Long before the arrival of the Spaniards, the people of South America had a system of recorded information that was portable, precise, and so complex that it remains undeciphered today.

The long-lived Wari Empire and vast Inka Empire employed sophisticated devices called khipu to record information, such as census data and labor obligations. Made of cords, both Inka and Wari khipu seem to have recorded not only quantitative or statistical content, but narrative information as well. The variation in cord structures, colors, wrapping patterns, and knots encoded and conveyed information, while the basic khipu elements—flexible knotted cords—offered a lightweight and compact means of transporting information across distances.

This exhibition is the first to bring together examples of Wari, Inka, and Colonial khipu. Less than a dozen complete Wari khipu are known to exist in museum collections, and three will be on display at Dumbarton Oaks, along with interactive displays that will help visitors understand the way khipu worked, how they were made, and how information was encoded.
Juan Antonio Murro, Assistant Curator of the Pre-Columbian Collection, is curating this exhibition with Jeffrey Splitstoser, PhD, an expert on Wari khipu and ancient textiles and Assistant Research Professor of Anthropology at George Washington University.

– From doaks.org. Click here for more information.

Thanks to member Anne Cassidy for the information below!

This is a good year for Mesoamerican manuscript studies at the CAA conference in New York this week, with two back-to-back sessions.

On Thursday, 2:00 – 3:30 in the Bryant Suite on the 2nd floor there will be: Painted Books of Pre-Hispanic Mexico: New Discoveries

Panel speakers: Dr. Merideth Paxton (University of New Mexico) The Opossum and the Uayeb in the New Year Pages of the Madrid Codex

            Dr. Susan Milbrath (University of Florida)  Yearbearer Imagery in Postclassic Codices: Thresholds of Time and Space

            Dr. Gabrielle Vail (University of North Carolina)  Cultural Interactions in Late Postclassic Mesoamerica: Exploring the Repainted Pages of the Codex Vaticanus B and Cognate Almanacs of the Maya Madrid Codex

            Dr. Élodie Dupey  (Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México)  The Chromatic Palettes of the Codex Vaticanus B: Characterization and Analysis in the Framework of the Mesoamerican Manuscripts’ Color Technologies

            Dr. Jennifer Saracino (Flagler College)  Indigenous Artistic Process & Collaboration in the Mapa Uppsala (c. 1540)

Immediately afterward, 4:00 – 5:30 in the Grand Ballroom East on the third floor, Dr. Elizabeth Hill Boone (Tulane University) will be named this year’s CAA Distinguished Scholar in a special session. Dr. Boone’s distinguished work in the area of Mesoamerican manuscripts has been a major contribution to Mesoamerican studies.

Also, for those of you interested in modern and contemporary Latin American art, Kaira Cabañas has a book release event:

FROM:
ANTHOLOGY FILM ARCHIVES
BOOK RELEASE EVENT!
KAIRA M. CABAÑAS’S “LEARNING FROM MADNESS: BRAZILIAN MODERNISM AND GLOBAL CONTEMPORARY ART”
Kaira M. Cabañas’s “Learning from Madness” offers an invigorating series of case studies that track the parallels between psychiatric patients’ art works in Western Europe and its reception by influential artists there, to an analogous but altogether distinct situation in Brazil. The book also explores how this “outsider art” continues to raise important questions in the contemporary global art circuit. Cabañas turns to the films of Javier Téllez, an artist who compellingly engages the history of psychiatry and the legacy of creative expression within it.
To celebrate the release of “Learning from Madness,” Cabañas and Téllez will be here in person to host a special event. The evening will feature a short reading, as well as a screening of Tellez’s film CALIGARI AND THE SLEEPWALKER (2008). A reception will follow the screening in the AFA lobby.
“Learning from Madness: Brazilian Modernism and Global Contemporary Art” is published by the University of Chicago Press, 2018. A representative from the University of Chicago Press will be on site to sell books.

Looking forward to seeing you at these events!

Below is a short list of ALAA-sponsored sessions and meetings taking place during the upcoming College Art Association (CAA) conference in New York, February 13-16 that will be of interest to members.

“Open Sessions for Emerging Scholars of Latin American Art” (Association for Latin American Art ALAA)

Time: Friday, February 15, 2019: 4:00 PM – 5:30 PM

Location: New York Hilton Midtown – 2nd Floor – Clinton Suite

Chairs: Theresa Avila, CSU Channel Islands; Arden Decker

Spectacle of Stone: The Art of Passage in the Ancient Maya Landscape Catherine H. Popovici, The University of Texas at Austin

Global Import: Implications of Transnational Conflicts in the Art of Juan Manuel Echavarría and Doris Salcedo Jamie DiSarno, University at Buffalo

Art in an Age of Crisis: Women Artists and the Mexican War on Drugs Alberto McKelligan Hernández, Portland State University

ALAA Business Meeting: Awards! Elections! Announcements! Snacks provided! Bring your own beverage!

