HA2F8-30 Latin American Art and Racial Politics
Introductory description
This module foregrounds the role of racial ideologies in shaping artistic production across Latin America. By analyzing the representation of race, this course helps to break down traditional heirarchies and expose systemic disadvantages to artists of color from the colonial period to the contemporary moment.
Module aims
The aim of this module is to investigate how artists and thinkers have approached the idea of race, and individual racial categories, in their attempts to uphold or subvert dominant political and cultural ideologies. Racial categories and ideas of racial mixing (or mestizaje) have taken various forms across the historical epochs and vast geographical spread of Latin America. Artistic production in Latin American nations has at times highlighted, buried, and/or obfuscated racial narratives in the service of political platforms. The course will cover artists and movements from the late colonial to the contemporary period. Over the course of the term, we will look at early representations of indigenous peoples, casta paintings that codified racial hierarchies after the Spanish conquest, nineteenth-century depictions of slave labor in Brazil and the Caribbean, Modern art by Latin Americans suffering racial stigmatization in Europe, visualizations of La raza cosmica and broader indigenismo movements, and contemporary Latinx art that deals with the neglect and erasure of Latinx culture.
Outline syllabus
This is an indicative module outline only to give an indication of the sort of topics that may be covered. Actual sessions held may differ.
Brazilian cannibals and other “barbarians”
Colonial Mexican Casta Painting
“Tropical Romanticism” and Traveler Artists
Costumbrismo and the Cuban Mulatta
"Rastas": Latin Americans in Paris
La Raza Cosmica and Mexican Mestizaje
Andean Indigenismo
Eugenicist Discourse in Argentina
Bahian Afro-Brazilians
Chicanx art and La Raza
El Barrio and Latinx Immigrant Identity
Learning outcomes
By the end of the module, students should be able to:
- Understand the basic timeline of Latin American art from the late colonial period to the contemporary moment
- Use pertinent vocabulary for talking about Latin American racial identities
- Differentiate between different models of and attitudes toward racial mixing across the Americas
- Understand the confluence of European, indigenous, African diaspora, and other twentieth-century immigrant cultures in the region
- Recognize some of the major figures in the Latin American artistic canon as well as less-well-known artists, some anonymous works, and European/US traveler artists
- Discuss ongoing debates on race and its representation in Latin America
- Critically relate the ideas discussed in class to other forms of art
- Understand diverse viewpoints
- Formulate a well-reasoned argument
- Demonstrate conceptual and visual analysis
- Engage critically with scholarly texts at an appropriate level
- Evaluate exhibitions' and texts' engagement with racial issues
Indicative reading list
-Darlene J. Sadlier, Brazil Imagined: 1500 to the Present (Austin: UT Press, 2008).
-Magali M. Carrera, “Locating Race in Late Colonial Mexico”, Art Journal 57, vol 3 (Fall 1998): 36-45.
-Rebecca Earle, “The Pleasures of Taxonomy: Casta Paintings, Classification, and Colonialism,” The William and Mary Quarterly 73, no. 3 (July 2016): 427-466.
-Ilona Katzew, Casta Painting: Images of Race in eighteenth-century Mexico (New Haven: Yale, 2005).
-Ana Lucia Araujo, Brazil through French Eyes: A Nineteenth-Century Artist in the Tropics (Albuquerque: University of New Mexico, 2015).
-Alison Fraunhar, “Marquillas cigarrras cubanas: Nation and Desire in the Nineteenth Century,” Hispanic Research Journal 9, no. 5 (December 2008): 458-478.
-Rubén Gallo, Proust’s Latin Americans (Baltimore: Johns Hopkins, 2014).
-Stephanie D'Alessandro and Luis Pérez-Oramas, Tarsila do Amaral: Inventing Modern Art in Brazil (New Haven: Yale UP, 2017).
-Michele Greet, Beyond National Identity: Pictorial Indigenism as a Modernist Strategy in Andean Art, 1920-1960 (University Park: Penn State UP, 2009).
-Fabiola López-Durán, Eugenics in the Garden: Transatlantic Architecture and the Crafting of Modernity (Austin: UT Press, 2018). --Patrick Polk, Roberto Conduru, and Sabrina Gledhill, Axé Bahia: The Power of Art in an Afro-Brazilian Metropolis (Los Angeles: Fowler Museum at UCLA, 2018).
-Jennifer A. González, C. Ondine Chavoya, Chon Noriega, and Terezita Romo, Chicano and Chicana Art: A Critical Anthology (Durham: Duke UP, 2019).
Subject specific skills
-Navigate the basic timeline of Latin American art from the late colonial period to the contemporary moment
-Use pertinent vocabulary for talking about Latin American racial identities
-Differentiate between different models of and attitudes toward racial mixing across the Americas
-Accurately describe the confluence of European, indigenous, African diaspora, and other twentieth-century immigrant cultures in the region
-Recognize some of the major figures in the Latin American artistic canon as well as less-well-known artists, some anonymous works, and European/US traveler artists
-Discuss ongoing debates on race and its representation in Latin America
Transferable skills
-Critically relate the ideas discussed in class to other forms of art
-Understand diverse viewpoints
-Formulate a well-reasoned argument
-Demonstrate conceptual and visual analysis
-Engage critically with scholarly texts at an appropriate level
-Evaluate exhibitions' and texts' engagement with racial and other issues
- Familiarity with essential ICT skills
-Ability to collaborate effectively with others
Study time
| Type | Required |
|---|---|
| Seminars | 20 sessions of 2 hours (13%) |
| External visits | 1 session of 2 hours (1%) |
| Private study | 258 hours (86%) |
| Total | 300 hours |
Private study description
Required and recommended reading for seminar participation and presentations, research for written assessments, revision for examinations.
Costs
No further costs have been identified for this module.
You do not need to pass all assessment components to pass the module.
Assessment group A
| Weighting | Study time | Eligible for self-certification | |
|---|---|---|---|
Assessment component |
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| Writing portfolio | 60% | Yes (extension) | |
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Three pieces of student writing covering reviews, analysis, and reflection |
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Reassessment component is the same |
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Assessment component |
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| Slide test | 30% | Yes (extension) | |
Reassessment component is the same |
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Assessment component |
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| Spoken engagement | 10% | Yes (extension) | |
Reassessment component is the same |
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Feedback on assessment
Written feedback and dedicated feedback tutorials
Courses
This module is Core optional for:
- Year 2 of UHAA-V401 Undergraduate History of Art