Transatlantic Encounters: Latin American Artists in Paris between the Wars

FAIN: FB-56134-12

Michele Marie Greet
George Mason University (Fairfax, VA 22030-4444)

In the years between World War I and World War II Paris was at the center of the art world. Indeed, the very essence of twentieth-century art history stems from the movements and avant-garde experiments that emerged there. While numerous scholars have written about the arts in Paris during this period, none examine the participation of the more than two hundred Latin American artists living and working there even though these artists both contributed to and re-interpreted nearly every major modernist trend between the wars. Without the intense transnational dialogues that occurred in Paris between the wars, neither Latin American nor European modernism would have taken the forms it did. This book and accompanying website will examine Latin American artists’ intense interaction with European artists and critics as well as their major contributions to the international art scene in Paris.

Associated Products

Devouring Surrealism: Tarsila do Amaral’s Abaporu (Article)
Title: Devouring Surrealism: Tarsila do Amaral’s Abaporu
Author: Michele Greet
Abstract: Various scholars have suggested a contiguity or affinity between Brazilian artist Tarsila do Amaral’s iconic painting Abaporu (1928)and surrealism; none have engaged in an in-depth analysis of her actual relationship with surrealism, however. This close reading of Abaporu will demonstrate that Amaral deliberately and systematically engaged with the tenets and formal languages of surrealism. Her engagement was not one of pure emulation; instead she turned the surrealists’ penchant for satire and desire to disrupt hierarchical schema back on itself, parodying the images and ideas put forth by the movement to create a counter modernism. Amaral’s sardonic appropriation of surrealism’s formal languages and subversive strategies was the very factor that made Abaporu the catalyst of the anthropophagite Movement.
Year: 2015
Primary URL: http://www.surrealismcentre.ac.uk/papersofsurrealism/journal11/index.htm
Access Model: open access
Format: Journal
Periodical Title: Papers of Surrealism
Publisher: Papers of Surrealism. Issue 11, spring 2015: 1-39

Transatlantic Encounters: Latin American Artists in Paris between the Wars (Book)
Title: Transatlantic Encounters: Latin American Artists in Paris between the Wars
Author: Michele Greet
Abstract: In the years between World War I and World War II Paris was at the center of the art world. Indeed, the very essence of twentieth-century art history stems from the movements and avant-garde experiments that emerged in Paris in the early years of the century. Modernism, no matter how it was rearticulated in distant locations, almost always had roots in Paris. While numerous scholars have written about the arts in Paris during this period, none examine the participation of Latin American artists in the Parisian art scene even though these artists both contributed to and re-interpreted nearly every major modernist trend between the wars, including cubism (Pablo Curatella Manes, Emilio Pettoruti, Diego Rivera, Angel Zárraga), surrealism (Antonio Berni, Wifredo Lam, Francisco Lazo, Roberto Matta, César Moro), constructivism (Jaime Colson, Germán Cueto, Amelia Peláez, Juan del Prete, Joaquín Torres-García), and the more figural modes associated with the School of Paris. This book examines Latin American artists’ intense interaction with European artists and critics as well as their major contributions to the international art scene in Paris between the two world wars.
Year: 2018
Publisher: Yale University Press
Type: Single author monograph
Copy sent to NEH?: No

Transatlantic Encounters Latin American Artists in Interwar Paris (Database/Archive/Digital Edition)
Title: Transatlantic Encounters Latin American Artists in Interwar Paris
Author: Michele Greet
Abstract: A digital database of more than 300 Latin American artists working in Paris between the wars. Two interactive maps of these artists’ exhibitions and studios.
Year: 2013
Primary URL: http://chnm.gmu.edu/transatlanticencounters/
Access Model: open access

Mapping Cultural Exchange: Latin American Artists in Paris between the Wars (Book Section)
Title: Mapping Cultural Exchange: Latin American Artists in Paris between the Wars
Author: Michele Greet
Editor: Catherine Dossin
Editor: Béatrice Joyeux-Prunel
Editor: Thomas DaCosta Kaufmann
Abstract: The project of global art history calls for balanced treatment of artifacts and a unified approach. This volume emphasizes questions of transcultural encounters and exchanges as circulations. It presents a strategy that highlights the processes and connections among cultures, and also responds to the dynamics at work in the current globalized art world. The editors’ introduction provides an account of the historical background to this approach to global art history, stresses the inseparable bond of theory and practice, and suggests a revaluation of materialist historicism as an underlying premise. Individual contributions to the book provide an overview of current reflection and research on issues of circulation in relation to global art history and the globalization of art past and present. They offer a variety of methods and approaches to the treatment of different periods, regions, and objects, surveying both questions of historiography and methodology and presenting individual case studies. An 'Afterword' by James Elkins gives a critique of the present project. The book thus deliberately leaves discussion open, inviting future responses to the large questions it poses.
Year: 2015
Publisher: Ashgate
Book Title: Circulations in the Global History of Art; Studies in Art Historiography series
ISBN: 978-147245456

