Constellations: Past, Present & Future Directions at the Art Museum of the Americas
Call for Papers

Art Museum of the Americas | Organization of American States
Washington, D.C.

The Art Museum of the Americas (AMA) traces its earliest history to 1917, the year that the Education Section of the Pan American Union, the precursor to the Organization of American States, was founded in Washington, D.C. A specialized Visual Arts Section was later added, and under the direction of José Gómez Sicre, who served as Chief between 1949 and 1981, AMA emerged as a leading center of Latin American art in the United States. In a politically charged climate of Cold War, Gómez Sicre was among the first to articulate a cosmopolitan vision of modern Latin American art through a pioneering and ambitious exhibition program. With the establishment of a Purchase Fund in 1957, AMA was able to cultivate an important generation of “young American artists,” so named by Gómez Sicre, within a broadly hemispheric context.

For this symposium, we invite papers on topics that speak to transnational dimensions within the history of modern and contemporary Latin American art, particularly in relation to artists and movements represented in AMA’s collection. As part of AMA’s reassessment of its current and future role in promoting art drawn from across the Americas, we also solicit scholarship on the museum’s historical legacy and on the critical and curatorial models that it has embraced. Papers on the following themes are especially welcome:

- The historiography of modern Latin American art
- Latin American art criticism
- Institutional collections and collecting practices
- Inter-American cultural diplomacy and the arts
- The Art Museum of the Americas
- Latin American avant-gardes
- Modes of abstraction (geometric, lyrical, conceptual)
- New Figuration, Indigenism, Folk art

Keynote Speaker: Michael Wellen, Ph.D., Assistant Curator of Latin American and Latino Art, Museum of Fine Arts, Houston

We encourage presentation proposals from advanced graduate students and recent graduates. Please submit an abstract of no more than 300 words, accompanied by a short CV, to constellations.symposiumgmail.com by June 15, 2013. Applicants will be notified of their acceptance by July 1. Limited travel and accommodation subsidies are available; please indicate whether you wish to be considered for these funds and from where you may be traveling.

This symposium is organized by Abigail McEwen (University of Maryland) with Andrés Navia (AMA) and Adriana Ospina (AMA) and supported by a Ford-LASA Special Projects grant. For further information, please contact constellations.symposiumgmail.com. News and updates will be posted to AMA’s webpage (http://museum.oas.org/).