With a landmark exhibition of centuries-old art from Latin America, LACMA shines the spotlight on a rarely viewed chapter of art history.
For those who think they already know the contents of a Spanish colonial art show, think again, says curatorial assistant Sof’a Sanabrais, one of the key organizers of the current ‘The Arts of Latin America, 1492-1820’ exhibition at the Los Angeles County Museum of Art. ‘People imagine all they’ll see are tons of images of the Virgin of Guadalupe,’ she says. ‘Visitors to the exhibition are so surprised by the richness and diversity of objects. It looks familiar, yet it really isn’t.’ Naturally, the Virgin of Guadalupe, Mexico’s most famous religious icon, does appear, but there is so much more. Close to 250 works of art, all produced in the New World during Spain’s long occupation of Mexico and Central and South America, show the strange, often dazzling results of imposed cultural exchange. The interchange goes well beyond the convergence of Native and European cultures, with African and Asian influences also mixed into the unusual melting pot. The epic exhibition spans three centuries–from the arrival of Columbus to the emergence of national independent movements’and showcases art created in the Spanish viceroyalties of New Spain (which today comprises Mexico and Central America) and Peru (now the countries of Ecuador, Colombia, Chile, Argentina, Bolivia and Peru) and the Portuguese colony of Brazil. Many of the pieces are on view for the first time in the United States. They range from the monumental–an enormous crucifix sculpture borrowed from a monastery in Brazil—to the diminutive–a 9-inch portable altarpiece from Bolivia. In between are a staggering array of paintings and sculpture in addition to rare textiles, shell-inlaid furniture, blue-and-white ceramics and brilliant objects in gold in silver. Sanabrais is frustrated by the fact that some people may stay away from this exhibition, feeling it’s too religious and they can’t relate. ‘You don’t hear that same argument about attending an Italian Renaissance show,’ she says. ‘Nobody ever thinks about it.’ The exhibition, nine years in the making, was the brainchild of Joseph Rishel, curator of European painting and sculpture before 1900 at the Philadelphia Museum of Art. ‘It’s interesting to know the genesis of the show came from someone who’s not a specialist in the field but who chose to mount it because he was so drawn to the material and felt it had been so neglected,’ notes Sanabrais. Los Angeles is the final venue for the exhibition, which began in Philadelphia and traveled to Mexico City before coming here. Sanabrais was tapped just one year ago to join the department at LACMA to take on the huge task of facilitating the installation of the exhibition. She and Ilona Katzew, LACMA’s curator of Latin American Art, were graduate students together at New York University’s Institute of Fine Arts, one of the few art history programs in the country offering a concentration in Latin American colonial art. In accepting the position, Sanabrais was especially enthusiastic about the future at LACMA, knowing of CEO and director Michael Govan’s stated desire to develop the Latin American department by acquiring works in this area. One of the biggest steps in that direction is the conversion of the modern and contemporary wing, formerly known as the Anderson Building, into the Art of the Americas Building, where art from pre-Columbian to contemporary times will be displayed when the transformation of LACMA’s campus is complete. ‘There are very few institutions in the U.S. that have serious interest in Latin American colonial art and even fewer with a collection,’ notes Sanabrais, ‘That’s why this show is so significant.’ LACMA’s curatorial department jumped at the opportunity to extend the dates of the exhibition when a fourth venue didn’t pan out. Originally planned to end on Labor Day, the show is now on view through October 28, allowing college students and school groups the chance to see it. ‘We realized we were students once who would have loved to see any example of Spanish colonial art,’ Sanabrais says. The exhibition is unusual in that pieces were borrowed not only from museums and private collections, but also from places of worship where they function to this day as devotional objects, including an ornate, rococo-inspired 18th-century confessional from Venezuela. Parishioners at a church in Peru might be eager for the return of ‘Our Lady of the Expectation,’ an enormous oil painting depicting a pregnant Virgin standing among angels who are preparing Jesus’s crib and swaddling. Legend has it that the wish to conceive is granted to those who visit the painted Virgin. ‘My counterpart at the Philadelphia Museum of Art and I thought ‘Oh, what a nice story,” Sanabrais says. ‘Meanwhile, eight women on Philadelphia’s staff became pregnant during the run of the exhibition.’ A similar legend is attached to an 18th-century sculpture from Guatemala of ‘Saint Anne and the Virgin Mary.’ The baroque-style work made of wood with elaborate gilding is on loan from the church of LA Merced in Guatemala City, where devout expectant women flock to pray to Saint Anne for a safe delivery. ‘Too bad the show is only here for three months,’ Sanabrais said. ‘Otherwise, one could have this entire miraculous intervention by both a painting and a sculpture.’ Pride and a desire to share revered objects with the world motivated many of the loans from places of worship and private collections. Borrowing works from museums required the complicated task of negotiating with 12 different governments, many of which held elections while the show was being organized. ‘A change in government affects everything, including heads of museums and cultural institutions,’ Sanabrais says. ‘We had to cross our fingers and hope new heads would still want to lend the works of art to us.’ The Brazilian crucifix was by far the most challenging installation for LACMA. It arrived in crates, weighs about 1,000 pounds, and had to be entirely reconstructed on site. As a living part of a church in Brazil, the work is normally surrounded by high humidity, a condition LACMA conservators had to recreate with blowers for the Los Angeles showing to prevent any damage or flaking. When the exhibition ends, the crucifix will return to the church never to travel again. Some works had been ‘touched up’ prior to coming to LACMA, including a sculpture of St. Sebastian from Guatemala, whose locks were converted from brown to blond. ‘We joke that he was made blond for L.A.’ Sanabrais says. One of the most compelling images in the show is of the Christ child on a crucifix, a sculpture from Guatemala. ‘It’s very powerful and moving,’ Sanabrais says. ‘You don’t see anything like it outside of Guatemala. It’s a strong spiritual device that reminds Catholics that from the moment Christ is conceived, he is destined for the ultimate sacrifice. ‘One of the goals of the exhibition is to show that during the time that coincides with the Baroque and Rococo periods in Europe, there were very similar things happening in the New World,’ she says. ‘Much of it looks European, but there’s always something a little different going on. That’s what I love about Spanish colonial art.’ A roundtable discussion among curators and a behind-the-scenes look at the exhibition will take place at 1 p.m. on Saturday, September 29 in the Bing Theater at LACMA. ‘The Arts in Latin America 1492-1820’ continues through October 28. Contact: (323) 857-6000 or go online to www.lacma.org.
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