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Juan Patricio Morlete Ruiz (Mexico, 1713–circa 1772), “Virgina of Guadalupe,” Mexico, mid-Eigh-teenth Century, oil on canvas, 8211/16  by 5315/16  inches, private collection. 

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Melchor Pérez Holguin (Bolivia, circa 1665–after 1732), “Saint Michael Archangel,” oil on canvas, 503/8  by 401/8  inches, Museo Nacional de Arte, La Paz, Bolivia. 

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“The Child Virgin at the Spinning Wheel,” Cuzco, Peru, circa 1680–1710, oil on canvas, 495/8  by 31¾ inches, Museo Pedro de Osma, Lima, Peru.

MUST RUN 8-3

LACMA PRESENTS 300 YEARS OF LATIN AMERICAN ART IN GROUNDBREAKING EXHIBITION W/3 CUTS

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LOS ANGELES, CALIF. — The Los Angeles County Museum of Art (LACMA) presents “The Arts in Latin America, 1492–1820,” an ambitious exhibition of approximately 200 works of art created in the Spanish viceroyalties of New Spain (which today comprises Mexico and the countries of Central America, including Guatemala, Cuba, Dominican Republic and Puerto Rico) and Peru (now the countries of Ecuador, Venezuela, Colombia, Chile, Bolivia and Peru), as well as the Portuguese colony of Brazil. Spanning three centuries, the exhibition explores both the artistic differences and commonalities throughout colonial Latin America, and features a remarkable collection of objects from public and private collections from around the world. “The Arts in Latin America, 1492–1820” opens at LACMA on August 5, and remains on view through October 28. It will be the final stop of a major international tour.

Organized by the Philadelphia Museum of Art in collaboration with LACMA and the Antiguo Colegio de San Ildefonso, Mexico City, “The Arts in Latin America, 1492–1820” presents a panoramic view of the artistic achievements of the New World, beginning with Columbus’s first encounter with the people of the Caribbean and concluding with the final moments of the colonial era — a period marked not only by the independence movements and formation of national states, but also by the rise of academic art.

“LACMA is delighted to bring this revelatory exhibition of richly diverse objects from Latin America to the City of Los Angeles,” said Michael Govan, LACMA CEO and Wallis Annenberg director. “Our visitors have an unprecedented opportunity to see some of the most significant pieces created in the New World, many expressly restored for the exhibition, including a monumental sculpture of the crucifix from the Monastery of Sao Bento in Olinda, Brazil.”

The exhibition also includes an impressive assortment of objects in all media — painting, sculpture, feather work, shell-inlaid furniture, objects in gold and silver, ceramics and textiles — that reveal the interchange between Native, European, African and Asian cultures in Latin America. Also featured are example of paintings by some of the most prominent masters working in the colonies, such as Miguel Cabrera, Luis Juarez and Carlos de Villalpando in Mexico; and Melchor Perez Holguin and Miguel del Berrio in Bolivia, among many others.

LACMA’s presentation offers a unique perspective of the period by grouping the objects into several themes, and incorporates several artworks seen only in Los Angeles.

The first part of the exhibition traces the early period of contact between native and European artists and how the formation of new identities became the subject of some of the most intriguing works of art created in the viceroyalties. The second part addresses the development of painting, beginning with the arrival of European masters in the Sixteenth Century to the emergence of local schools of paintings in the Seventeenth and Eighteenth Centuries.

Other major themes include the splendor of silverwork (Latin America was the main supplier of silver worldwide); and the tradition of polychrome sculptures, an artistic form that developed in Europe and achieved some of its highest exponents in the New World, as seen in works from Brazil, Ecuador, Guatemala and Mexico, among other countries. Lastly, the exhibition features an assortment of decorative arts, showcasing how luxury became part of the everyday fabric of colonial society and how the amalgam of visual vocabularies converged in the New World, resulting in works of tremendous vibrancy.

“The Arts in Latin American, 1492–1820” is curated by Joseph J. Rishel, the Gisela and Dennis Alter senior curator of European paintings before 1900 at the Philadelphia Museum of Art, and Suzanne Stratton-Pruitt, with the support of an international team of curators and advisors. Ilona Katzew, LACMA curator of Latin American art, is the curator of the presentation at LACMA.

The exhibit is accompanied by a comprehensive 650-page, fully illustrated catalog, published by the Philadelphia Museum of Art, LACMA and the Colegio de San Ildefonso in association with Yale University Press with essays by several distinguished scholars.

LACMA is at 5905 Wilshire Boulevard. For information, www.lacma.org or 323-857-6000.