Category: Uncategorized

Art and Migration: US/Mexico Border

Consider the migrant experience – the human experience – in the US/Mexico border region expressed in small- and large-scale visual images.

Miracles on the Border: Retablos of Mexican Migrants to the United States at the Princeton Art Museum. Retablos, also known as ex-votos are small (typically) tin paintings depicting miraculous interventions into personal tragedies and misfortune.

Karlito Miller Espinosa, an internationally renowned conceptual artist and 2019 graduate of the MFA program at the University of Arizona, has focused on border issues in a number of large-scale installations. Have a look here.

Mid-20th century murals in San Luis Potosí

This mural cycle was painted by faculty and students from the National Institute of Fine Arts (INBA), Mexico, 1958-59. The cycle is located in the interior courtyard of the Damián Carmona Boarding School in San Luis Potosí, Mexico. The school was founded in the 19th century for the education of children of local mine and farm workers – it is still operating and continues to serve a very important community service.

You can see that the student painters had certainly looked very carefully at the work of Diego Rivera, David Alfaro Siquieros and José Clemente Orozco in Mexico City!

A group of us participating in the two-day, bi-national conference on Shared Cultural Heritage in June, 2019 at the Colegio the San Luis Potosí (México) were treated to a tour of the school and mural. The various scenes in the mural depict historical figures, local cultural practices, as well as activities of students and teachers at the school.

 

Symposium on Diego Rivera’s mural cycle in the Ministry of Education in Mexico City

This symposium, ugh, I wish I could be there. So much new research!  It will be held in the Ministry of Education in October 2018 with an impressive roster of international scholars.

Conservation team at work on the murals of Diego Rivera in the Ministry of Education

Diego Rivera Symposium

Diego Rivera Symposium Program

Time to speak for Art History and the Humanities

The CAA (*College Art Association) newsletter just posted this important release from the National Humanities Alliance. They have created a Study the Humanities Toolkit . Have a look at it and become a Humanities evangelist!

*Student memberships for this all-important, international professional organization are available — your first step to connecting with your colleagues in Art History (as well as in Art Education and Studio Art).

UH and MFAH create new program in Latin American art

University of Houston and Museum of Fine Arts Houston embark on joint program in Latin American Art

This is a remarkable opportunity to work with major collections at the MFAH and the ICAA (see post from 12/15/17 about the ICAA).

“Students will have the opportunity to participate in year-long, paid internships with the ICAA. This has been a continuous feature of the UH graduate program in art history since 2009, when the University placed its first intern in the MFAH’s prestigious research center for Latin American and Latino art. With the signing of the memorandum, UH students will now benefit from access to previously restricted resources from the Latin American and Latino art collections and digital archival holdings of the MFAH. Moreover, UH faculty and MFAH staff will use their ongoing innovations in object-based learning for continued collaboration in the burgeoning area. The hope is that this partnership will serve as a model for other museums and research universities across the country.”

Artsy’s Art Genome Project

The Art Genome Project

[*Genome: 1. the haploid set of chromosomes in a gamete or microorganism, or in each cell of a multicelluar organism. 2. the complete set of genes or genetic material present in a cell or organism.]

Artsy’s Art Genome: Project:

“The Art Genome Project is the classification system and technological framework that powers Artsy. It maps the characteristics (we call them “genes”) that connect artists, artworks, architecture, and design objects across history. There are currently over 1,000 characteristics in The Art Genome Project, including art historical movements, subject matter, and formal qualities.”