Conceptualism in Latin American Art

by Camnitzer, Luis

• ISBN13: 9780292716292
• ISBN10: 029271629X
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 2007-07-01
• Publisher: Univ of Texas Pr

Summary

Conceptualism played a different role in Latin American art during the 1960s and 1970s than in Europe and the United States, where conceptualist artists predominantly sought to challenge the primacy of the art object and art institutions, as well as the commercialization of art. Latin American artists turned to conceptualism as a vehicle for radically questioning the very nature of art itself, as well as art's role in responding to societal needs and crises in conjunction with politics, poetry, and pedagogy. Because of this distinctive agenda, Latin American conceptualism must be viewed and understood in its own right, not as a derivative of Euroamerican models.In this book, one of Latin America's foremost conceptualist artists, Luis Camnitzer, offers a firsthand account of conceptualism in Latin American art. Placing the evolution of conceptualism within the history Latin America, he explores conceptualism as a strategy, rather than a style, in Latin American culture. He shows how the roots of conceptualism reach back to the early nineteenth century in the work of Símon Rodríguez, Símon Bolívar's tutor. Camnitzer then follows conceptualism to the point where art crossed into politics, as with the Argentinian group Tucumán arde in 1968, and where politics crossed into art, as with the Tupamaro movement in Uruguay during the 1960s and early 1970s. Camnitzer concludes by investigating how, after 1970, conceptualist manifestations returned to the fold of more conventional art and describes some of the consequences that followed when art evolved from being a political tool to become what is known as "political art."

Author Biography

Luis Camnitzer is Professor Emeritus of Art at SUNY Old Westbury.

Table of Contents

Acknowledgments	p. xiii
Introduction	p. 1
Salpicon (Medley) and Compota (Sweetmeats)	p. 9
Agitation or Construction?	p. 16
The Terms: "Indefinitions" and Differences	p. 22
Conceptual Art and Conceptualism in Latin America	p. 29
Simon Rodriguez	p. 37
The Tupamaros	p. 44
Tucuman arde: Politics in Art	p. 60
The Aftermath of Tucuman arde	p. 73
Figuration, Abstraction, and Meanings	p. 93
The Intellectual Context	p. 102
The Input of Pedagogy	p. 109
The Importance of Literature	p. 116
Poetry and Literature	p. 131
The Markers of Latin American Conceptualism	p. 153
Postpoetry	p. 162
Postfiguration	p. 171
Postpolitics	p. 186
The Destruction and Survival of Locality	p. 209
From Politics to Identity	p. 214
Diaspora	p. 223
The Historical Unfitting	p. 245
From Politics into Spectacle and Beyond	p. 252
Beyond Art	p. 259
Notes	p. 267
Bibliography	p. 311
Index	p. 327
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