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Sylvia Palacios Whitman: Passing Through

Sylvia Palacios Whitman (born Chile, 1941; lives and works in the United States). Passing Through, Sonnabend Gallery, 1977. Documentation of performance; photographer: Babette Mangolte. Photograph, 11 × 14 in. (27.9 × 35.6 cm). Courtesy of Babette Mangolte. © 1977 Babette Mangolte (all rights of reproduction reserved)

Sylvia Palacios Whitman: Passing Through

Sylvia Palacios Whitman (born Chile, 1941; lives and works in the United States). Passing Through, Sonnabend Gallery, 1977. Documentation of performance; photographer: Babette Mangolte. Photograph, 11 × 14 in. (27.9 × 35.6 cm). Courtesy of Babette Mangolte. © 1977 Babette Mangolte (all rights of reproduction reserved)

Yolanda Andrade: Marcha gay

Yolanda Andrade (born Mexico, 1950). Marcha gay (Gay pride march), 1984. Gelatin silver print. 11 × 14 in. (27.9 × 35.6 cm). Courtesy of the artist. © Yolanda Andrade

Since the late 1970s, Yolanda Andrade has photographed culture and life on the streets of Mexico City, including the city’s queer and transgender communities during the development of the country’s LGBTQ Movement. Terry Holiday y Federico focuses on how queer sexuality and gender nonconformity were represented in popular culture, picturing two actors caught on break while filming A fuego lento (México de noche) (1980), a film centered on the nightlife of Mexico City. Marcha gay and Las protestantes document moments from the early years of community organizing after Mexico’s first gay pride marches took place in 1979. The demonstrators in Las protestantes carry signs featuring articles that sensationalize the rumored sex change of actress Olga Breeskin’s male secretary, to protest the tactics of conservative and Christian newspapers to smear youth, queer, and movie cultures as morally degenerate.

Desde finales de los años 70, Yolanda Andrade ha fotografiado la cultura y la vida en las calles de la Ciudad de México, incluyendo a las comunidades queer y transgénero durante el desarrollo del movimiento LGBTQ del país. Terry Holiday y Federico se enfoca en el modo en que la sexualidad queer y las identidades de género no conforme han sido representadas en la cultura popular, al retratar a dos actores durante un descanso en la filmación de A fuego lento (México de noche) (1980), un filme sobre la vida nocturna de la Ciudad de México. Marcha gay y Las protestantes documentan momentos durante los primeros años de organización comunitaria luego de las primeras marchas del orgullo gay en 1979. Los manifestantes de Las protestantes llevan carteles con artículos sensacionalistas sobre el supuesto cambio de sexo del secretario de Olga Breeskin, en protesta contra las tácticas utilizadas por los periódicos conservadores y cristianos para desprestigiar la cultura cinematográfica, juvenil y queer tildándola de degenerada.

Gloria Camiruaga: Popsicles

Gloria Camiruaga (Chile 1941–2006 Chile). Popsicles, 1982–84. Video, color, sound; 6:00 min. Museo de Arte Contemporáneo (MAC), Facultad de Artes Universidad de Chile. © Gloria Camiruaga

Gloria Camiruaga’s close-ups of girls licking Popsicles while reciting the Hail Mary create enveloping scenes of implied violence. The subjects (including the artist’s daughters) obsessively repeat their prayers, and lick the Popsicles until they reveal plastic soldiers inside. In the context of the Chilean dictatorship of Augusto Pinochet (1973–90), this combination of the sensual and the playful constituted a biting commentary. The girls’ actions turn the militarized society into an eroticized game. Their tongues, stained by the Popsicles, are a humorous nod to childhood innocence, but they can also be read as an inevitable contamination and a mark of desanctification.

Con primeros planos de un grupo de niñas que lamen helados mientras rezan el Ave María, Gloria Camiruaga nos sumerge en una escena de violencia. Todos los sujetos (incluyendo a las hijas de la artista) repiten obsesivamente sus oraciones y lamen hasta descubrir dentro de los helados los cuerpos de soldados de plástico. En el contexto de la dictaura militar de Augusto Pinochet en Chile (1973–90), lo sensual y lo lúdico se convierten en comentario mordaz. Las acciones de las niñas alteran el orden normal de la sociedad militarizada llevando el contexto político al contexto de un juego erotizado. Las lenguas teñidas de las niñas conservan la huella de la acción. Cierta impregnación que podríamos entender como inevitable contaminación, y al mismo tiempo como la marca de una desacralización.