Time: Thursday, February 14, 2019: 12:30PM–2:00PM
Location: New York Hilton Midtown – 4th Floor – New York

The CAA on-line schedule is now searchable https://caa.confex.com/caa/2019/meetingapp.cgi. Simply select “Latin America,” “Latinx,” or “Caribbean” from the “subject area” menu on the left hand side, and a list of relevant sessions appears.

We hope to see you there!

Call for Submissions 2018

Latin American and Latinx Visual Culture

A new journal to be published by University of California Press

Latin American and Latinx Visual Culture (LALVC) is a new quarterly peer-reviewed academic journal published by the University California Press, scheduled for publication in January 2019. The editorial staff is now reviewing submissions.

Focused on Latin American and Latinx visual culture of all time periods — ancient, colonial, modern, and contemporary – LALVC publishes on Mexico, Central America, South America, the Caribbean, and the United States, as well as on communities in diaspora. LALVC considers all aspects of visual expression, including, but not limited to, art history, material culture, architecture, film and media, museum studies, pop culture, fashion, public art and activism. We welcome a range of interdisciplinary methodologies and perspectives. Additionally, the journal seeks to inspire and advance dialogue and debate concerning pedagogical, methodological, and historiographical issues.

We welcome scholarly research articles (10,000 to 12,000 words) written in English, Spanish, or Portuguese, as well as in American indigenous languages. Contact the editors if you are interested in proposing a guest-edited DIALOGUES section or writing a review of a book or exhibition.

To submit your work for review, or for any inquiries, please contact the editorial staff at LALVCsubmissions@ucpress.edu. Please review the journal’s author guidelines prior to submission.

Deadline for submissions to be considered for the first issue is June 1, 2018.

Many thanks to Gillian Sneed for compiling this list!

For anyone going to L.A. for CAA, I’ve compiled a list of the PST: LA/LA exhibitions that will still be up during CAA week (organized by neighborhood). Some of them are far away, but a lot of them are downtown, not too far from the conference location. Enjoy!

DOWNTOWN

¡Murales Rebeldes! L.A. Chicana/o Murals under Siege
LA Plaza de Cultura y Artes
Address: 501 North Main Street 
Los Angeles, CA
September 23, 2017 – March 19, 2018

Circles and Circuits II: Contemporary Chinese Caribbean Art
Chinese American Museum
Address: 425 North Los Angeles Street Los Angeles, CA
September 15, 2017 – March 11, 2018

Visualizing Language: Oaxaca in LA
Los Angeles Central Library
Address: 630 W. Fifth Street Los Angeles, CA
September 16, 2017 – August 31, 2018

Transpacific Borderlands: The Art of Japanese Diaspora in Lima, Los Angeles, Mexico City, and São Paulo
Japanese American National Museum
Address: 100 N. Central Avenue Los Angeles, CA
September 17, 2017 – February 25, 2018

Día de los Muertos: A Cultural Legacy, Past, Present, and Future
Self Help Graphics & Art
Address: 1300 E. 1st Street Los Angeles, CA
September 17, 2017 – February 24, 2018

SOUTH OF DOWNTOWN (USC)

Circles and Circuits I: History and Art of the Chinese Caribbean Diaspora
California African American Museum
Address: 600 State Drive, Exposition Park Los Angeles, CA
September 15, 2017 – February 25, 2018

LACMA

Found in Translation: Design in California and Mexico, 1915–1985
LACMA (Los Angeles County Museum of Art)
Address: 5905 Wilshire Boulevard Los Angeles, CA
September 17, 2017 – April 01, 2018

Painted in Mexico, 1700–1790: Pinxit Mexici
LACMA (Los Angeles County Museum of Art)
Address: 5905 Wilshire Boulevard Los Angeles, CA
November 19, 2017 – March 18, 2018

CENTURY CITY / WESTWOOD

Axé Bahia: The Power of Art in an Afro-Brazilian Metropolis
Fowler Museum at UCLA
Address: 308 Charles E Young Drive N Los Angeles, CA
September 24, 2017 – April 15, 2018

Cuba Is
Annenberg Space for Photography
Address: 2000 Avenue of the Stars Los Angeles, CA
September 09, 2017 – March 04, 2018

SKIRBALL CENTER (NORTH OF GETTY)

