This edited volume examines the history of abstract art across Latin America after 1945. This form of art grew in popularity across the Americas in the postwar period, often serving to affirm a sense of being modern and the right of Latin America to assume the leading role Europe had played before World War II. Latin American artists practiced gestural and geometric abstraction, though the history of art has favored the latter. Recent scholarship, for instance, has focused on geometric abstraction from Argentina, Brazil, and Venezuela. The book aims to expand the map and consider this phenomenon as it developed in neglected regions such as Central America and the Andes, investigatinghow this style came to stand in for Latin American contemporary art.

About the Author

Mariola V. Alvarez is Assistant Professor at Temple University.

Ana M. Franco is Associate Professor at Universidad de los Andes, Bogota.

Reviews

"...contributes to a careful reconsideration of the links between this region and the United States and Europe. ...The compilation successfully accomplishes its main aim to expand outside the borders of Argentina, Uruguay, Brazil, and Venezuela. The essays it includes are interested in areas often disregarded within larger studies of Latin America, such as Costa Rica, Colombia, Bolivia, Peru, and Ecuador. The volume achieves this expansion across a huge range of territories, even exploring how diasporic communities employed abstract art, moving the discussion of Latin American art away from a few cities that dominate scholarship, thus further decentering histories of abstract art."

--Latin American Research Review

Book Information
ISBN 9780367787004
Author Mariola V. Alvarez
Format Paperback
Page Count 268
Imprint Routledge
Publisher Taylor & Francis Ltd
Weight(grams) 480g