Sandra Eleta: Edita (la del plumero)

Sandra Eleta (born Panama, 1942). Edita (la del plumero), Panamá (Edita [the one with the feather duster], Panama), 1977, from the series La servidumbre (Servitude), 1978– 79. Black-and-white photograph, 19 × 19 in. (48.3 × 48.3 cm). Courtesy of Galería Arteconsult S.A., Panama. © Sandra Eleta

Paz Errázuriz: Evelyn

Paz Errázuriz (born Chile, 1944). Evelyn, 1982, from the series La manzana de Adán (Adam’s apple), 1982–90. Gelatin silver print, 159/16 × 231/2 in. (39.5 × 59.7 cm). Courtesy of the artist and Galería AFA, Santiago. © Paz Errázuriz

Photographer Paz Errázuriz embarked on a project to document marginalized communities under the oppressive Chilean dictatorship (1973–90). From 1982 to 1990, she took photographs of queer and transgender sex workers at La Palmera brothel in Santiago and La Jauja brothel in Talca.

Evelyn, an image of a reclining subject before a mirror, is an appropriation and reworking of Diego Velázquez’s Toilet of Venus (“The Rokeby Venus”), 1647–51 (The National Gallery, London). In other works in the series, Evelyn is captured by the camera with a pornographic calendar; in the evening, when she applies her makeup; and posing for a family portrait with her partner.

La fotógrafa Paz Errázuriz inició un proyecto de varios años sobre sujetos marginalizados en el contexto opresivo de la dictadura en Chile (1973–90). Para ello, fotografió trabajadores sexuales queer y transgéneros entre 1982 y 1990 en burdeles: La Palmera, en Santiago, y La Jauja, en Talca.

Evelyn, imagen de un sujeto recostado frente a un espejo, es una apropiación y una reelaboración de La Venus del espejo de Diego Velázquez (1647–51, The National Gallery, Londres). En otras obras de la serie, Evelyn es retratada por la cámara con un almanaque pornográfico; cuando se maquilla al atardecer; y posando en un retrato familiar junto a su pareja.

Lourdes Grobet: La Venus

Lourdes Grobet (born Mexico, 1940). La Venus, 1981–82, from the series La doble lucha (The double struggle), 1981–2005. Black-and-white photograph, 91/2 × 14 in. (24 × 35.5 cm). Collection of Lourdes Grobet. © Lourdes Grobet

Sonia Gutiérrez: Y con unos lazos me izaron

Sonia Gutiérrez (born Colombia, 1947). Y con unos lazos me izaron (And they lifted me up with rope), 1979. Acrylic on canvas, 591/16 × 471/4 in. (150 × 120 cm). Museo de Arte Moderno La Tertulia, Cali, Colombia. © Sonia Gutiérrez

In the 1970s Sonia Gutiérrez took an overtly political stance that culminated in her sudden exile from Colombia’s art scene. Her paintings and prints from the 1970s and early 1980s denounce acts of torture and persecution while retaining her Pop art aesthetic. Depicting faceless bodies restrained by ropes and bonds of fabric, Gutiérrez replaced the typically banal message of Pop art with social and political commentary.

Y con unos lazos me izaron was inspired by the case of Dr. Olga López, who was unjustly arrested with her five-year-old daughter. Kept blindfolded and tied up, she was brutally tortured for two weeks during her 1979–81 imprisonment. López described her treatment: “They wrapped my wrists in fabric, and they lifted me up with rope.”

En los años 70, Sonia Gutiérrez, asumió una actitud abiertamente política que culminó con su exilio repentino de la escena artística de Colombia. En sus pinturas y grabados de los años 70 y comienzos de los 80, aunque mantiene una estética pop, denuncia actos de tortura y persecución. Mediante la representación de cuerpos sin rostro atados con sogas y tiras de tela, la obra de Gutiérrez representa una versión de lo pop que se opone a la banalidad del mensaje, optando en cambio por comunicar contenidos sociales y políticos.

Y con unos lazos me izaron fue inspirada por el caso de la doctora Olga López, injustamente arrestada con su hija de cinco años, vendada y amarrada durante dos semanas de tortura brutal, mientras estuvo encarcelada entre 1979 y 1981. López describió así el trato que recibió: “Me envolvieron las muñecas con tela y con unos lazos me izaron”.

