The Allegorical Figure in Latin American Prints, Drawings, and Photographs
In the 1990s, through the generosity of David L. Meginnity, Class of 1958 (1936–2000), the Princeton University Art Museum gained an exceptional collection of 140 paintings, sculptures, and works on paper by twentieth-century Latin American artists. The Meginnity Collection, focused on figurative prints and drawings from Mexico and Guatemala, contains many superb examples of modern Latin American art in a variety of styles by artists of several nationalities. This installation presents a selection of these works, together with other significant prints, drawings, and photographs acquired by the Museum over the decades, offering an overview of the development of modern art in Latin America through allegorical representations of the human figure, created during a century of enormous—and often violent—artistic, political, and social change following the Mexican Revolution of 1910–20.
The century begins with a populist broadside illustrated by José Posada, who borrowed traditional symbols from the Day of the Dead—an ancient celebration of Aztec origin honoring departed ancestors —to satirize corruption in Mexican society under the long dictatorship of Porfirio Díaz. In the decades that followed, aspiring young artists flocked to Paris and New York to absorb European modernism firsthand, then returned to Mexico to combine modernist theories with Latin American themes and subjects. In the 1930s and ’40s many artists from this first generation of Latin American modernists, such as Carlos Mérida, Diego Rivera, Rufino Tamayo, and José Clemente Orozco, engaged in large-scale mural projects devoted to historical and socialist themes, painted for public buildings in Mexico and the United States. In the 1940s, as the unique character of Latin American art gained an international reputation, the Surrealist painters Leonora Carrington and Remedios Varos fled the rise of Fascism in Europe, finding refuge in the relative exoticism of artistic circles in Mexico City. Following the war, a younger generation of artists—including Raphael Coronel and Francisco Toledo, as well as the photographers Graciela Iturbide and Mario Cravo Neto—drew on the complexity of these established themes and influences to establish a uniquely expressive art that combines ancestral origins with psychologically and politically charged complexities to explore the identity of the artist in Latin America today.
Calvin Brown
Associate Curator of Prints and Drawings
-
Calavera de TeleleCalavera de Telele, ca. 1890s
José Guadalupe Posada, 1852–1913; born Aguascalientes, Mexico; died Mexico City; active Mexico City -
Guitarristas típicos, México (Typical guitarists, Mexico)Guitarristas típicos, México (Typical guitarists, Mexico), ca. 1920
Hugo Brehme, Mexican, born Germany, 1882–1954 -
Mexico, 1945Mexico, 1945, 1945
Leopoldo Méndez, Mexican, 1902–1969 | Engraved at the Taller de Gráfica Popular | Published by The Art Institute of Chicago -
Los músicos (The Musicians), from the portfolio Images de Guatemala (Images of Guatemala)Los músicos (The Musicians), from the portfolio Images de Guatemala (Images of Guatemala), 1927
Carlos Mérida, 1891–1984; born Guatemala City, Guatemala; died Mexico City, Mexico; active Guatemala, Mexico, and France | Printed by Ducros et Colas ; plates executed at the Daniel Jacomet Workshops | Published by Éditions des Quatre Chemins -
Retaguardia (Rear Guard)Retaguardia (Rear Guard), 1929
José Clemente Orozco, Mexican, 1883–1949 | Printed by George Charles Miller, American, 1894–1965 | Published by Weyhe Galley , New York -
Mexico CityMexico City, 1934
Henri Cartier-Bresson, French, 1908–2004 -
Mujer con canasta (Woman with basket)Mujer con canasta (Woman with basket), 1948
Diego Rivera, 1886–1957; born Guanajuato, Mexico; died Mexico City -
Babs RollinsBabs Rollins, ca. 1940s
Rufino Tamayo, Mexican, 1899–1991 -
Vote WatchersVote Watchers, 1955
Roberto Matta, Chilean, active United States and France, 1911–2002 -
Composición (Composition)Composición (Composition), 1946
Julio Alpuy, Uruguayan, 1919–2009 | Taller Torres García, Uruguayan, active 1944 - 1963 -
SundaySunday, 1978
Leonora Carrington, 1917–2011; born Clayton Green,UK; died Mexico City, Mexico | Printed by Kyron, S.A. -
UntitledUntitled, 1972
Wifredo Lam, Cuban, active Cuba and France, 1902–1982
- Page 1
- ››