Latin America and the Caribbean

About

The Americas south of the United States hold thousands of years of art. The Olmec carved colossal basalt heads on the Gulf Coast of Mexico, the Maya recorded their rulers in carved stelae and painted murals, the Aztecs sculpted powerful stone deities, and Andean weavers and metalworkers produced some of the finest cloth and gold anywhere. Taíno carvers worked across the Caribbean islands.

Spanish and Portuguese colonisation brought churches, altarpieces and devotional painting, often made by Indigenous and mixed-race artisans who added local flora and features. After independence in the 19th century, artists sought national subjects. The 20th century produced figures of world stature: Diego Rivera's murals and Frida Kahlo's self-portraits in Mexico, Wifredo Lam's Afro-Cuban jungles, Roberto Burle Marx's gardens and Hélio Oiticica's wearable works in Brazil, and the Argentine-born Lucio Fontana, who slashed his canvases. Cuban-born Felix Gonzalez-Torres made spare installations of sweets and light bulbs about loss.