Ana Mendieta: Corazón de roca con sangre

Ana Mendieta (Cuba 1948–1985 United States; worked in the United States). Corazón de roca con sangre (Rock heart with blood), 1975. Super 8 film converted to high definition digital media, color, silent, 3:03 min. Courtesy of The Estate of Ana Mendieta Collection, LLC, and Galerie Lelong, New York. © Ana Mendieta

Marta Minujín: Colchón

Marta Minujín (born Argentina, 1943). Colchón (Mattress), 1964/1985. Acrylic on fabric, foam rubber (reconstructed), 591/16 × 341/4 × 211/4 in. (150 × 87 × 54 cm). Collection of Jorge and Marion Helft. © Marta Minujín

The body was central to much of the Argentine artist Marta Minujín’s Pop production from the 1960s. Her early constructions with multicolored mattresses—including Colchón—called attention to intimate physical activities, such as rest and sex. In both La chambre d’amour (The Love Room) (1963) and ¡Revuélquese y viva! (Roll Around and Live!) (1964), viewers were invited to enter through door-vaginas and to interact with mattress sculptures, perhaps through imaginary lovemaking. Beyond the references to female anatomy, these pieces were striking because they engaged the audience in the action—a priority of Minujín’s work to the present day.

El cuerpo es uno de los ejes principales de toda la producción pop de Marta Minujín desde los años 60. Sus primeras construcciones con colchones multicolores —incluyendo Colchón— llaman la atención sobre las actividades físicas reservadas a la intimidad, desde el descanso al sexo. Tanto en La chambre d’amour (Habitación del amor, 1963) como en ¡Revuélquese y viva! (1964), el público es invitado a ingresar a través de puertas-vaginas y a interactuar con las esculturas de colchones, evocando imaginariamente el acto de hacer el amor. Más allá de las referencias a la anatomía femenina, estas piezas impactan porque activan los cuerpos de los espectadores, una prioridad en el trabajo de Minujín hasta hoy.

Zilia Sánchez: Lunar V

Zilia Sánchez (born Cuba, 1928; lives and works in Puerto Rico). Lunar V (Moon V), circa 1973. Acrylic on canvas, 743/4 × 791/2 × 10 in. (189.9 × 201.9 × 25.4 cm). Private collection, Seattle; courtesy of Galerie Lelong, New York. © Zilia Sánchez

Zilia Sánchez is a Cuban-born artist who, after living for a decade in New York, moved to Puerto Rico in 1972. There, she began a series of paintings in which she applied the formal language of abstraction to representations of the female body. The warmth and eroticism of the silhouettes in her canvases, titled with suggestive phrases such as Topología erótica (Erotic Topologies), depart from the cold and impersonal approach associated with geometric abstraction in Latin America. In Lunar V, Sánchez stretched the canvas in such a way as to create protrusions resembling interlocking tongues or labia. The title—as well as the sky-blue and white hues of the painting—invite a reading equating female and celestial bodies.

Zilia Sánchez es una artista nacida en Cuba quien, después de vivir diez años en Nueva York, se traslada a Puerto Rico en 1972. Es entonces donde y cuando comenzó una serie de pinturas que reemplazaban los elementos figurativos del cuerpo femenino con el lenguaje formal de la abstracción. La calidez y el erotismo de las siluetas de sus lienzos, a los cuales nombró con frases sugestivas como Topología erótica, rompió con la aproximación fría e impersonal asociada a la abstracción geométrica en América Latina. En Lunar V, Sánchez estiró el lienzo en dos puntos exactos de manera que las protuberancias resultantes semejaran lenguas entrelazadas o labios vaginales. El título, así como el uso de tonos azul celeste y blanco, invitan a la lectura de la anatomía femenina como evocadora de la topografía de los cuerpos celestes.

Victoria Santa Cruz: Me gritaron negra

Victoria Santa Cruz (Peru 1922–2014 Peru). Me gritaron negra (They shouted black at me), 1978. Documentation of performance, excerpted from the documentary Victoria—Black and Woman, 1978. Director: Torgeir Wethal; producer: Odin Teatret Film Video. Video, black and white, sound; 3:58 min. OTA-Odin Teatret Archives

This recording of a poetry performance by activist, choreographer, and composer Victoria Santa Cruz follows her own girlhood experience of racial discrimination and later embracing of her blackness as a source of pride. The performance addresses black experience in South America, which is often denied and devalued by dominant cultures and regimes, despite long histories of Afro-Latino traditions throughout the region—in this case in Peru. Forcefully uttering the words “¿Y qué?” (So what?) to the rhythm of clapping hands, which also sets her body in motion, Santa Cruz calls for self-empowerment and black pride.

