In 1992, the K’iche’ Guatemalan activist Rigoberta Menchú was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize. She called it “one of the greatest conquests in the struggle for peace, for human rights, and for the rights of the Indigenous people, who, for five hundred years, have been split, fragmented, as well as the victims of genocides, repression, and discrimination.” Her carefully chosen words came just days after the quincentenary of Christopher Columbus’s arrival in the Americas.
Like Menchú, the artists in this gallery have worked to address legacies of colonialism in the Americas. Some use traditional Indigenous iconography to engage histories of resistance, or performative tactics to critique and counter stereotypes. Others promote solidarity across the Americas, imagining forms of unity through shared experience. Together, the works here shed light on the cultural debates of 1992 and on the artists and activists who worked to upend the celebratory narratives of conquest that marked this contentious anniversary.
Organized by Beverly Adams, Estrellita Brodsky Curator of Latin American Art, and Inés Katzenstein, Curator of Latin American Art and Director of the Patricia Phelps de Cisneros Research Institute for the Study of Art from Latin America, with Julia Detchon, Curatorial Assistant, Department of Drawing and Prints, Abby Hermosilla, Curatorial Assistant, Department of Curatorial Affairs, and Damasia Lacroze, Curatorial Assistant, Department of Painting and Sculpture.
