A Traveling Trove of Latino Riches

A deliriously decorated bauble hangs from the ceiling at the entry to the exhibition “Arte Latino: Treasures From the Smithsonian American Art Museum,” just off the main lobby of the Palm Springs Desert Museum. Pepon Osorio’s glass chandelier is encrusted with a fanciful jumble of pearls and colored beads, plastic swans and dolls, toy palm trees and even a few religious figures, including a priest and St. Christopher.

According to the Smithsonian’s exhibition catalog, the artist considers chandeliers to be a symbol of pride in his Puerto Rican neighborhood in New York. Furthermore, his mother had been a cake decorator, so his artwork ties together both references.

Such personal touches mark many of the 60 works included in this exhibition, the highlights of the Latino collection in the Smithsonian American Art Museum in Washington. When it shut down for a five-year renovation in January 2000, the museum decided to send its collections on tour rather than relegate them to storage. “Arte Latino,” one of the eight traveling exhibitions the curators organized, makes its sole Southern California appearance at the Desert Museum.

The collection and the exhibition span 300 years, but the Washington museum only recently began to focus on Latino art--seeking work by artists living in the U.S., both immigrant and native-born. “We have been collecting Latino artists since the ‘70s,” says Virginia Mecklenburg, senior curator at the Smithsonian American Art Museum, “but it was collecting the occasional piece.”

Then something from California gave them a jolt. In 1992 the museum presented “Chicano Art: Resistance and Affirmation, 1965-1985,” which had originated at the Wight Art Gallery at UCLA. “It demonstrated to us,” Mecklenburg says, “that there was a whole body of art we in Washington didn’t have access to very often.”

The Smithsonian acquired several pieces from the show, including a painting by Carmen Lomas Garza (“Bed for Dreams”), an altar table by Emanuel Martinez (“Farm Workers’ Altar”) and a multimedia installation by Amalia Mesa-Bains (“An Ofrenda for Dolores del Rio”). Then in 1997, Teodoro Vidal, a Puerto Rican scholar and author , donated a number of historical pieces from his homeland to the museum, including two of the oldest works in its collection, “Saint Barbara,” from 1680-90, and the painted wood statue “Our Lady of Sorrows,” from 1675-1725.

“It gave us this incredibly rich collection of Puerto Rican art from the 17th through 19th centuries, it was a major addition,” Mecklenburg says. “And once you get moving, the process has a momentum.”

That momentum is what the Smithsonian hopes to demonstrate with “Arte Latino.”

Each museum that presents “Arte Latino” can hang the show as it sees fit, given different curatorial approaches as well as gallery configurations. The Desert Museum’s director of collections/exhibitions, Katherine Hough, decided to approach the artworks thematically.

“I found five separate themes,” Hough says. What unites the works in the entry area are the personal stories they reveal. The works include Osorio’s “El Chandelier” as well as “Screen,” a portrait of a young man behind a lace curtain by Roberto Gil de Montes, who is originally from Mexico, and, by Cuban American Maria Castagliola, an assemblage of sealed envelopes that contain the written secrets of her friends and relatives (“A Matter of Trust”).

Hough leads the way to a rear wing where the earliest works in the show are found. Here, she grouped devotional works, inspired by the Catholic faith, in two parts: works from the American Southwest and those from Puerto Rico. The donated “Our Lady of Sorrows,” which reflects 17th century Spanish Baroque influences, shows Mary half-kneeling in prayer, eyes upcast--an image associated with a verse in the Gospel of Luke, “Yea, a sword shall pierce through thine own soul also.”

Historical pieces are juxtaposed with contemporary ones. There is an “Our Lady of Sorrows” created in 1998 by Felix Lopez. Two other works by living artists--like Lopez, based in New Mexico--are “Liturgical Cross” by Ramon Jose Lopez, a painted wooden crucifix with rays of silver metal bursting out between the arms of the cross, and “Our Lady of Light,” hand-carved out of contrasting, unpainted aspen and juniper woods, by Gloria Lopez Cordova.

In the next wing, there are works that suggest the fourth theme, “the blending of cultures,” Hough says. Texan Luis Jimenez’s “Man on Fire” dominates this gallery-- “drawing upon Aztec themes,” Hough says, “and combining them with the fiberglass, airbrush, slick low-rider aesthetic.” The figure is Jimenez’s interpretation of Cuautemoc, an Aztec hero who rebelled against the Spanish conquistadors in the early 1500s and was captured, tortured and set on fire.

Also in this section is Cuban American Maria Brito’s multimedia piece “The Patio of My House,” which on one side shows a cutaway of a cramped kitchenette and on the other side a crib, from which rises a stylized tree whose roots are cut into. “It’s an autobiographical installation,” Hough says, “that kind of leads the viewer from childhood to maturity.”

Other works in this diverse section include rugs woven by New Mexican artists Agueda Martinez and Irvin L. Trujillo, and photographs of portraits made from powdered sugar on black paper, by Brazilian-born Vic Muniz.

The central gallery holds works that explore social issues and ethnic identity--”the Chicano movement, the feminist movement, gang members and the graffiti art movement,” Hough says. Los Angeles painter Frank Romero is represented by his oil painting “Death of Ruben Salazar,” which depicts a 1970 incident in which L.A. police shot tear gas canisters into a bar, killing Salazar, a journalist vocal about social injustice.

“Farm Workers’ Altar” is also in this section. Made to celebrate the day Cesar Chavez broke a 25-day fast protesting the working and living conditions of migrant farm workers, the box-like altar is decorated with stylized ears of corn and grapevines. Painted on one panel is the image of an Indian woman wearing a peace sign medallion; on the other side, the crucified Christ.

One area of this gallery celebrates Latinas. “The Protagonist of an Endless Story” is a larger-than-life oil portrait of novelist Sandra Cisneros by Chicana Angel Rodriguez-Diaz. Mesa-Bains’ “An Ofrenda for Dolores del Rio” is a kind of cultural altar whose centerpiece is a black-and-white photograph of the actress surrounded by a lace shawl, beads, cosmetics, dried rose petals, pink gauze and swags, and mementos, including stills from movies she starred in. “The artist is honoring Dolores because she elevated the image of Mexican women in our society,” Hough says.

The renovated Smithsonian American Art Museum facilities in Washington won’t open until 2005. In the meantime, the show will continue to tour--to the Museum of Fine Arts in Santa Fe for the summer and then to the Oakland Museum in the fall. When permanently reinstalled, the Latino artworks will be integrated into the overall chronological organization of the museum.

At its previous stops, the Smithsonian’s “Arte Latino” show has gotten good reviews but with one caveat--for an American Latino collection, it has some gaps. The Miami Herald found that the show “with its chronological breadth invariable cuts corners with contemporary art.”

Mecklenburg recognizes there may be things missing. At the moment, however, the museum has no specific funding in place to add to this collection. When she finds what she wants, she’ll seek donations.

“There are so many wonderful artists whose works are not yet here,” Mecklenburg says. “We want to be looking for the significant piece, the great piece, the piece that defines the artist and the social, cultural and artistic issues that they’re concerned with and the world is concerned with.”

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“ARTE LATINO: TREASURES FROM THE SMITHSONIAN AMERICAN ART MUSEUM,” Palm Spring Desert Museum, 101 Museum Drive, Palm Springs. Dates: Through May 26. Open Tuesdays-Saturdays, 10 a.m.-5 p.m.; Sundays, noon-8 p.m. Price: $7.50, adults; $6.50, seniors; $3.50, children 6-17, students, military. Phone: (760) 325-0189.

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Scarlet Cheng is a regular contributor to Calendar.