Occupying Paris: The First Survey Exhibition of Latin American Art (Article)
Title: Occupying Paris: The First Survey Exhibition of Latin American Art
Author: Michele Greet
Abstract: The first survey of Latin American art ever to be held anywhere in the world took place in Paris at the Musée Galliera in 1924. Rather than showcasing a particular stylistic tendency, organizers conceived of Latin American heritage as the unifying factor behind the show, giving rise to an exhibition format that would persist for the rest of the twentieth century. The stylistic eclecticism of the exhibition compelled critics and audiences to ponder the existence of a Latin American aesthetic and to attempt to pin down characteristic traits common to the region. This article examines the content, reviews and ramifications of this foundational exhibition of Latin American art
Year: 2014
Access Model: subscription only
Format: Journal
Publisher: Journal of Curatorial Studies. Volume 3, Numbers 2+3, June-October 2014: 212-237

“From Cubism to Muralism: Angel Zárraga in Paris,” in Ángel Zárraga. Retrospectiva (Catalog)
Title: “From Cubism to Muralism: Angel Zárraga in Paris,” in Ángel Zárraga. Retrospectiva
Author: Michele Greet
Abstract: In the years between World War I and World War II Paris was at the center of the art world. Indeed, the very essence of twentieth-century art history stems from the movements and avant-garde experiments that emerged there in the early years of the century. Mexican artist Angel Zárraga was one of the few Latin American artists who opted to make Paris his permanent home, however, only returning to Mexico under duress at the onset of World War II. Because of the intensified artistic activity in Mexico after the Revolution, Mexican artists often made only short sojourns to Paris, while their contemporaries from countries such as Brazil, Argentina, and Chile flooded Parisian arts academies and salons between the wars. Since Mexico had become a locus for experimental and socially motivated artistic activity, Zárraga’s decision to stay in Paris puts him at odds with many of his compatriots. Moreover, Zárraga chose not to construct an identity for himself as a Mexican artist in Paris, and his sole association with Mexican cultural initiatives was his commission for the murals at the Mexican Legation, where he asserted quite overtly the cultural hegemony of France. He did not associate with the newly formed circles of Latin American artists in the city or participate in their exhibitions such as the Exposition d'Art Américain-Latin at the Musée Galliera in 1924 or Joaquín Torres-García’s Première exposition du groupe latino-americain de Paris at the Galerie Zak in 1930; rather he preferred to distance himself from groups defined by cultural identity and instead align his work with the subjects and styles of European modernism.
Year: 2014
Catalog Type: Exhibition Catalog
Publisher: Museo del Palacio de Bellas Artes, Mexico City

’Exhilarating Exile’: Four Latin American Women Exhibit in Paris (Article)
Title: ’Exhilarating Exile’: Four Latin American Women Exhibit in Paris
Author: Michele Greet
Abstract: This essay analyzes the individual exhibitions of four Latin American women artists held in Paris between the two world wars : Brazilians Tarsila do Amaral and Anita Malfatti in 1926, Mexican Lola Velásquez Cueto in 1929, and Cuban Amelia Peláez in 1933. Entering the modern art milieu involved decisions about subject matter and technique, about whether to portray national themes or avoid them, and how to negotiate the gendered implications of style. During periods of "exhilarating exile" all four of these artists entered the vibrant artistic environment in Paris and strategically positioned themselves, via their artistic choices, in relation to aesthetic debates about the role of decorative in modern art.
Year: 2013
Primary URL: http://www.artelogie.fr/
Access Model: open access
Format: Journal
Periodical Title: Artelogie: Revue de recherches sur les arts, le patrimoine et la littérature de l'Amérique Latine. No. 5, Fall 2013
Publisher: Artelogie: Revue de recherches sur les arts, le patrimoine et la littérature de l'Amérique Latine. No. 5, Fall 2013

