LibGuides: Latin American Art: Media

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!Esplendores! Splendors of Mexico (27:26) This program follows the magnificent museum exhibition that travels across 33 centuries of Mexican art, from the 12th- to 10th-century B.C. gigantic Olmec heads to Frida Kahlo's self-portrait. The exhibition is divided into four periods: the pre-columbian, whose artistic purpose was to venerate the gods, commemorate the rulers, and give form to the natural world; the Viceregal, whose art was intended to teach the native population about Christianity and turn them into loyal and productive servants of Spain; the 19th century, with its Mexican adaptation of European Romanticism and Naturalism; and the 20th century, with its themes of revolution and pride in Mexico's Indian heritage. The artistic voyage, which covers a range of ages and peoples, beliefs and styles, is united by the strong prevailing sense of Mexican identity and place.
Aztecs: The Exposition of a Culture (37:35) Presented by sculptor Antony Gormley, this program was created to complement the 2002–3 exhibition of Aztec culture at London’s Royal Academy. Many of the incredible works loaned to the exhibit are shown, along with sculptures and artifacts filmed in Mexico City and at important Aztec sites. Leading scholars and curators explore how the nomadic Aztecs drew inspiration from earlier cultures. The variety and sophistication of Aztec art are extensively illustrated, along with the exquisite craftsmanship of their manuscripts and their jewelry.
Donde Digo Diego Rivera (Spanish) (51:15) Rivera is the best known of Mexico’s 20th-century artists. His murals are pictorial history books which recount the struggles of Mexico’s peoples for spiritual and economic liberation. This program visits the Rivera Museum, which contains not only his works and the monuments of his life but his own superb collection of pre-Columbian artifacts. In Spanish. (56 minutes)
El Favor de los Santos: The Sacred Iconography of Retablos and Exvotos (57:14) With the introduction of Christianity to the Aztec peoples, a new kind of religious iconography arose: retablos and exvotos. Traditionally painted on tin, retablos tell of the lives of the saints while exvotos give thanks for miracles granted. This program brings together art historians, preservationists, and religious practitioners to look at the stories embedded in these paintings and their significance for those who pray to them. Among those interviewed are Refugio I. Rochin, director of Latino Initiatives at the Smithsonian Institution; Father Manuel Olimón Nolasco, director of the National Commission of Sacred Art, Mexico; and Charles Lovell, director of the New Mexico State University Art Gallery.
The Walls of Mexico: Art and Architecture (55:57) This beautifully filmed program looks at the wall paintings of some of the most famous Mexican muralists—Diego Rivera, Juan O’Gorman, José Clemente Orozco—and at the work of Luis Barragán, one of the greatest Mexican architects of the 20th century. Their common medium is the wall. The muralists sought to return art to the people, by putting it on the walls of public buildings, just as it had been in the days of their Mayan forefathers. Barragán embraced a modernism imported from Europe, but developed a style that echoes with memories of ancient times. Both the muralists and Barragán used the wall to create something distinctively new and vital, but they all found their guiding force in the roots of Mexican art and culture, in traditions grounded in the pre-Columbian era.

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Frida