Visual Arts of the Americas

Visual Arts of the Americas had its origins in the video Library Lens on Latin America that Lauinger Library produced in conjunction with this year's John Carroll Awards Weekend in San Juan, Puerto Rico last April. After assembling and researching Latin American and Caribbean prints and other work from the Art Collection for inclusion in the video, we decided to exhibit these outstanding but rarely seen works. Assisted by recent Art Collection staff research on Canadian art, several Canadian prints were added, to develop the theme Visual Arts of the Americas.

Part 1: Latin America, the Caribbean, and the United States is on view through July 20; and Part 2: Canada and the United States is on view through October 19. The exhibits are comprised of fine prints, commercial prints, paintings, drawings, photographs, and books, all from Special Collections and Lauinger Library's holdings. Included are works significant to the history of the Jesuit order, such as three Cuzco School paintings from Peru; the 1801 Vida de San Felipe de Jesús, a life of the first Jesuit martyr in Japan, and the first book printed in Mexico entirely from engraved plates; and the rare 1664 Historiae canadensis, compiled from Jesuit missionary reports from New France. Also in the exhibit are a map of the Americas from the first world atlas printed by an Englishman; scenes from early twentieth century world's fairs; a map of Ontario from the original photolithography developed in Montréal; selections from recent gifts of contemporary Canadian masters of printmaking; and innovative works from the influential "Mexican School."

The Mexican School arose in part from political events in the twentieth century that spurred a change in the Latin American arts culture, such as the Mexican Revolution of 1910, and political and emotional disillusionment with Europe following the first World War. Carlos Merida (1891-1984), represented by three works in this exhibit, was a pioneer of the Mexican School, whose works relay a "modern aesthetic based on native art and native subjects."*

Elizabeth Catlett, Blues. 1947. 7 3/8 x 5 in., color linocut.

Sculptor and printmaker Elizabeth Catlett (b. 1915) is one of the giants in the pantheon of Washington artists. Educated at Howard University, she traveled to Mexico on a fellowship in 1946 in pursuit of artistic and social ideals that were expounded by artists there. A year later she married Francisco Mora (1922-2002), a pillar of the internationally renowned People's Graphics Workshop (and whose Silver Mine Worker is in the exhibit). Catlett's color linocut in this exhibit, Blues, is from that same year, and reflects her concern with the plight of racial minorities: to the right of the woman playing a guitar is a scene of an African- American man being attacked by a hooded figure above a cross in flames. Earlier this year the College Art Association recognized Catlett with an award for life achievement.

Caroline Helena Armington, Porte de la Cour du Dragon, Paris. 1926. 10 1/8 x 7 3/4 in., etching.

Artists in Canada often looked to Europe and the United States for inspiration and acceptance. While some eventually pursued self-consciously "Canadian" themes, a number remained abroad-a phenomenon represented by the other wife-and-husband group in the exhibit, Caroline Helena Armington (1875-1939) and Frank Milton Armington (1876-1941). Both from rural Ontario, the Armingtons studied at prestigious academies in Paris, and settled in New York. Caroline Armington's 1926 etching Porte de la Cour du Dragon, Paris reflects a transition in European and North American art from meticulously rendered to more impressionistic scenes: its refined capture of detail from a grand architectural setting merges with a simultaneous dissipation of detail toward the edges of the print (a style made popular by James Whistler, and also adopted by Joseph Pennell, whose work is included in Part 1 of Visual Arts of the Americas).

You can view online both the exhibit Visual Arts of the Americas and the video Library Lens on Latin America.

* J. Quirarte, in The Latin American Spirit: Art and Artists in the United States 1920-1970, 1988.