Images of Ambiente: Homotextuality and Latin American Art, 1810-Today

Rating:
Summary: A great history of gay & lesbian Latin(o/a) American art!
Review: Sorry for the essentialism, but originally I was skeptical about what a European academic would say about gay Latin American art. However, the author resisted Eurocentrism here and others have described his previous work as very anti-racist. In this book, Bleys looks at Latin American art from 1810 to the present, with a chapter on art from gay Latinos in the US. Bleys examines Mexico, Brazil, Cuba, and Puerto Rico under his idea of Latin American. This may frustrate some. (I hear that Argentina has a rich history of both gay expression and repression. It doesn't come up here.) Still, given the geographic, linguistic, political, racial, and historical diversity among these four countries, I think Bleys made a great effort. Too, the discussion on lesbian art may feel scant to some, but I think Bleys tried his best. This book included a huge range of photos that aided the text. Social constructionists will love this book because Bleys emphasizes artists that reject Western ideas about gay identity and artists that problematize the gay/straight binary overall. Under this constructionism, Bleys uses the term "homotextuality" which he never defines well. This book has a terrible intro. Also, Bleys' timeline is shakey. (For example, the chapter on art from 1810 to 1910 discusses much art after 1910. The chapter about 1975 ot the present focuses heavily on works from the past five years.) This book is much more typical of an art text than it is gay studies or Latino studies. Nevertheless, it will make you think deeply about what is homoerotic art, who can be a homoerotic artist, and how race intersects with those questions. This was a veritabe encyclopedia of gay and lesbian Latin American art. I am beyond impressed with this work.