The Curatorial Category of Latino Art: A discussion between Hampshire alum Alex Rivera and Washington Post art critic Phillip Kennicott
Hampshire alum Alex Rivera recently challenged Phillip Kennicott, chief art critic on The Washington Post, in the November 1 Washington Post Style Blog. Rivera questioned Kennicott’s round criticism of, “Our America: The Latino Presence in American Art” currently on display at the Smithsonian American Art Museum. Rivera, a digital media artist and filmmaker who graduated from Hampshire College in 1995, challenged Kennicott’s claim, “that the show’s lack of focus was “a telling symptom of an insoluble problem: Latino art, today, is a meaningless category.” Rivera wisely asks how Latino art can be critiqued as too broad a category when American art is widely categorized as American.
Kennicott writes:
So from the very beginning we have curatorial acknowledgement that the category is “an imperfect composite construct” and isn’t “settled or clear cut” and it can’t “shoulder the divergent histories” it seeks to contain. And the work it is supposedly able to do–indicator of descent, shared experience and art historical marginalization–is in fact so broad that it can’t really focus the exhibition. The last two of these subcategories in the definition Ramos offers–shared experience and art historical marginalization–are more useful than the first–indicator of descent–and they would offer grounds for a better exhibition. But it would have to be much better focused than what is on display at the Smithsonian.
Rivera replies, “I don’t doubt the show is imperfect, and worthy of critique. I don’t doubt that the show is broad in nature. But in the future I hope to read reviews that take me into the show, on the show’s terms. Reviews that help me understand what specifically works and what doesn’t. And reviews that accept as a starting point that presenting the work of people who inhabit big categories like “Latino Artists” is vital and urgent.”
Clearly the curatorial category of Latino art is playing an important role in establishing the need for curating content by often marginalized artists.
Read the full discussion online in Nov 1. 2013 The Washington Post Style Blog
or, check out the exhibition online
If you are interested in learning more about curatorial studies at Hampshire College, be sure to explore the Institute for Curatorial Practice.
Alex Rivera is a digital media artist and filmmaker, best known for his Sundance award-winning feature film “Sleep Dealer.” His film and digital media work has been screened at The Berlin International Film Festival, the Museum of Modern Art, The Guggenheim, The Getty, Museum, Lincoln Center, PBS, and other international venues.