Latin American Women Artists, 1915-1995

An abstract geometric painting featuring three peach colored rectangular columns atop a plane of dark brown, grey, and teal green. There are also red, pink, and white segments that form triangles, rectangles, and squares.
Feb 08 to Apr 29, 1996

Latin American Women Artists, 1915-1995 presents three periods of modern art from the Southern Hemisphere, from 1915 to the end of World War II, from 1945 to the 1970s, and from the 1970s to the present day. The exhibition demonstrates that women have made substantial contributions to the artistic mainstream of their day. More than 100 works by 34 nationally and internationally recognized artists from nine countries and Puerto Rico are included.

A variety of media is represented, including painting, sculpture, fiber, works on paper, and multimedia installations.“We are proud to sponsor this exhibition which furthers the public’s knowledge of Latin American art and promotes cultural exchange and understanding between the United States and the countries of Latin America and the Caribbean,” said Stephanie French, vice president, of corporate contributions and cultural programs, Philip Morris Companies Inc.

The exhibition opens with the work of artists Frida Kablo, Amelia Peláez and Tarsila do Aniaral. While Kahlo is recognized throughout the world for her representations of the spirit and heritage of Mexico, Tarsila do Amaral is considered “the painter who best achieved Brazilian aspirations for nationalistic expression in a modernist style.”

As a counterpoint to the Latin American nationalist movements, the exhibition also charts the influx of artists from Europe, Japan, and elsewhere throughout the 1930s and 1940s. Beginning with “old world” emigres, such as Remedios Varo and Leonora Carrington, the show provides a place for the artist-radicals who fled Nazi oppression to become important cultural contributors in their adoptive nations. Varo, for one, wholeheartedly embraced Mexico as her new home and came to artistic maturity there. Freed by distance from the exacting tenets of traditional European Surrealism, she created highly finished tableaux confronting “the most basic and complex of narratives: the self.”

Many of today’s Latin American artists are providing an alternative to and a continuation of traditions established by their 20th-century forebears. By looking inside as well as outside, at themselves, their heritage, and their constantly changing relationship with a global network, contemporary women artists are striving to translate complex experiences and values across the world’s increasingly permeable national boundaries.

A view of a gallery space. Two artworks are hanging on opposite walls. One is an abstract painting in dark blue, and the other one is an abstract painting in white and brown shades.

Installation image of Latin American Women Artists, 1915-1995

The Artist,

Frida Kahlo

Mexican painter Frida Kahlo is known for creating striking, often shocking, self-portraits that reflected her political ideology, cultural identity, and her turbulent personal life.
The artist stands in a stage-like space framed by white curtains. Beneath black hair woven with red yarn and flowers, heavy brows accent her dark-eyed gaze. Clad in a fringed, honey-toned shawl; long, pink skirt; and gold jewelry, she holds a bouquet and a handwritten letter.

The Artist,

Leonora Carrington

Through her paintings and sculptures, Leonora Carrington often explored notions of femininity in the whimsical, dreamlike style of Surrealism.
Black-and-white photograph of a light-skinned adult woman with dark curly hair. She sits with her back to the viewer, looking over her left shoulder, her face in profile, surrounded by art supplies. A painting of nuns in a boat on rough seas sits on an easel in front of her.

The Artist,

Fanny Sanín

Fanny Sanín, one of Colombia’s second-generation abstract artists, turned to geometric abstraction in 1969 and never looked back.
A light-skinned older woman with short, light brown hair stands in front of an abstract painting. She wears a black and white striped shirt with two beaded necklaces. The painting behind her depicts grey and red rectangles framing grey, brown, and green triangles.

The Artist,

Remedios Varo

Remedios Varo’s paintings combine Surrealist influences with a distinctive style that evokes mystical or eerie adventures.
A black-and-white photograph of Remedios Varos, seated in front of an easel. She turns from an easel to face the camera, cigarette in her left hand and paintbrush in her right. Her brushed-back dark hair frames her light-skinned face, falling to just below her chin.