REALISMS: POLITICS, ART, AND VISUAL CULTURE IN THE AMERICAS
Recent attempts to synthesize and narrativize Latin American art, while instrumental in raising the profile of this field, inherently risk constructing an idealized history of visual culture, in which the realities of art-making in the Americas recede or are otherwise mystified. This conference considers “realism” in the Americas not as a stylistic mode pertaining to figuration, mimesis, or authenticity, but rather as a strategy for critically addressing social, political and economic conditions. From the struggles for independence circa 1800 to contemporary actions addressing political violence and exclusionary immigration policies, the problem of reality has proven central to representations of life across the hemisphere. At a moment in which “global art history” has gained increasing prominence, and in which Latin American art has moved from the marginal to the canonical, how can we address the specificities of lived experience, both local and hemispheric, while also acknowledging broader connections?
Keynote Lecture by José Luis Falconi, Postdoctoral Fellow, Harvard University
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Program