London: Routledge, 2018)

Abstract

[...]the first section addresses the historic role of museums in nation-building after independence, when elites endeavored to signify their political difference from Spain and Portugal while at the same time upholding their status as civilized classes in order to maintain their privileged position within postcolonial society. Le Blanc tracks the complicated relationship between the museum as a private entity and the government through an account of three decisive moments–1953, when the museum secured a plot of land from the government; the XIX Salão Nacional de Arte Moderna in 1970; and the 1978 fire that destroyed 90 percent of the collection–and analyzes the shift in this relation from cooperation to hostility after the 1964 coup. Le Blanc concludes with a reading of the work Maquete Visual by Marcos Cardoso–a structure made of matches and wood exhibited at the MAM in 2013–as a visual metaphor for the museum’s institutional history “a chronicle that is replete with dramatic twists, turns, and unpredictable about-faces, and with relationships that are ultimately as incendiary and precarious as a sculpture made of matches"4 In light of the recent fire that engulfed the National Museum of Brazil, most likely due to government neglect, it is sad to think that Le Blanc’s metaphor can be applied to other Brazilian museums. Antúnez wanted the museum to be increasingly more inclusive, with programming that would make room for works of conceptual art which “emphasized artistic process more than explicit content, generating a dimension that was intellectual or cryptic and, hence, removed from the people"5 Cross shows that such radical artistic experimentation was occurring in tandem with the kind of public art typically brought up in discussions of the Allende years, and notes that, although less political, these art-forms were “in effect more radical and contemporary in museological terms than the most innovative ideas coming to the forefront abroad"6 The article sheds light on a narrative that is not well known outside of Chile, showing that exhibitions by Luis Camnitzer, Liliana Porter, Juan Pablo Langlois, Gordon Matta-Clark, and Cecilia Vicuña signaled a wave of Chilean experimental art practices that predate those outlined in the dominant narrative around the Escena de Avanzada as theorized by critic Nelly Richard.

Art Museums of Latin America: Structuring Representation is a collection of essays edited by Michele Greet and Gina McDaniel Tarver, consisting of seventeen articles focusing on museums of Latin American art throughout the hemisphere (particularly Argentina, Brazil, Chile, Colombia, Cuba, Mexico, Paraguay, Peru, and the US). The subtitle Structuring Representation serves as a key formula that helps us to both grasp the significance of museums as organizers of national identities in Latin America, and to address architecture as an encompassing structure for these processes.

The book is divided into five thematic sections covering topics that range from the conception of museums in the nineteenth century to contemporary and innovative practices. The essays analyze museums of different sorts, including those focusing on local or international art and audiences, along with private and public collections. The authors’ methodologies are equally diverse, addressing the role of museums in state formation, cultural diplomacy, and questions around the concept of modernity. By including US museums the editors acknowledge the geopolitical construct of Latin America and the role that museums play in defining “Latin American art." The publication fills a lack of adequate representation within English-language museum studies, taking a step towards restructuring the field by presenting a counterpoint to standard narratives, but also by emphasizing the political and institutional relevance of Latin American Museums in the twentieth century.

Art Museums Of Latin America. Structuring Representation. Edited by Michele Greet y Gina McDaniel Tarver (London: Routledge, 2018). Image Cortesy of Routledge.

This volume grew out of a conference panel entitled “Negotiating Identity: The Art Museum in Latin America", held at the Latin American Studies Association’s International Congress in San Juan, Puerto Rico in May 2015. The panel fostered a transnational discussion about Latin American museography, with contributions from participants from English, Spanish, and Portuguese speaking countries and reaching a conclusion with this anthology. It was published as part of Routledge’s new series Research in Art Museums and Exhibitions, which focuses on the study of art institutions from historic perspectives. Articles authored in Spanish and Portuguese were translated into English to make the material accessible to European and US academic audiences, since the volume raises issues relevant beyond the scope of Latin American studies and for the broader discipline of museum studies.

The editors pivot the argument of the book around the multifaceted “idea of Latin America" by quoting Walter Mignolo’s eponymous book¹. As a geopolitical construct, all authors acknowledge the problematic status of “Latin America" as a concept “used within economic, geopolitical, and intellectual power structures with various motivations and effects," arguing that it nonetheless “remains a useful category in promoting the study of the region"² Following this logic, their inclusion of US museums largely invested in Latin American art, and whose “collections have been extremely influential in shaping an idea of what ‘Latin American art’ is",³ is praiseworthy, although it could have been more faceted, bearing in mind the ways in which “Latin America" has been conceptualized both in opposition to the United States and within it.

With a strong orientation towards Mexico and Brazil, and a shortage of approaches to the Caribbean, this collection does not purport to be comprehensive, as the editors candidly acknowledge in the introduction. The fact that Mexico and Brazil were centers of colonial power explains the more abundant history of their art institutions as well as the presence of a greater number of articles about them among the submissions (more so because they have been important art centers in the 20^th century).

