Center for the Humanities and the Public Sphere

International Symposium on Colonial Latin American Art

Sculptures, paintings, prints, retables, furniture, textiles, silverwork and other manifestations of Latin American colonial visual culture often coexisted within church interiors, civic spaces, and homes to create a large collection and decorative program of display. These decorative programs even at times traversed entire cities through extensive urban architectural programs. This symposium seeks to critically address how images were displayed in their original contexts, how multiple images coexisted and worked together, and how this shapes our understanding of the object as it was commissioned and viewed during the sixteenth through eighteenth centuries in different areas of colonial Latin America. How were images displayed in the colonial period and how did that context shape the contemporary perception and understanding of the object(s)?

Moreover, colonialism was an ongoing and complex process that involved negotiation, resistance, reconciliation, and manipulation of new and old art forms. In short, art reflected, facilitated, and authenticated the complex reality of colonialism and colonial culture. How were display and the viewing experience an integral part of that process? How did the many types of artworks reside and work together in a single space or multiple related spaces to shape and reflect that reality? The presentations focus on the sixteenth through eighteenth centuries and address the diverse range of Spanish- and Portuguese-ruled colonial regions of Latin America including the Viceroyalty of New Spain, the Viceroyalty of Peru (including the later Viceroyalties of New Granada and the Río de la Plata), and the Viceroyalty of Brazil. From decorative programs in seventeenth- and eighteenth-century sacred spaces to agency and legitimization of personas and institutions through the concept of display, a keynote lecture by eminant art historian Dr. Clara Bargellini (Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México) and eleven presentations by emerging scholars in the field will respond to and problematize these questions.

The entire symposium is free and open to the public, but all attendees are asked to register at the symposium website (below).
For more information on the symposium events, speakers, and to register, please visit the bilingual website and the Colonial Latin American Art Symposium Facebook page.
This event is co-sponsored by the UF Center for the Humanities and the Public Sphere with support from the Rothman Endowment, UF’s HESCAH program, UF School of Art + Art History, UF Center for Latin American Studies, and UF International Center.
Please email claasymposium@gmail.com with questions.