Esta grabación de una performance de poesía de la activista, coreógrafa y compositora Victoria Santa Cruz sigue su propio relato de infancia como una chica que sufre discriminación racial y luego asume su negritud con orgullo. La performance aborda la experiencia afroamericana en América del Sur, generalmente negada y excluida, a pesar de contar con una larga historia de tradiciones afrolatinas a lo largo de la región, en este caso en el Perú. Con su “¿Y qué?” pronunciado con fuerza, al ritmo de las palmas y como punto de partida del movimiento del cuerpo, Santa Cruz apela al auto- empoderamiento y a sentir orgullo de la negritud.

Regina Silveira: Biscoito arte

Regina Silveira (born Brazil, 1939). Biscoito arte (Art cookie), 1976. One of two chromogenic prints (diptych), 291/2 × 39 in. (74.9 × 99.1 cm) (this image); 6911/16 × 393/4 in. (177 × 101 cm) overall. Collection of Fernanda Feitosa and Heitor Martins. © Regina Silveira

Elizabeth A Sackler Center for Feminist Art

Radical Women: Latin American Art, 1960–1985

April 13–July 22, 2018

This is the first exhibition to explore the groundbreaking contributions to contemporary art of Latin American and Latina women artists during a period of extraordinary conceptual and aesthetic experimentation. Featuring 123 artists from 15 countries, Radical Women: Latin American Art, 1960–1985 focuses on their use of the female body for political and social critique and artistic expression. (Note: This exhibition contains mature content.)

The artists pioneer radical forms and explore a female sensibility with overt or, more often, covert links to feminist activism. Many works were realized under harsh political and social conditions, some due to U.S. interventions in Central and South America, that were complicated or compounded by the artists’ experiences as women.

The artworks on view range from painting and sculpture to photography, video, performance, and other new mediums. Included are emblematic figures such as Lygia Pape, Ana Mendieta, and Marta Minujín, alongside lesser‐known names such as Cuban‐born abstract painter Zilia Sánchez; Colombian sculptor Feliza Bursztyn; Peruvian composer, choreographer, and activist Victoria Santa Cruz; and Argentine mixed‐media artist Margarita Paksa. The Brooklyn presentation also includes Nuyorican portraits by photographer Sophie Rivera, as well as work from Chicana graphic arts pioneer Ester Hernández, Cuban filmmaker Sara Gómez, and Afro-Latina activist and artist Marta Moreno Vega.

View a PDF listing all of the artists included in the exhibition.

Radical Women: Latin American Art, 1960–1985 is organized by the Hammer Museum, Los Angeles, as part of Pacific Standard Time: LA/LA, an initiative of the Getty with arts institutions across Southern California, and guest curated by Cecilia Fajardo-Hill and Andrea Giunta with Marcela Guerrero, former curatorial fellow, Hammer Museum. The Brooklyn presentation is organized by Catherine Morris, Sackler Senior Curator, and Carmen Hermo, Assistant Curator, Elizabeth A. Sackler Center for Feminist Art, Brooklyn Museum.

This exhibition is made possible through lead grants from the Getty Foundation. Major funding is provided by the Diane and Bruce Halle Foundation and Eugenio López Alonso. Generous support is provided by Marcy Carsey, Betty and Brack Duker, Susan Bay Nimoy, and Visionary Women. Leadership support for the Brooklyn Museum presentation is provided by the Ford Foundation. Major support is provided by Pedro J. Torres and Cecilia Picon, the Starry Night Fund, the Horace W. Goldsmith Foundation, Brooklyn Friends of Radical Women, and Bank of America. Additional support is provided by the Clarissa and Edgar Bronfman Jr. Foundation, Christina and Emmanuel Di Donna, Cristina Grajales Gallery, Dominique Lévy and Brett Gorvy, Susan Bay Nimoy, and Mexico's Ministry of Foreign Affairs with the Mexican Cultural Institute.