César Moro’s Transnational Surrealism (Article)
Title: César Moro’s Transnational Surrealism
Author: Michele Greet
Abstract: Although various scholars have acknowledged the merits of Moro’s surrealist poetry, very little has been written about his contributions to the visual arts. Since his paintings and collages are so little-known, one objective of this essay is simply to trace César Moro’s extensive engagement with Surrealism in the visual arts, from his early participation in Breton’s surrealist group in Paris, to the exhibition he co-organized in Peru in 1935, and finally to the “International Surrealist Exhibition” in Mexico City in 1940. By examining closely Moro’s surrealist collages, drawings, and activities as an organizer on a transnational scale, I reveal the depth of his involvement with and impact on the surrealist movement. Beyond elaborating Moro’s surrealist activities, however, I argue that Moro did not conceive of surrealism as a foreign import, rather he believed it to be the ideal visual and literary language with which to counter the entrenched nationalism of artistic production in the Americas. Moreover, he felt that by harnessing the power of myths and the sense of the uncanny already present in Latin American life, Latin American artists and writers could take the lead in implementing a new era of worldwide surrealism. While his success in spawning a New World branch of Surrealism was negligible, Moro’s own oeuvre contributes a uniquely personal, yet exceedingly cosmopolitan manifestation of surrealist ideas, revealing the movement’s versatility and relevance beyond European borders.
Year: 2013
Primary URL: https://jsa.hida.asu.edu/index.php/jsa/issue/current/showToc
Access Model: open access
Format: Journal
Periodical Title: Journal for Surrealism and the Americas
Publisher: Journal for Surrealism and the Americas Vol 7, No 1 (2013)19-51.

“An International Proving Ground: Latin American Artists at the Paris Salons” (Article)
Title: “An International Proving Ground: Latin American Artists at the Paris Salons”
Author: Michele Greet
Abstract: Between World Wars I and II, the various Paris salons were an important proving ground for Latin American artists. In addition to providing a well-established and supported cultural infrastructure, which in some Latin American countries simply did not exist at all and in others not to the same extent, these salons allowed artists to test new ideas and garner reviews that would help establish their reputation at home and abroad. Moreover, these artists understood the implications and parameters of exhibiting at the different salons and often selected their venue accordingly, strategically positioning themselves as traditional, anti-academic, or avant-garde. Latin American artists were not immune to the conflicts that plagued the independent salon in the 1920s, however ; and many took a stand in the face of increasing xenophobia.
Year: 2017
Primary URL: http://https://nuevomundo.revues.org/70847
Primary URL Description: Between World Wars I and II, the various Paris salons were an important proving ground for Latin American artists. In addition to providing a well-established and supported cultural infrastructure, which in some Latin American countries simply did not exist at all and in others not to the same extent, these salons allowed artists to test new ideas and garner reviews that would help establish their reputation at home and abroad. Moreover, these artists understood the implications and parameters of exhibiting at the different salons and often selected their venue accordingly, strategically positioning themselves as traditional, anti-academic, or avant-garde. Latin American artists were not immune to the conflicts that plagued the independent salon in the 1920s, however ; and many took a stand in the face of increasing xenophobia.
Access Model: Open Access
Format: Journal
Periodical Title: Mundo Nuevo Nuevos Mundos

“Rivera and the Language of Classicism” (Book Section)
Title: “Rivera and the Language of Classicism”
Author: Michele Greet
Editor: Diana Magaloni
Editor: Michael Govan
Abstract: This essay will explore Rivera’s path toward classicism, his affinity with and divergence from Picasso, and the implications of his embrace of a classicizing aesthetic in Mexico.
Year: 2016
Publisher: Los Angeles County Museum of Art
Book Title: Picasso and Rivera: Conversations Across Time.
ISBN: 3791355554

"For French Eyes: Tarsila do Amaral's Brazilian Landscapes” (Book Section)
Title: "For French Eyes: Tarsila do Amaral's Brazilian Landscapes”
Author: Michele Greet
Abstract: Tarsila do Amaral’s Brazilian Landscapes
Year: 2019
Publisher: Museo de Arte de São Paulo Assis Chateaubriand
Book Title: Tarsila do Amaral

“Rómulo Rozo: A Colombian Sculptor in Paris” (Book Section)
Title: “Rómulo Rozo: A Colombian Sculptor in Paris”
Author: Michele Greet
Editor: Christian Padilla
Abstract: Rómulo Rozo: A Colombian Sculptor in Paris
Year: 2020
Publisher: Proyecto Bachué
Book Title: Rómulo Rozo ¿Una vanguardia propia?

“Latin American Artists at the Académie Lhote” (Book Section)
Title: “Latin American Artists at the Académie Lhote”
Author: Michele Greet
Abstract: Latin American Artists at the Académie Lhote
Year: 2020
Publisher: University of Innsbruck Press
Book Title: André Lhote and his International Students

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