Art and revolution in Latin America, 1910-1990 / David Craven.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Craven, David, 1951-2012.

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Art, Latin American--20th century.

Art, Latin American.

Art--Political aspects--Latin America.

Art.

Art and revolutions--Latin America.

Art and revolutions.

Art--Political aspects.

Latin America.

Physical Description:

x, 228 pages : illustrations (some color) ; 29 cm

Place of Publication:

New Haven : Yale University Press, [2002]

Summary:

In this uniquely wide-ranging book, David Craven investigates the extraordinary impact of three Latin American revolutions on the visual arts and on cultural policy. The three great upheavals -- in Mexico (1910-40), in Cuba (1959-89), and in Nicaragua (1979-90) -- were defining moments in twentieth-century life in the Americas. Craven discusses the structural logic of each movement's artistic project -- by whom, how, and for whom artworks were produced -- and assesses their legacies. In each case, he demonstrates how the consequences of the revolution reverberated in the arts and cultures far beyond national borders.

The book not only examines specific artworks originating from each revolution's attempt to deal with the challenge of "socializing the arts," but also the engagement of the working classes in Mexico, Cuba, and Nicaragua with a tradition of the fine arts made newly accessible through social transformation. Craven considers how each revolution dealt with the pressing problem of creating a "dialogical art" -- one that reconfigures the existing artistic resource rather than one that just reproduces a populist art to keep things as they were. In addition, the author charts the impact on the revolutionary processes of theories of art and education, articulated by such thinkers as John Dewey and Paulo Freire. The book provides a fascinating new view of the Latin American revolutionaries -- from artists to political leaders -- who defined art as a fundamental force for the transformation of society and who bequeathed new ways of thinking about the relations among art, ideology, and class, within a revolutionary process.

Contents:

Introduction: Revolving Definitions of the Word "Revolution" 1

A History of the Word "Revolution" 6

Representations of the Modern Body Politic 14

Revolutionary Forms of Democracy 20

1 The Mexican Revolution (1910-1940) 25

The Institutionalization of the Revolution in the 1920s 34

The Ministry of Education Murals (1923-1928) and the New Mass Politics 37

Orozco's Murals in the Escuela Nacional Preparatoria (1926-1927) 46

Chapingo (1926) and the Palacio Nacional (1929-1935) 51

The Taller de Grafica Popular and Estampas de la Revolucion 63

Critique: the "Socialization of Art"

A Future Challenge 71

2 The Cuban Revolution (1959-1989) 75

Cultural Policy, Public Institutions, and Dialogical Art 81

Cultural Democracy and Popular Engagement with Art 85

Autogestion and the Socialization of Art 90

Popular Culture versus Populism 92

From Cuban Pop Art through Volumen Uno (1959-1989) 94

Critique: Successes and Shortcomings on the Thirtieth Anniversary 114

3 The Nicaraguan Revolution (1979-1990) 117

Protorevolutionary Developments prior to 1979 123

Cultural Policy in Nicaragua during the 1980s 135

Particular Artworks Exemplary of the 1980s 143

New Forms of Patronage and Attendant Debates in the 1980s 169

Contradictions in the 1980s within the Revolution 171

A Diego Rivera, 1929: "New Plan of Study, Escuela Nacional de Artes Plasticas of Mexico" 176

B Gerardo Mosquera, 1985: "The Social Function of Art in Cuba since the Revolution of 1959" 180

C Ernesto Cardenal, 1980: "The Nicaraguan Revolution of 1979: A Culture that is Revolutionary, Popular, National, and Anti-Imperialist" 183

D Interview with Ernesto Cardenal, 1983 185

E Interview with Gioconda Belli of the FSLN, 1990 188

F Interview with Nicaraguan Artists in the UNAP, 1990 190.

Notes:

Includes bibliographical references and index.

ISBN:

0300082118

OCLC:

48383327