description: Studies of 'gay' and 'lesbian' art have focused on North America and Europe, leaving the rich homo-erotic imagery of much Latin American art unregarded. Images of Ambiente aims at widening the horizons of art history by uncovering and interpreting homo-erotic representations from post-colonial Latin America.Homosexual imagery was implicit at first, codified and immersed in academic, romanticist or indigenist traditions. Modernization of Latin America's new capitals at the end of the nineteenth century was accompanied by a fin-de-siecle narrative of sensuality, heterosexual, yet clearly marked by an intention to cross boundaries and participate in the realm of a 'decadent' aesthetic. Muralism's gender politics stigmatized non-conformist representations of male or female eros, while caricature images were produced of the newly defined 'invertido' or homosexual. On the other hand, social realism did at times generate images of male (semi-)nudity, objectified in the form of agricultural labourers and industrial workers, coded for a potentially homosexual gaze. From the 1950s on a homosexual art subculture was evolving, if discreetly, in portraits of intimate friends and in images of meeting places, cruising grounds, or icons of gay desire.Political circumstance often stood in the way of more open expression of same-sex eroticism. Leftist rhetoric policed artistic production in Castro's Cuba, while military regimes in South America forced virtually all non-conformist art underground. Many artists fled to Europe and North America, where some joined the cultural politics of a nascent Gay Liberation movement while simultaneously negotiating cultural identity. Many who remained developed avisual language that addressed issues of body and gender while simultaneously avoiding censorship.Bleys argues that the recent abertura and (partial) democratization has allowed a more direct expression of modern homosexual identity, and of an 'ambiente', that is more visible, especially in the urban centres. However, as gay and lesbian life comes increasingly under the influence of North America and Europe, voices have risen to protest against this cultural imperialism. Representations of ambiente are increasingly charged with post-colonialist concerns both in Latin America as well as in the various Latino art communities in the USA.
language: English
title: Images of Ambiente: Homo-Eroticism and Gay Identities in Latin American Art from 1821 to the Present
titlecomplete: Images of Ambiente: Homo-Eroticism and Gay Identities in Latin American Art from 1821 to the Present
ratings_count: 1
publisher: Cassell