Caribbean & Latin American

Frida Kahlo

Few artists have captured the public's imagination with the force of Mexican painter Frida Kahlo. During her lifetime, she was best known as the flamboyant wife of celebrated muralist Diego Rivera. Theirs was a tumultuous relationship: Rivera declared himself to be "unfit for fidelity." As if to assuage her pain, Kahlo recorded the vicissitudes of her marriage in paint. She also recorded the misery of her deteriorating health--the orthopedic corsets that she was forced to wear, the numerous spinal surgeries, the miscarriages and therapeutic abortions. The artist's sometimes harrowing imagery is mitigated by an intentional primitivism and small scale, as well as by her sardonic humor and extraordinary imagination. In celebration of the one-hundredth anniversary of Kahlo's birth, this major new monograph is published on the occasion of the 2007-08 traveling exhibition. It features the artist's most renowned work--the hauntingly seductive and often brutal self-portraits--as well as a selection of key portraits and still lifes; more than 100 color plates, from Kahlo's earliest works, made in 1926, to her last, in 1954; critical essays by Elizabeth Carpenter, Hayden Herrera and Victor Zamudio-Taylor; and a selection of photographs of Kahlo and Rivera by preeminent photographers of the period, including Manuel Alvarez Bravo, Lola Alvarez Bravo, Gisele Freund, Tina Modotti and Nickolas Muray. The catalogue also contains snapshots from the artist's own photo albums of Kahlo with family and friends such as Andre Breton and Leon Trotsky--some of which have never been published, and several of which Kahlo inscribed with dedications, effaced with self-deprecating marks or kissed with a lipstick trace--plus an extensive illustrated timeline, selected bibliography, exhibition history and index.

Art of the Andes: From Chavin to Inca (World of Art)

This wide-ranging survey has established itself as the best single-volume introduction to Andean art and architecture. Now fully revised, it describes the strikingly varied artistic achievements of the Chavín, Paracas, Moche, Chimú, and Inca cultures, among others. Their impressive cities, tall pyramids, shining goldwork, and intricate textiles constitute one of the greatest artistic traditions in history.

For the second edition, Rebecca Stone-Miller has added new material covering the earliest mummification in the world at Chinchorros, wonderful new Moche murals and architectural reconstructions, the latest finds from the Chachapoyas culture, and a greater emphasis on shamanism. Throughout, Stone-Miller demonstrates how the Andean peoples adapted and refined their aesthetic response to an extremely inhospitable environment. 185 illustrations, 35 in color.

Diego Rivera, The Complete Murals

Diego in detail: The most comprehensive study of Rivera's work ever made A veritable folk hero in Latin America and Mexico's most important artist - along with his wife, painter Frida Kahlo - Diego Rivera (1886-1957) led a passionate life devoted to art and communism. After spending the 1910s in Europe, where he surrounded himself with other artists and embraced the Cubist movement, he returned to Mexico and began to paint the large-scale murals for which he is most famous. In his murals, he addressed social and political issues relating to the working class, earning him prophetic status among the peasants of Mexico. He was invited to create works abroad, most notably in the United States, where he stirred up controversy by depicting Lenin in his mural for the Rockefeller Center in New York City (the mural was destroyed before it was finished). Rivera's most remarkable work is his 1932 Detroit Industry, a group of 27 frescos at the Detroit Institute of Art in Michigan. This lavish volume - the first book to feature Rivera's complete mural oeuvre, including newly discovered works - features numerous large-scale details of the murals, allowing their various components and subtleties to be closely examined. In addition to the murals is a vast selection of paintings, vintage photos, documents, and drawings from public and private collections around the world many of which the whereabouts were previously unknown to scholars and whose inclusion here is thanks to the most intense research performed on Rivera's work since his death. Texts include an illustrated biography and essays by prominent art historians offering interpretations of each mural. One could not ask for a more comprehensivestudy of Rivera's oeuvre; finally, a half-century after Rivera's death, his work is the subject of the sweeping retrospective it deserves.

The Art of Mesoamerica (World of Art)

"An essential guide to the art and architecture of ancient Central America."—Colonial Latin American Historical Review

Mary Ellen Miller evocatively surveys the artistic achievements of the high Precolumbian civilizations—Olmec, Maya, Teotihuacan, Toltec, Aztec—as well as those of their less well-known contemporaries. Their pyramids and palaces, jades and brightly colored paintings emerge from these pages as vividly as when they first astonished Cortes's men in 1519.

The fourth edition of this standard work includes exciting new discoveries, from Palenque, Mexico, where architecture and sculpture reveal a dramatic eighth century, to San Bartolo, Guatemala, where Maya paintings have riveted an international audience. Continuing hieroglyphic decipherments provide fresh insights. The revised edition of the Art of Mesoamerica is the ideal companion for art historians, students, and travelers alike. 220 illustrations, 136 in color.

