1st Edition
The Academy of San Carlos and Mexican Art History Politics, History, and Art in Nineteenth-Century Mexico
The first substantial Mexican colonial art historiography in English, this book examines the origin of the study of colonial art in Mexico as a symptom of the development of modern museum practice in mid-nineteenth-century Mexico City. Also an intellectual history, this study recognizes the role of nationalism in the initiation of art historical practice in what is understood today more broadly as Latin America. Although there has been a steady stream of scholarship produced about the subject, beginning in Mexico and increasingly in the United States, what is variably known as viceregal or colonial Mexican, Spanish colonial, and colonial Latin American art continues to be underplayed or overlooked by most art historians and is thus marginal in the field of art history. Ray Hernández-Durán redresses that omission, presenting a detailed examination of the origin of the study of colonial art in Mexico. Drawing upon archival research, this volume touches upon the role of politics on the formation of the first gallery of Mexican painting in the Academy of San Carlos and the first comprehensive historical treatment of the material in the form of a dialogue. Furthermore, this study promotes further research in colonial art historiography and underlines the pivotal role that the Indo-Hispanic Americas played in the emergence of early modernity and the process of globalization.
Contents:
Chapter One
A Historiography of Colonial Art in Mexico: Problems, Context, and Developments
Chapter Two
Locating a Colonial Past in the Nation’s Memory: The Politics of Making History
Chapter Three
The Academy of San Carlos and the Old Mexican School: Collecting and Displaying Colonial Painting
Chapter Four
Writing a History of Art in Mexico: From Spectacular Verses to Rational Texts
Chapter Five
Concluding Remarks: Contested Ground
Biography
Ray Hernández-Durán completed his B.A. and B.F.A. at the University of Texas at Austin, his M.A. at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, and his Ph.D. at the University of Chicago. He teaches the history of colonial Ibero-American arts and architecture at the University of New Mexico in Albuquerque.
"A book can be considered excellent when it not only answers questions but also poses many new ones. Hernández-Durán’s book is certainly one of these significant, generative contributions to scholarship. His capacity to connect detailed archival research to theoretical discussions in so many levels is admirable, and will be instrumental for future scholars, particularly those interested in Latin America."--Journal of Art Historiography
"Hernández-Durán’s book offers a solid account of the political and intellectual forces that contributed to the reassessment of colonial art in nineteenth-century Mexico."
--History of Humanities