Surface Tension by Ken Gonzales-Day: Murals, Signs, and Mark-Making in L.A.
Skirball Cultural Center
Address: 2701 N Sepulveda Boulevard Los Angeles, CA
October 06, 2017 – February 25, 2018

Another Promised Land: Anita Brenner’s Mexico
Skirball Cultural Center
Address: 2701 N Sepulveda Boulevard Los Angeles, CA
September 14, 2017 – February 25, 2018

PASADENA

Winds from Fusang: Mexico and China in the Twentieth Century
USC Pacific Asia Museum
Address: 46 N. Los Robles Avenue Pasadena, CA
December 08, 2017 – June 10, 2018

LONG BEACH

Relational Undercurrents: Contemporary Art of the Caribbean Archipelago
Museum of Latin American Art (MOLAA)]
Address: 628 Alamitos Avenue, Long Beach, CA 90802
September 16, 2017 – March 04, 2018

SAN DIEGO

Modern Masters from Latin America: The Pérez Simón Collection
San Diego Museum of Art
Address: 1450 El Prado San Diego, CA
October 21, 2017 – March 11, 2018

Point/Counterpoint: Contemporary Mexican Photography
Museum of Photographic Arts
Address: 1649 El Prado San Diego, CA
November 04, 2017 – April 15, 2018

PALM SPRINGS AREA

Carved Narrative: Los Hermanos Chávez Morado
Sunnylands Center & Gardens
Address: 37977 Bob Hope Drive Rancho Mirage, CA
September 14, 2017 – May 30, 2018

TOUR OF JUDY BACA’S MURAL

Public Art Dialogue (PAD), a CAA-affiliated organization dedicated to public art, is organizing a bus tour of Judy Baca’s project The Great Wall of Los Angeles. Baca will be receiving our annual award and will be present for the tour. We still have some spots open on the bus. The tour takes place 11am to 2pm on Thursday February 22. The event is free for PAD members and $20 for non-members. Fees go towards bus rental and boxed lunch refreshments for the event.

Email Annie Dellaria at dellarab@miamioh.edu to RSVP and I will send you payment instructions. Information about PAD can be found here: http://publicartdialogue.org/join

Featured below are several sessions that may be of interest to our membership. If you know of any individual papers to include in the list below, please send me an email! (elaughlin@arts.ufl.edu)

Best wishes for a fabulous conference!

Wednesday, 2/21/18

10:30am

“LA/LX: Queer and Latinx in Los Angeles” (Queer Caucus for Art QCA) Room 403B

4:00pm

“Pacific Standard Time: LA/LA — Case Studies in Teaching from Exhibitions” Room 403B

Thursday, 2/22/18

8:30am

“Borders and Breakthroughs: The Afterlife of PST LA/LA, Part I” Room 403B

10:30am

“Borders and Breakthroughs: The Afterlife of PST LA/LA, Part II” Room 403B

12:30pm-1:30pm

Association for Latin American Art Business Meeting (ALAA) Room 402B

2:00pm

“Imperial Islands: Vision and Experience in the American Empire after 1898 “ Room 506

“Intercontinental: Indigenous Artists of the Americas on the Contemporary Art Stage” Room 409B

4:00pm

“Permanence/Impermanence: Materiality in the Precolumbian World” Room 409B

6:00pm

“Teaching and Writing the Art Histories of Latin American Los Angeles” (Art Historians of Southern California AHSC)Room 403B

Friday, 2/23/18

12:30pm

American Society for Hispanic Art Historical Studies Meeting (ASHAHS) Room 405

US Latinx Art Forum Meeting (USLAF) Room 406A

4:00pm

“Place and Agency in Ancient American Murals and Monuments, Part I” Room 402B

6:00pm

“Place and Agency in Ancient American Murals and Monuments, Part II” Room 402B

Saturday, 2/24/18

8:30am

“Politics and Power in the Americas: Transhistorical Perspectives” Room 405

2:00pm

“Fashion, Costume, and Consumer Culture in Iberia and Latin America: A Sessions in Honor of Gridley McKim-Smith” (American Society for Hispanic Art Historical Studies ASHAHS) Room 405

4:00pm

“Chican@ Art History: Interdisciplinary Foundations and New Directions” (US Latinx Art Forum USLAF) Room 404B

Sunday, 2/25/18

1:00pm

Mesoamerica in Midcentury California: Revivals and Reinvention, in conjunction with the exhibition “Found in Translation: Design in California and Mexico, 1915-1985”Los Angeles County Museum of Art, Brown Auditorium 5905 Wilshire Boulevard, Los Angeles, CA 90036