Caribbean & Latin American

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.

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.

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.

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.

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 in Latin America: The Modern Era, 1820-1980

Latin American Graphic Design

Comprised of 20 countries located in North, South, and Central America as well as the Caribbean Islands, Latin America is populated by over 500 million people. From Argentina to Mexico, all Latin American countries are Spanish-speaking with the exception of Portuguese-speaking Brazil. Latin America has been producing a very unique form of graphic expression for decades and this historical publication brings together the best examples from the 20th century as well as today. The book begins with an extensive historical essay about the region's contribution to design, featuring the development of graphic design in the region from 1900 to current times, while the main body of the book features A to Z entries of almost 200 designers and design offices that have built up and continue to champion the Latin design identity. Finally, a handy index facilitates access to key information in the book, such as designers' names, countries, publications, educational institutions, and famous events.

Twentieth-Century Art of Latin America

"An exciting and invaluable work of synthesis and interpretation, Barnitz's grand survey greatly enhances understanding of the extraordinary cultural mix that infuses Latin American art with its soulfulness and vigor. "

—Booklist

"With ease and agility, Barnitz navigates an entire century's worth of art produced in the varied regions and cultures of Latin America."

—ARTnews

"For breadth of reference and range of coverage, this book will stand for some time as the most comprehensive study to date of modern Latin American art from the Caribbean basin to the Southern cone countries."

—David Craven, author of Diego Rivera as Epic Modernist

The twentieth-century art of Latin America is art in the western tradition, and its leading figures—Wifredo Lam, Roberto Matta, Diego Rivera, Joaquín Torres-García, to name only a few—have achieved international stature. Yet much of the writing about this art has offered either a victimized view of an art tradition dominated by foreign models or a romanticized view of what Latin American art should be. This pathfinding book, by contrast, seeks not to "invent" Latin American art but to look at it from the points of view of its own artists and critics.

Drawing on some forty years of studying and teaching Latin American art, Jacqueline Barnitz surveys the major currents and artists of the twentieth century in Mexico, the Caribbean, and South America (including Brazil). She progresses chronologically from modernismo and the break with nineteenth-century academic art to some of the trends of the 1980s, setting each movement within its historical and cultural contexts. This grand survey of modern Latin American art will thus be the essential guide to a vibrant art tradition, as well as a vital teaching tool. Lavishly illustrated with color and black-and-white reproductions of major works, it will be useful to artists, collectors, historians, writers, and social scientists, as well as art historians.

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.

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.