ART REVIEW : Visions From <i> ‘el Pueblo’ </i> of Latin America

“The Folk Art of Latin America: Visiones del Pueblo ,” a rather smallish exhibition that has been traveling the country for the past year, offers a nonetheless engaging and insightful introduction to a subject few museums ever carefully consider. In fact, one of the principal accomplishments of the show is the way it fills in the most egregious shortcoming of “Mexico: Splendors of ThirtyCenturies,” the blockbuster exhibition that also toured, to much fanfare and not inconsiderable controversy, three years ago.

“Splendors” did a first-rate job chronicling the public and aristocratic cultures of Mexico from Pre-Columbian ages through the Colonial era. In presenting the revolutionary period of the 19th and early-20th Centuries, though, the exhibition faltered, then completely fell apart. One reason was that the defining spirit of the great public murals of artists such as Diego Rivera, Jose Clemente Orozco and David Alfaro Siqueiros, which obviously could not be accommodated by a traveling exhibition, was misrepresented.

The blunder was underscored by the simple fact that arte popular --folk art--was virtually ignored. Given the centrality of a social, political and even spiritual concept of el pueblo (“the people”) to the modern history of Mexico, including to the mural movement of Rivera and the others, the omission of modern folk art from a position of prominence among Mexico’s splendid treasures was grievous.

“The Folk Art of Latin America: Visiones del Pueblo ,” which may be seen at the Natural History Museum of Los Angeles County through Jan. 5, is not limited to work produced in Mexico. Its 250 objects were made in 17 diverse countries, ranging from Chile to the Southwest United States, and also encompassing Caribbean nations where Spanish or French is the principal language.

Still, it does give a good sense of how significant folk art is throughout the region, Mexico included. It also shows, in a variety of exceptional examples, how aesthetically adept folk art can be.

Organized for New York’s Museum of American Folk Art by guest curator Marion Oettinger Jr., who also wrote the excellent catalogue that accompanies the show, “ Visiones “ begins by demonstrating how malleable and resilient Latin American folk art has been. Because it’s often utilitarian and rarely made for pristine display, which might preserve an object for many generations, most everything in the show is of modern, and even very recent, vintage. Yet, the traditions from which even the most contemporary work is made can be as old as the ancient civilizations that flourished for centuries throughout Latin America.

Oettinger begins the show with two examples. One is the image of Santiago Matamoros --St. James the Moor-Killer--which arrived with the Spanish conquerors and became a useful tool of the Catholic Church for the suppression of pagan beliefs.

Perhaps the single most beautiful object on view is a wonderfully well-preserved, 18th-Century polychromed carving of Santiago astride his famous stallion, trampling a hapless Moor beneath his hooves. The playful, toy-like quality of the nearly 2-foot-tall sculpture is matched by its highly refined elegance, which serves to valorize the storybook tale.

This Mexican sculpture is accompanied by a soapstone carving from Peru, a painted-wood sculpture from Guatemala, a nicho (“niche”) from Bolivia, a sequined banner from Haiti and other objects adorned with the image of St. James or his horse. That the image is commonplace throughout Latin America is a point deftly made, while the localized diversity of its representational uses is plain.

The second introductory example assembles pottery, masks and a facsimile edition of a 16th-Century manuscript that represents the jaguar, a 3,000-year-old symbol of nobility, the underworld and fertility. Like St. James, the jaguar represents a pan-Latin American folk theme.

Unlike St. James, which was brought by the Spanish, the pagan image of the jaguar survived all Catholic efforts to suppress and eradicate it. Instead, it merged with Christian lore, subtly changing both its own meaning and that of its Catholic suppressor.

The remainder of the exhibition is divided into categories that suggest a range of functions for Latin American folk art. Objects that are ceremonial, utilitarian, recreational or decorative are grouped together. While not exclusive, such categories do serve to identify the embeddedness of these objects within the rhythms of everyday life.

The noteworthy success of this modest show in fashioning a coherent introduction to such an enormous topic is, ironically, likewise its chief drawback. You long for specificity.

Latin America is the locus of extraordinary, global cultural interactions: with Asia, through migration and trade; with Europe, through the conquest; with Africa, through the ensuing slave trade. All of it reverberates through arte popular . You can’t help feeling that “The Folk Art of Latin America: Visiones del Pueblo “ is just the barest tip of an immense and potentially enlightening iceberg waiting to be scrutinized, but far beyond our present grasp.

* Natural History Museum of Los Angeles County, 900 Exposition Blvd., (English: (213) 744-3466; Spanish: (213) 744-3575, through Jan. 5. Closed Mondays and most Tuesdays.