The book is split into five central themes, which aptly enough summarize the key issues raised in the volume: Art Museums and State Politics, Art Museums as Constructions of Modernity, Local Dynamics of Internationalism, National and Regional Perspectives from the United States, and Reimagining the Art Museum. While each subsection develops a core theme, all the articles in the book work well as contributions to an overarching narrative. For instance, the first section addresses the historic role of museums in nation-building after independence, when elites endeavored to signify their political difference from Spain and Portugal while at the same time upholding their status as civilized classes in order to maintain their privileged position within postcolonial society. The second section focuses on Brazil, Colombia, and Mexico, analyzing the outburst of museums of modern art in post-World War II Latin America in the context of efforts at modernization, and the deployment of international architecture as a symbol of development. The following section likewise deals with international influences, going into the complex dynamics between private and public institutions. In the fourth section, three authors take as case studies museums devoted to Latin American art in Texas, New York, and Miami. While the editors do not make the connections explicit, this section is particularly relevant for their stated and more nuanced approach to the “idea of Latin America." The fifth and last section focuses on innovative museographies and expanded accessibility in Mexico, Chile, Paraguay, and Peru.

Aleca Le Blanc’s essay “Incendiary Objects: An Episodic History of the Museu de Arte Moderna (MAM), Rio de Janeiro," is particularly engaging. Le Blanc tracks the complicated relationship between the museum as a private entity and the government through an account of three decisive moments–1953, when the museum secured a plot of land from the government; the XIX Salão Nacional de Arte Moderna in 1970; and the 1978 fire that destroyed 90 percent of the collection–and analyzes the shift in this relation from cooperation to hostility after the 1964 coup. Le Blanc concludes with a reading of the work Maquete Visual by Marcos Cardoso–a structure made of matches and wood exhibited at the MAM in 2013–as a visual metaphor for the museum’s institutional history “a chronicle that is replete with dramatic twists, turns, and unpredictable about-faces, and with relationships that are ultimately as incendiary and precarious as a sculpture made of matches"⁴ In light of the recent fire that engulfed the National Museum of Brazil, most likely due to government neglect, it is sad to think that Le Blanc’s metaphor can be applied to other Brazilian museums.

On the other hand, “The Museum in Times of Revolution: Regarding Nemesio Antúnez’s Transformation Program for Chile’s Museo Nacional de Bellas Artes, 1969-1973," by Amalia Cross, comes across as a noteworthy approach to Chilean museum history. Cross challenges the traditionally accepted narrative around the Museo Nacional de Bellas Artes, revisiting Nemesio Antúnez’s radical practices during his tenure as director from 1969 to 1973 (mostly coinciding with Salvador Allende’s government) to argue that his program was part of the sociopolitical transformation that Chile went through during that time. Antúnez wanted the museum to be increasingly more inclusive, with programming that would make room for works of conceptual art which “emphasized artistic process more than explicit content, generating a dimension that was intellectual or cryptic and, hence, removed from the people"⁵ Cross shows that such radical artistic experimentation was occurring in tandem with the kind of public art typically brought up in discussions of the Allende years, and notes that, although less political, these art-forms were “in effect more radical and contemporary in museological terms than the most innovative ideas coming to the forefront abroad"⁶ The article sheds light on a narrative that is not well known outside of Chile, showing that exhibitions by Luis Camnitzer, Liliana Porter, Juan Pablo Langlois, Gordon Matta-Clark, and Cecilia Vicuña signaled a wave of Chilean experimental art practices that predate those outlined in the dominant narrative around the Escena de Avanzada as theorized by critic Nelly Richard.

Art Museums of Latin America: Structuring Representation makes an important contribution to the field of museum studies. As the editors acknowledge, there are very few books in the English language taking a similar approach, with notable exceptions such as Remix: Changing Conversations in Museums of the Americas, edited by Selma Holo and Mari-Tere Alvarez.⁷ As the editors acknowledge, it is the most similar in scope to their own, although it takes a broader approach by covering the Americas in general, thereby managing to address a wider range of cases through shorter articles. The book edited by Andrea Giunta, Museos y coleccionismo ante el desafío del bicentenario,⁸ on the other hand, draws from a series of conversations held at the Buenos Aires Art Fair in 2009. Each conversation focuses on a particular topic (museums, collecting, curating, and architecture, discussed in all three of these publications), but Giunta’s volume does not develop a historiographical approach, embracing instead a more synchronic view that is specifically concerned with the current status of the field.

Art Museums of Latin America: Structuring Representation is successful in being the first of its kind to address an English-speaking audience and is an instrumental volume for all Latin American and Museum Studies scholars, art historians, artists, sociologists, and architects. It provides a solid history of the social roles played by museums in hemispheric societies. Collective publications such as this one offer scholars a chance to compare historical narratives regarding a specific subject through a polyphony of specialized voices. As part of the Routledge series on curatorial practices, exhibition construction, and materiality in a global context, this collection of historical studies on museums of Latin American art adds new perspectives to our understanding of museums and their social functions.

References

Greet, Michele and McDaniel Tarver, Gina. Art Museums Of Latin America. Structuring Representation. London: Routledge, 2018.

Giunta, Andrea. Museos y coleccionismo ante el desafío del bicentenario. Buenos Aires: Fundación arteBA, 2010.

Holo, Selma and Oakland, Mari-Tere. Remix: Changing Conversations in Museums of the Americas. University of California Press, 2016.

Mignolo, Walter. The Idea of Latin America. Malden: Blackwell, 2005.