James Oles, professor of Latin American Art History at Wellesley and curator of Latin American Art at the Davis Museum, has for the past 20 years been building up a Latin American collection befitting an important regional museum. The three-dozen works in the collection in 1996 now exceed 500. A third of Oles’ new finds are showcased in “Art_Latin_America: Against the Survey” through June 9. One-third of the featured artists are women. The exhibition’s depth and value are confirmed in an impressive 260-page catalog containing commentaries from a wide field of experts on each work and artist.
Untitled (ca. 1970), oil on canvas / Davis Museum at Wellesley College, MA
Oles’ permissive title gathers on our radar 20th-century works by residents, travelers, visitors and exiles. “Latin American” justifies allowing Puerto Rican Abstract Expressionist “Olga Albizu as well as Chicano and Mexican-American printmakers while excluding their counterparts from outside of Latin America, placing Olga Albizu next to the Argentine gestural expressionist Sarah Grilo rather than with a painting by her mentor Hans Hofmann; or comparing Chicano prints to [earlier] Mexican posters, rather than those by African-American contemporaries.”
To read more: https://artscopemagazine.com/2019/02/a-conversation-starter-the-davis-latin-american-survey-show-sparkles/