Antonio Lopez Garcia

Antonio Lopez Garcia is one of Spain's most revered contemporary artists. Bringing his profound visual sensitivity and mastery of light to bear on a range of deliberately quotidian subjects, Lopez Garcia imbues them with an extraordinary and haunting character. In 1993, his paintings and drawings were given a major retrospective at the Reina Sofia, Madrid, while Victor Erice's 1992 documentary about Lopez Garcia, The Quince Tree of the Sun, received the Critics' Prize at that year's Cannes and top prize at the Chicago Film Festival. Yet Lopez Garcia's work has rarely been exhibited outside his native country. This book, published to accompany the first major exhibition of his art in the United States (in tandem with the MFA's monumental El Greco to Velazquez exhibition), offers the first comprehensive overview in English of this extraordinary oeuvre. An essay by curator Cheryl Brutvan discusses Lopez Garcia as a descendant of the great Spanish naturalists, as well as his indebtedness to Surrealism and "magic realism," while individual appreciations of some 50 paintings offer English-speaking readers their first opportunity to appreciate in depth the remarkable poetry and atmospheric density of this major world artist.

Weaving in the Peruvian Highlands: Dreaming Patterns, Weaving Memories

Mexico: Stencil

When the Mexican government attempted to violently quell the teacher's union's demonstrations in Oaxaca in June of 2006, artists were quick to protest. Graffiti covered government buildings, and both street and fine artists quickly formed an organization called the Assembly of the Artists of the Revolution of Oaxaca, or ASARO. Some participants created stencils and posters that are still sold in Oaxaca's main square; they re-appear on the walls of the city whenever a march is imminent.
In the streets of modern Mexico, the stenciled image has become a ubiquitous sight, and is now a thriving form of popular art, used for non-political purposes as well as for protest. Mexico: Stencil is the first international publication on this subject. The product of 10 years of research conducted throughout the country, its content benefits from commentary by the artists themselves, who contribute background information and documentation for this project. Consistent with the spirit of its subject, however, this volume respects the anonymity of the many creators who figure in it, offering instead a vision of the streets as they might be observed by any visually aware pedestrian in contemporary Mexico.

Latin American Art of the 20th Century, Second Edition (World of Art)

"Richly illustrated...brings to life the work of many lesser-known artists throughout the continent." —Choice

This comprehensive survey introduces an exceptionally rich, fascinating, and complex art that has gained great popularity in recent years. Edward Lucie-Smith discusses all the major subjects and issues: magic realism, expressionism, and other concepts shared with Latin American literature; the great muralists Diego Rivera, David Alfaro Siqueiros, and José Clemente Orozco; the interaction of politics, society, and art; the continuing interest in folk art; and the dialogue between avant-garde European and North American movements and "indigenist" thinking in the work of artists such as Wifredo Lam, Matta, Rufino Tamayo, and Frida Kahlo. Many other artists from the 1900s to the present day are included in this compelling look at a great body of brilliantly original and imaginative art.

For the second edition, the text has been updated and a new final section introduces some of Latin America's leading contemporary artists: José Bedia (Cuba/USA), Doris Salcedo (Colombia), Rubén Ortiz Torres (Mexico), Miguel Calderón (Mexico), Ernesto Neto (Brazil), Diana Domingues (Brazil), and Beatriz Milhazes (Brazil). Several of these artists make use of the latest in modern technology, including interactive installations, photographs, and video art. 178 illustrations, 45 in color.

The Art of Mesoamerica: From Olmec to Aztec (World of Art)

This essential guide to the art and architecture of ancient Mesoamerica succinctly and evocatively summarizes the artistic achievements of the high pre-Columbian civilizations—Olmec, Maya, Teotihuacan, Tolec, Aztec—as well as those of their less well-known contemporaries. The pyramids and palaces, jades and brightly colored paintings emerge from these pages as vividly as when they first astonished Cortés's men in 1519. There was a surprising unity in Mesoamerican culture from Mexico to Honduras and from 1500 BC to the Spanish Conquest. Among many features shared were a 260-day ritual calendar and a preoccupation with gods representing natural forces. Current research also emphasizes the great importance of rites of kingship, including warfare and blood sacrifice. In this third edition, Mary Miller opens up new windows on the ancient past with fresh readings of works of art, all the while offering careful archaeological interpretations. Recent hieroglyphic decipherments provide insights into ancient art, spelling out long-distance connections between the Maya and their neighbors. Updated throughout, with special attention to evidence for dating, the new Art of Mesoamerica is the ideal companion for students and travelers. 193 illustrations, 44 in color.

Cuba: Art and History from 1868 to Today

This sumptuous survey of Cuban art reveals the development of a distinct national identity and serves as an illustrated narrative of the country s colorful past and present.

Cuba s artistic tradition is as rich as its history, though its treasures are rarely appreciated outside of the country. This catalog, accompanying an exhibition at the Montreal Museum of Fine Arts, gathers paintings, drawings and photography from Cuba done over the past century and a half. In addition to hundreds of works on paper, it features revealing photographs some never before published that record the country s wars of independence and revolution, its utopian endeavours and social realities. Numerous essays explore aspects of the Cuban visual arts such as nineteenth-century landscapes and photojournalism, the burgeoning of the arte nuevo period, Wifredo Lam s seminal African-inspired images, the creation of the famed collective mural, Castro-era poster art and the emergence of a new generation of artists. This book chronicles a unique culture of synthesis, born at the crossroads of Europe, Africa and the Americas, and whose art bears witness to important historical events of the past 150 years.