Latin American Paintings, painting produced after the arrival of Spanish and Portuguese colonists in South America, Central America, and Mexico. The blend of European and indigenous (native) American cultures that characterizes Latin America today began to develop in the late 15th century. The Latin American artistic tradition was founded upon ancient, highly developed pre-Columbian civilizations, most notably those of the Aztec and Maya in Mexico and the Inca in Peru (see Pre-Columbian Art and Architecture).

The Native American artistic traditions that European colonists encountered dated back centuries. Native painting traditions included manuscript illuminations; brilliantly colored, large-scale murals that decorated temples and illustrated historical events and ceremonies; and works of art in exotic media such as iridescent feathers. The strength of these traditions, along with the patronage of indigenous rulers and the numerical superiority of native peoples, ensured that colonial painting—at least initially—did not reflect European models alone but rather represented a mixture of European and indigenous artistic values. However, after about 1600, as the continued arrival of new settlers expanded the European presence, artistic styles increasingly reflected European models, especially in the urban centers.

The overall structure of colonial art history is remarkably similar throughout Latin America, despite the enormous geographic area and the diverse traditions it encompasses. Most regions experienced similar stages from early colonial art to modern art, although the timetable varied greatly with location; some areas became colonized too late to experience the full sequence of stages. In addition Brazil, because it formed part of the vast Portuguese empire that extended to Africa and the Indian subcontinent, departed from the Hispanic pattern in many respects. Because the Portuguese imported large numbers of Africans to supplement native labor in Brazil, Brazilian culture became a blend of the cultures of three continents: Africa, South America, and Europe. Uniting all Latin American art from about 1580 was a tendency to revive the late Renaissance style of Mannerism, largely because it was the dominant style in Europe when European traditions became established in the Americas. From about 1630 on, the baroque style was dominant, although elements of Mannerism remained until the early 19th century.

The Latin American economy boomed in the 18th century and new population centers developed, especially in mining areas. As artistic patronage spread from the traditional centers to the provinces, interest in folk and indigenous art forms grew. At the same time, improved communication with Europe allowed artists to keep abreast of international developments. An increase in the number of wealthy local patrons gave painters increased opportunities for portraiture and new secular subjects, such as city views and scenes of daily life. A popular genre of this period, castas painting, depicts people who characterize the new racial mixtures in the colonies, along with typical costumes, textiles, and agricultural products.

Religious painting in the 18th century found itself competing in churches with the ornately carved and decorated new retablos (altar ensembles) (see Latin American Sculpture). Perhaps to compensate, some church artists of this period created smaller, simpler, more delicate works. Others produced monumental paintings to compete with the retablos, including immense wall compositions and ceiling paintings that give the illusion of opening onto the heavens. Brazil in particular built many new churches decorated with illusionistic ceilings and large-scale narratives painted on ceramic tiles. In Cuzco and Bolivia religious paintings were often gilded (their surfaces faced with gold leaf), as were decorative architectural elements.

Most of Latin America won independence in the early 19th century. Although independence brought no sudden change of style, it did bring social changes with long-term consequences for artists. Sources of patronage changed: The middle class, military, and government administrators emerged as important patrons, while the aristocracy and the church rapidly declined in importance as patrons. The dialogue between official art forms and folk art was reopened as new patrons looked for art that reflected local life. Scenes of everyday life, landscapes, and still lifes moved from the margins of artistic production to the center.

The art academies provided a conduit for patronage, continuity with both colonial and European artistic traditions, and a means by which Latin American artists could keep abreast of international developments. By the 1840s new art academies had opened in Mexico, Brazil, Colombia, Venezuela, Ecuador, Argentina, and Chile. Only Peru had failed to convert its colonial school into an official institution, resulting in the continued provincialism of Peruvian art. Although the academies tended to import European artists as professors, they proved flexible in subject matter, allowing students to paint landscapes and scenes of daily life as well as the more highly regarded history paintings and portraits. Some of the most influential academicians included Mexican artists José María Obregón and Rodrigo Gutiérrez, who both painted historic subjects; Mexican society portraitists Pelegrín Clavé and ; the skillful portraitist and history painter Epifanio Garay in Colombia; and Martín Tovar y Tovar in Venezuela, who executed dignified portraits as well as murals of historic subjects. The influence of the academies was far-reaching, extending even into remote provinces, where local painters blended neoclassical and popular elements into simple yet powerful images.

Painters also flourished outside the academies. The Peruvian soldier-artist José Gil de Castro (known as El Mulato Gil) painted military portraits, such as The Martyr Olaya (1823, Museo Nacional de Historia, Lima, Peru), in a naive but recognizably neoclassical style. Mexican artist Hermenegildo Bustos painted portraits that seem to capture the very essence of his provincial subjects. Other nonacademic masters, such as Pancho Fierro of Peru, came to prominence in the 19th-century costumbrista movement, which depicted native customs, often for the tourist trade.

Landscape painting flourished in 19th- and 20th-century Latin America as a result of a combination of factors. These included the interest of the academies; a sensitivity to landscape’s potential for the symbolic expression of spiritual grandeur, which was a product of the European romantic movement; the exotic attraction of Latin American scenery for artists from Europe; and patriotic pride brought on by newfound independence. In Mexico, immigrant masters Daniel Thomas Egerton (from England) and Eugenio Landesio (from Italy) prepared the way for one of the greatest Mexican masters of landscape, José María de Velasco. Velasco’s many views of the Valley of Mexico, site of the Aztec capital, and its twin volcanoes combine sweeping panorama with classical structure. Other important Latin American landscapists of the 19th century include Argentine Prilidiano Pueyrredón, Uruguayan Juan Manuel Besnes, Brazilian Agostinho José da Mota, and Ecuadorians Rafael Salas and Rafael Troya.

Several South American painters combined academic, genre, and naturalistic interests. Francisco Laso’s paintings of Peruvian natives engaged in everyday activities set the tone for indigenism, a movement that sought to recover native culture and portray native themes. Brazilian José Ferraz de Almeida Júnior painted similar subjects but employed classical poses and other academic conventions. Juan Manuel Blanes, an Argentine-born Uruguayan, blended landscape, contemporary history, genre, and allegory in his works.

Since the establishment of the Latin American Art Department at the MFAH in 2001, the museum has acquired works by the most innovative Latin American artists active in Europe and the Americas during the 20th century. These works constitute the core of what the MFAH envisions will one day become the most important collection of Latin American Art in the United States.

Latin American artists are only now being recognized as pioneers in the development of modernism, a visual language previously thought to have originated entirely in Europe and the United States. Brought to Light showcases their ground-breaking contributions, which include:

• Innovative printing techniques (Antonio Berni);

• The use of furniture-as-frame (Beatriz González);

• The creation of a new visual language from vernacular and universal symbols (Xul Solar, Joaquín Torres-García, Julio Alpuy, Héctor Ragni, Francisco Matto);

• Exploiting the visual and chromatic properties of movement (Jesús Rafael Soto, Carlos Cruz-Diez, Alejandro Otero);

• Abolishing the traditional frame (Lucio Fontana, Rhod Rothfuss); and

• The introduction of water and light as valid artistic media (Gyula Kosice, Julio Le Parc, Horacio García-Rossi, Martha Botto, Thomas Glassford).