This course examines artistic developments in modern Latin America in relation to broader political forces. Latin America offers rich opportunities to study cases of artists and architects who worked in the service of governmental regimes during the twentieth century, such as Diego Rivera in Mexico and Oscar Niemeyer in Brazil. At the same time, we will consider historical moments in which artists employed their artworks to challenge or subvert political repression, as occurred in Ecuador in the 1930s and in Chile during the dictatorship of Augusto Pinochet. Beyond politics, this course focuses on the tensions indigenous vs. cosmopolitan, urban vs. rural, rich vs. poor, and the international dialogues that have informed the production and reception of art and architecture in Latin America from the age of independence to the present day.
