2022 Terra Lectures in American Art: Decolonising Art History through Latinx Art

Alma López, La peor de todas, print, 2013 (courtesy of the artist)

The 2022 Terra Lectures in American Art centre on Latinx art, with an emphasis on Chicanx (Mexican American) artists, and the theme of migration – of people, ideas, and artworks, from the seventeenth century to today. Art and activism converge as these lectures move across disciplinary, chronological, and geographical borders. We consider new approaches to “American” art, its borders, and contact zones. By posing strategic questions, these four talks demonstrate avenues of inquiry to decolonise art history.

Lecture 2 “Collapsing Time with Sor Juana Inés de la Cruz” presented by Professor Charlene Villaseñor Black 

This lecture brings contemporary art by Chicana (Mexican American) women artists into dialogue with the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, collapsing and questioning art history’s chronological and geographical frameworks and borders. I examine portrayals of Sor Juana Inés de la Cruz (1648-1695), famed writer, intellectual, and proto-feminist nun in colonial Mexico. How can recent visual imaginings by Chicana feminist artists illuminate earlier, historical portrayals of Mexico’s “Tenth Muse”? Can the tools of Chicanx studies force a reconceptualization of art history?

Lecture open to all to attend. Directions to Worcester College here. 

For those unable to attend in person, the lecture will be live streamed.