In the Bartels Gallery, Floor 1L
The artworks featured in this exhibition span more than three hundred years of history, five thousand miles of territory, and two oceans, introducing the rich artistic traditions of Mexico, Venezuela, Colombia, Ecuador, Peru, Bolivia, Cuba, Puerto Rico, and the Philippines during the period of Spanish colonial rule (approximately 1492–1830).
This first exhibition of colonial Latin American art at Cornell considers the profound impact of colonization, evangelization, and the transatlantic slave trade in the visual culture of the Spanish empire, while also manifesting the creative agency and resilience of Indigenous, Black, and mixed-race artists during a tumultuous historical period bookended by conquest and revolution.
At first glance, these religious images, portraits, and luxury goods might seem to uphold colonial structures that suggest a one-way flow of power from Europe to the Americas. Yet closer consideration of these artists’ identities, materials, techniques, and subjects reveals compelling stories about the global crossings of people, commodities, and ideas in the creation of new visual languages in the Spanish Americas. These artworks testify to entangled cultural landscapes—from paintings of the Virgin Mary with ties to sacred sites of her apparition, to lacquer furniture bearing the visual stamp of trade with East Asia, they embody a plurality of cultural, material, and religious meanings.
Colonial Crossings was cocurated by Dr. Andrew C. Weislogel, Seymour R. Askin, Jr. ’47 Curator of Earlier European and American Art at the Museum, and Dr. Ananda Cohen-Aponte, Associate Professor of the History of Art & Visual Studies, and the students in Colonial Connectivities: Curating the Arts of the Spanish Americas (ARTH 4166/6166):
Osiel Aldaba ’26
Miguel Barrera ’24
Daniel Dixon ’24
Juliana Fagua Arias, PhD student
Miche Flores, PhD student
Isa Goico ’24
Sara Handerhan ’24
Emily Hernandez ’25
Ashley Koca ’25
Maximilian Leston ’26
Maria Mendoza Blanco ’26
Lena Sow, PhD student
Nicholas Vega ’26
We are grateful to lenders Carl and Marilynn Thoma, the Denver Museum of Art, the Hispanic Society of America, and the Division of Rare and Manuscript Collections, Cornell University Library; and to David Ni ’24, the 2023 Nancy Horton Bartels ’48 Scholar for Collections, for organizational support.
Listen to Andrew Weislogel and Juliana Fagua Arias discuss the exhibition on Speaking of Language, a weekly podcast recorded at the Language Resource Center at Cornell University that explores topics related to language pedagogy and second language acquisition.
Las obras de arte presentadas en esta exposición abarcan más de trescientos años de historia, cinco mil millas de territorio y dos océanos, introduciendo las ricas tradiciones artísticas de México, Venezuela, Colombia, Ecuador, Perú, Bolivia, Cuba, Puerto Rico y las Filipinas durante el período del dominio colonial español (aproximadamente 1492–1830).
Esta primera exposición de arte colonial latinoamericano en Cornell considera el profundo impacto de la colonización, la evangelización y la trata transatlántica de esclavos en la cultura visual del imperio español, al mismo tiempo que manifiesta la agencia creativa y la resiliencia de artistas indígenas, negros y mestizos durante un período histórico tumultuoso enmarcado por la conquista y la revolución.
A primera vista, estas imágenes religiosas, retratos y objetos de lujo parecen ratificar estructuras coloniales que sugieren un flujo unidireccional del poder de Europa a América. Sin embargo, una consideración más cercana de las identidades de los artistas y de los materiales, técnicas y temas de las obras de arte revelan historias cautivadoras sobre los cruces globales de personas, mercancías e ideas en la creación de nuevos lenguajes visuales en Hispanoamérica. Estas obras de arte dan testimonio de paisajes culturales entrelazados: desde pinturas de la Virgen María vinculadas a los lugares sagrados de su aparición, hasta muebles lacados que llevan el sello visual del comercio con el este de Asia, estas obras encarnan una pluralidad de significados culturales, materiales y religiosos.
Colonial Crossings fue co-curada por el Dr. Andrew C. Weislogel, curador Seymour R. Askin, Jr. ’47 de arte europeo y americano temprano del Johnson Museum of Art, y la Dra. Ananda Cohen-Aponte, profesora asociada de Historia del Arte y Estudios Visuales, y los estudiantes de Colonial Connectivities: Curating the Arts of the Spanish Americas (ARTH 4166/6166):
Osiel Aldaba ’26
Miguel Barrera ’24
Daniel Dixon ’24
Juliana Fagua Arias, PhD student
Miche Flores, PhD student
Isa Goico ’24
Sara Handerhan ’24
Emily Hernandez ’25
Ashley Koca ’25
Maximilian Leston ’26
Maria Mendoza Blanco ’26
Lena Sow, PhD student
Nicholas Vega ’26
Agradecemos los préstamos de Carl y Marilynn Thoma, el Denver Museum of Art, la Hispanic Society of America y la División de Colecciones Raras y Manuscritos de la Biblioteca de la Universidad de Cornell; y a David Ni ’24, el Nancy Horton Bartels ’48 Scholar for Collections de 2023, por su apoyo organizativo.
The exhibition has been made possible in part through the generous support of the Carl & Marilynn Thoma Foundation.
Additional support was provided by an endowment in memory of Elizabeth Miller Francis ’47, the Donald and Maria Cox Exhibition Endowment, the Alan and Betsey Harris Exhibition Endowment, and a gift from Younghee Kim-Wait. Support has also been made possible by the New York State Council on the Arts with the support of the Office of the Governor and the New York State Legislature.
La exposición ha sido posible en parte gracias al generoso apoyo de la Carl & Marilynn Thoma Foundation.
Se proporcionó apoyo adicional mediante una donación en memoria de Elizabeth Miller Francis ’47, la Donald and Maria Cox Exhibition Endowment, la Alan and Betsey Harris Exhibition Endowment, y una donación de Younghee Kim-Wait. El apoyo también ha sido posible gracias al Consejo de las Artes del Estado de Nueva York con el apoyo de la Oficina del Gobernador y la Legislatura del Estado de Nueva York.
Selected Artworks
View of Roseau Valley, Island of Dominica, showing Africans, Carib Indians, and Creole Planters
Agostino Brunias
La Maternidad
Wifredo Lam
Conical paccha with three figures
Cara/Panzaleo (Ecuador)
Angel indescreto
Mariana Yampolsky
Our Lady of the Rosary of Chiquinquirá with Female Donor
Unidentified workshop, Cuzco, Peru
Our Lady of the Rosary of Chiquinquirá with Female Donor
Unidentified workshop, Cuzco, Peru
Unidentified workshop, Cuzco, Peru. Our Lady of the Rosary of Chiquinquirá with Female Donor, late 17th–early 18th century. Oil and gold on canvas. Collection of Carl & Marilynn Thoma, 2013.046. (Photo: Jamie M. Stukenberg)
Our Lady of Cocharcas
Unidentified workshop, Peru
Our Lady of Cocharcas
Unidentified workshop, Peru
Unidentified workshop, Peru. Our Lady of Cocharcas, 1751. Oil and gold on canvas. Collection of Carl & Marilynn Thoma, 2011.040. (Photo: Jamie M. Stukenberg)