Latin American art

The indigenous cultures each developed sophisticated artistic disciplines, which were highly influenced by religious and spiritual concerns.

In the 17th and 18th centuries, Spanish art instructors taught Quechua artists to paint religious imagery based on classical and Renaissance styles.

This genre of painting flourished for about a century, coming to an end with Mexican independence in 1821, and the abolition of legal racial categories.

During that period, Dutch artist Albert Eckhout painted a number of important depictions of social types in Brazil.

They traveled for five years throughout Spanish America (1799-1804), exploring and recording scientific information as well as the attire and lifestyles local populations.

[9] As with the history of indigenous peoples, for many years there was a focus on either the pre-Columbian period (Olmec, Maya, Aztec, Inca) art production, then a leap to the twentieth century.

It is popularly represented by the Mexican muralism movement of Diego Rivera, David Alfaro Siqueiros, José Clemente Orozco, and Rufino Tamayo.

In the Dominican Republic, Spanish exile José Vela Zanetti was a prolific muralist, painting over 100 murals in the country.

The Ecuadorian artist Oswaldo Guayasamín (a student of Orozco), the Brazilian Candido Portinari, and Bolivian Miguel Alandia Pantoja are also noteworthy.

Some of the most impressive Muralista works can be found in Mexico, Colombia, New York, San Francisco, Los Angeles, Chicago and Philadelphia.

Mexican Muralism "enjoyed a type of prestige and influence in other countries that no other American art movement had ever experienced.

"[32] Through Muralism, artists in Latin America found a distinctive art form that provided for political and cultural expression, often focusing on issues of social justice related to their indigenous roots.

The French poet and founder of Surrealism, André Breton, after visiting Mexico in 1938, proclaimed it to be "the surrealist country par excellence.

"[31] Surrealism, an artistic movement originating in post-World War I Europe, strongly impacted the art of Latin America.

This is where the Mestizo culture, the legacy of European conquer over indigenous peoples, embodies contradiction, a central value of Surrealism.

"[34] Kahlo's work commands the highest selling price of all Latin American paintings, and the second-highest for any female artist.

[35] Other female Mexican Surrealists include Leonora Carrington (a British woman who relocated to Mexico) and Remedios Varo (a Spanish exile).

Since roughly the 1970s, artists from all parts of Latin America have made important contributions to international contemporary art, from conceptual sculptors like Doris Salcedo (from Colombia) and Daniel Lind-Ramos (from Puerto Rico), to painters like Myrna Báez (from Puerto Rico), to artists working in media like photography, such as Vik Muniz (from Brazil).

Due to the far reach of figuration, the work often spans upon a number of different styles such as Realism, Pop art, Expressionism, and Surrealism, only naming a few.

Members Rómulo Macció, Ernesto Deira, Jorge de la Vega, and Luis Felipe Noé lived together and shared a studio in Buenos Aires.

Artists of Otra Figuración worked in an expressionistic abstract figurative style featuring vivid colors and collage.

A common practice among Latin American figurative artists is to parody Old Master paintings, especially those of the Spanish court produced by Diego Velázquez in the 17th century.

[36] The characters he borrows from the iconography of European painting are often confronted with the social and political situation of Latin America.

[38] In 1987, in his painting Double focus over the West (Velazquez and Picasso), he turned Velazquez's painting Las Meninas into a critic of the power of the Church by replacing the royal couple in the mirror of the back of the room by Pope John Paul II receiving Kurt Waldheim in the Vatican.

[40] Mexican painter and collagist Alberto Gironella, whose style mixes elements of Surrealism and Pop art, also produced parodies of official Spanish court paintings.

Other photographers include indigenous Peruvian Martín Chambi, Mexican Graciela Iturbide, and Cuban Alberto Korda, famous for his iconic image of Che Guevara.

In addition, a number of non-Latin American photographers have focused on the area, including Tina Modotti and Edward Weston in Mexico.