On August 14, the Blanton Museum of Art at the University of Texas at Austin opened Painted Cloth: Fashion and Ritual in Colonial Latin America, an exhibit that includes rare textiles and clothing, presented alongside painted depictions of colonial Latin American dress. with a focus on dress as a key marker of identity and capturing the complex relationships between race, gender, religion, and class in 18th-century Latin America.
To learn more about the exhibition, interviewed AL DIA News Mexican-born Rosario I. Granados, Associate Curator of Spanish American Art at the Blanton since 2016, whose primary scholarly work relates to gender, religion, and art in Latin America.
“We used to walk a lot as a family in downtown Mexico City when I was a kid. Seeing the cathedral and all those other colonial churches sparked a deep interest in the period from a very young age,” Granados recalls.
Her mother worked at the Museo Nacional de la Culturas for years and this helped foster her interest in art and museums. By the time he started college, Granados knew he would major in Spanish American Art.
“I was fascinated by the identity struggles experienced at the time by people of indigenous and Spanish descent. They were not from here, nor from there, nor from anywhere. This was definitely the final push that made me want to pursue further studies on Colonial Art,” she explained.
After graduating in Colonial Art at the Universidad Iberoamericana, Mexico City, she jumped to London, UK, where she received a master’s in Flemish art at the prestigious Courtauld Institute of Art, and then to Harvard, where she fell in love. roommate: a Mexican-American from Los Angeles pursuing a PhD in architectural history at MIT.
Around the same time, she decided not to continue working in Flemish art, but to return to Latin America, “since it was definitely closer to my heart and a big plus: I didn’t have to study German or Dutch!” Granados said. “In that sense, you could say that my Mexican identity has certainly shaped my scholarship,” she added.
CREATORS OF IDENTITY
Eventually, Granados focused on the colonial period, a very long and significant era in Latin American history.
“For better or worse, those three centuries define many of the region’s key markers of identity, from language and cultural practices like food and music to present-day racism.,” she said. “At the same time, not all marginalization of indigenous communities comes from that period, but also from 19th-century policies that aimed to make all citizens equal after independence from Spain was won .”
On the other hand, Granados also said that it is a period full of contradictions.
“More nuances are needed to fully understand what Latin America is today. From the art of this period, we can learn about transatlantic trade and race relations, but also about human imagination and resilience… as from art anywhere else,” she said.
The idea of an exhibition focusing on fashion and rituals in colonial Latin America began early, after she began working at the Blanton in 2016.
“I knew I wanted to make a show that would appeal to a wider audience and not just those who are already interested in Latin America. Having spent many months looking at ‘Our Lady of Bethlehem’ with a donor from the Thoma Foundation collection (one of the works included in the exhibition), gave
I have the idea that fashion and ritual would be that universal theme that would allow us to do that,” she explained. “This painting is not only my favorite, but it is the alpha part of this whole project that aims to attract a wider audience and share the beauty of the art and the complex historical background of colonial Latin America.”
LEARNING FROM THE PAST
According to Granados, the exhibition can help the audience learn how to look closely and reflect, connecting the historical, religious and aesthetic spheres.
“We can learn about the colorful, polyvalent society of Latin America, past and present. We can reflect on how to be more critical of our modern consumption/production of self-portraits. We can learn how important textile arts are for different societies (Inca, Aztec, colonial society) and how ancient traditions are kept alive.” she said.
Granados also hopes that audiences can reflect on what “colonial” means in different historical contexts. By including caste paintings in the show, which depict mixed-race families, “we are presenting an opportunity to reflect on race as a concept and the effects of such cultural intermingling.”
