Nancy Huth, deputy director of arts and education at the Museum of the Shenandoah Valley, provides information about two oil on canvas paintings by artist Roberto Matta in the museum's new "Destination: Latin America" exhibit Wednesday.
Connie Burgess, of Lake Frederick, views "Voluptas Carnis," an oil on canvas painting by Arturo Duclos, of Santiago, Chile, at the Museum of the Shenandoah Valley's new "Destination: Latin America" exhibit.
Gregg Burgess, of Lake Frederick, views the new "Destination: Latin America" exhibit on Wednesday at the Museum of the Shenandoah Valley. The exhibit continues through Jan. 8.
Nancy Huth, deputy director of arts and education at the Museum of The Shenandoah Valley, gestures as she talks about the Ektacolor prints by Eugenia Vargas of Chillan, Chile, that are part of the museum's new exhibit, "Destination: Latin America." The exhibit runs through Jan. 8.
Nancy Huth, deputy director of arts and education at the Museum of the Shenandoah Valley, provides information about two oil on canvas paintings by artist Roberto Matta in the museum's new "Destination: Latin America" exhibit Wednesday.
Connie Burgess, of Lake Frederick, views "Voluptas Carnis," an oil on canvas painting by Arturo Duclos, of Santiago, Chile, at the Museum of the Shenandoah Valley's new "Destination: Latin America" exhibit.
Gregg Burgess, of Lake Frederick, views the new "Destination: Latin America" exhibit on Wednesday at the Museum of the Shenandoah Valley. The exhibit continues through Jan. 8.
Nancy Huth, deputy director of arts and education at the Museum of The Shenandoah Valley, gestures as she talks about the Ektacolor prints by Eugenia Vargas of Chillan, Chile, that are part of the museum's new exhibit, "Destination: Latin America." The exhibit runs through Jan. 8.
WINCHESTER — There’s a great depth of discovery to the artwork featured in a new exhibit at the Museum of the Shenandoah Valley.
“Destination: Latin America,” which has been touring nationally for more than six years, celebrates 29 Latin American artists with pieces from the 1930s to today. The exhibit launched on Sept. 3 and runs through Jan. 8 at the museum at 901 Amherst St. in Winchester.
“This is the first exhibit we’ve had that’s solely focused on Latin American art,” said Julie Armel, deputy director of marketing and communications at the museum.
New to the D.C., Maryland, Virginia region, the exhibit has received “very, very positive” feedback so far from museum visitors, Armel said.
Guest Services have “gotten a lot of thank-yous,” she said.
The exhibit is arranged chronologically across five sections so that the oldest works, from 1933 to the late ‘50s are in the first two rooms, while more contemporary works light up the back three areas of the exhibit.
The artists, in addition to their expansive Latin American heritage, have diverse experiences living or working in the U.S., Europe and elsewhere in the world and from learning from other artists of their time, said Nancy Huth, the museum’s deputy director of arts and education.
“It demonstrates, in some ways, how small the world is,” Huth said.
One large piece by Venezuelan artist Jesus Rafael Soto who also spent a lot of time in France, “Bleu sur le rectangle,” from 1965, shows a series of squares placed in front of a screen of tightly arranged white lines, offering an optical illusion that makes the artwork look as if it’s vibrating.
Another work, “Once Was I,” a 2016 piece by Engles the Artist, who was born in Port au Prince, Haiti, but has lived in Brooklyn for more than 30 years, shows a gold frame attempting to contain a snowy white 3D oil on canvas as it seems to expand from the wall and overflow its space.
Artists in the early 20th Century and later started to reject the previous standards of what artwork should be, Huth said. Color, shape, line, texture and space, she said, was all up for interpretation.
It’s about “breaking that picture plane."
Another striking piece shows the image of a young man on a bike dressed in a Superman costume. “Superman,” from Mexican photographer Dulce Pinzon’s series “A True Story of Superheroes” from 2005 to 2010, combines the real with the fantastical as a way of illustrating everyday superheroes who work in America to send money home to their loved ones, improving the lives of countless others while flying under the radar of society’s expectations for greatness.
Other notable pieces at the exhibit include “An Aztec Indian Scene” painted around 1947 by Mexican artist José Clemente Orozco (1883–1949), one of the most influential muralists of the twentieth century, and four lithographs from the 1969 portfolio “Mujeres (Women)” by Rufino Tamayo (1899–1991) — a famed Mexican artist known for combining modern European painting styles, such as Cubism and Surrealism, with Mexican folk themes.
Through their work, many of the artists were responding to social, political, and economic issues from the 1950s to the late 2010s, but Huth also noted in the release “that the exhibition demonstrates the role of Latin American artists in the international development of geometric and abstract art and their ongoing contribution to figurative styles.”
The first gallery room displays works created after the Mexican Revolution (1910–20) by artists who rejected copying of European styles and instead focused on local landscapes, daily scenes and Mexican history, a recent museum news release says.
Next, paintings and sculptures created in the second half of the 20th Century demonstrate Latin America’s interest in the abstract.
The other three sections feature works by Caribbean and South American artists inspired by African art, Surrealism and Magical Realism; art created as a response to military rule in several South American countries when artists faced censorship; and works by contemporary artists that address global themes of identity, political struggle, consumption, violence and repression, the release says.
“Destination: Latin America” is organized by the Neuberger Museum of Art at Purchase College, part of the State University of New York. Its Winchester display is sponsored by Shenandoah Oncology and iHeartMedia.
The exhibit includes more than 60 paintings, photographs, prints, books, drawings and sculptures.
As part of the exhibit, the museum will offer various webinars and other programs:
At 6:30 p.m. on Tuesday, Huth will lead the virtual Art @ Happy Hour webinar that features the modern and contemporary art alongside a south-of-the-border brew. Tickets are free, but donations are accepted. Register for the event at themsv.org/events/art-happy-hour-destination-latin-america.
From 6:30 to 7:30 p.m. on Oct. 4, Pinzon will lead a Meet the Artist webinar. Tickets are free but donations are encouraged. Register by Oct. 3 at themsv.org/events/15383.
Other programs are the free music program, Mexilachian Music, at themsv.org/events/mexilachian-music and the youth programs Calaveras workshop at themsv.org/events/youth-workshop-calaveras and the Cuban Collaborations at themsv.org/events/teen-workshop-cuban-collaborations.
“It’s always enjoyable for us to present something new,” Armel said.
For more information about the exhibit or the museum, call 540-662-1473 or visit theMSV.org.
Contact Josette Keelor at jkeelor@nvdaily.com
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