As Hispanic Heritage Month continues, we’re spotlighting artworks and objects in our collection that were created with influence from Latin American culture and artists. We asked curators from across departments for their picks, and here’s what they had to say:
Sue Canterbury, The Pauline Gill Sullivan Curator of American Art
The year before settling in Taos, Emil Bisttram studied with Diego Rivera in Mexico. This painting’s volumetric forms and linear qualities evidence Rivera’s influence. It bears the hallmarks of Bisttram’s work from the early 1930s that often depicted Native Americans and the artist’s all-consuming interest in New Mexico’s architecture and landscape.
Julien Domercq, The Lillian and James H. Clark Assistant Curator of European Art
One of the highlights of our collection, the fabulous Bacchic Concert by 17th-century Italian artist Pietro Paolini spent about 100 years hanging on the walls of the Torre Tagle palace in Lima. It was part of an impressive collection of European paintings amassed in the early 19th century by a Peruvian diplomat; about 20 of these works are now owned by the DMA thanks to a gift of the Hoblitzelle Foundation.
Sarah Schleuning, Interim Chief Curator and The Margot B. Perot Senior Curator of Decorative Arts
Known for employing simple materials or common objects to create innovative contemporary furniture, Brazilian designers Fernando and Humberto Campana express their heritage through color, textures, and creative chaos. Here, inspired by their childhood, they use stuffed panda bears to envelop the sitter. Providing both physical and emotional comfort, the chair, they insist, is “about sitting. It’s design, not sculpture.”
Dr. Michelle Rich, The Ellen and Harry S. Parker III Assistant Curator of the Arts of the Americas, and Dr. Mark A. Castro, The Jorge Baldor Curator of Latin American Art
Keros (ceremonial wooden cups from the Andes) in the DMA’s collection range in date from the 15th century through the Spanish viceregal period. As on the elegant kero with palm trees and flowers, their decoration can recall the geometric designs favored in the indigenous art of the pre-contact Inka Empire (for comparison, see this ceramic kero and checkerboard tunic). The cups, however, could also feature complex narratives. The kero with plowing scene depicts a man driving a plow ox, followed by two women: the first woman is planting seeds, and the second is ceremonially raising a pair of keros in the air (for more detail, see the rollout photograph of the upper portion).
