Appropriation and Invention: Three Centuries of Art in Spanish America

A bilingual guide to the Denver Art Museum’s permanent collection of Latin American art, covering masterpieces from three centuries of art in Spanish America.

Drawing from the renowned collection of Latin American Art at the Denver Art Museum, this bilingual catalog examines the processes of appropriation and invention in the arts of Spanish America from the 1520s to the 1820s. The book highlights Latin American masterpieces, including paintings, sculptures, and decorative arts, made shortly after the conquest and before the independence movements. Arranged regionally, the book’s essays explore how artists found artistic freedom under colonial authority. The book shows that while still pleasing clients, many artists of Indigenous and African descent also reclaimed and reshaped the arts for themselves and their new colonial realities. Essays that consider modern and contemporary trends round out the volume.
 

Jorge F. Rivas Pérez is the Frederick and Jan Mayer Curator of Latin American Art at the Denver Art Museum. He is the co-editor of Revisión: A New Look at Arts in the Americas.