A Celebration Of Latin-American Art

Groundbreaking Exhibit In Philadelphia Museum Showcases Works From 1492-1820

(AP)  Latin American artists learned new techniques and styles from European craftsmen training their local apprentices. Other new ideas came from the diverse people and objects that came off the trading ships.

2The converging sensibilities are reflected in portraits, furniture and other household decor created for the viceroys overseeing the New World colonies for Spanish and Portuguese monarchs.

Meanwhile, Christian missionaries dispatched to Latin America also had an influence through the thousands of churches and missions they established. Devotional paintings and sculptures of the Virgin Mary and saints were created for those places of worship.

Clearly the clash of cultures and styles did not start off peacefully. But from an artistic standpoint, that is the focus of the exhibition: The violent conquest and domination of the conquistadors led indigenous artists to adapt, transform and learn new techniques.

The later works in the exhibit demonstrate the bold artistic and familial mixes forming as independence movements took hold and national states were established. A dramatic example can be seen in two sets of 18th-century Mexican paintings known as "castas." Each depicts a family unit with highly specialized names of each member's ethnic type, or "casta."

The paintings reflect the diversity of the New World, with families blending European, Asian, African, Indian and American men and women and placed in tranquil scenes and material comfort.

"It's a mixing and confluence which creates a culture of the kind of complexity that by the end of the 16th century is a new thing," Rishel said.

The exhibit continues through Dec. 31. It travels in 2007 to the Antiguo Colegio de San Ildefonso in Mexico City from February until April, and the Los Angeles County Museum of Art from June until August.