Surrealism in Latin America
Subtitle: vivísimo muerto
By: edited by Dawn Ades, Rita Eder, and Graciela Speranz
Contributors: Speranza, Graciela, 1957- editor of compilation
Series: Issues & debates
Publisher: Getty Research Institute
Published: 2012
Place of publication: Los Angeles
Language: eng
Number of pages: 224
ISBN-13: 9781606061176
Subjects: Surrealism; Latin American Arts
Description: This collection of essays--the first major account of surrealism in Latin America that covers both literary and visual production--explores the role the movement played in the construction and recuperation of cultural identities and the ways artists and writers contested, embraced, and adapted surrealist ideas and practices. Surrealism in Latin America provides new Latin American-centric scholarship, not only about surrealism's impact on the region but also about the region's impact on surrealism. It reconsiders the relation between art and anthropology, casts new light on the aesthetics of "primitivism," and makes a strong case for Latin American artists and writers as the inheritors of a movement that effectively went underground after World War II. In doing so, it expands our understanding of important, fascinating figures who are less well known than their counterparts active in Europe and New York. Deriving from a conference held at the Getty Research Institute, the book is rich in new materials drawn from the GRI's diverse Mexican and South American surrealist collections, which include the archives of Vicente Huidobro, Enrique Gómez-Correa, César Moro, Enrique Lihn, and Emilio Westphalen. THis panoramic survey goes a step beyond other recent studies to consider surrealism's ongoing legacies, proposing that the surrealist movement in Latin America, like the vivísimo muerto (the living dead)--cannot be relegated to the past.
Notes: This volume evolved from "Vivísimo Muerto: Debates on Surrealism in Latin America," a symposium held at the Getty Research Institute in Los Angeles, 25/26 June 2010.

Includes bibliographical references and index.