Observing the continuous, albeit incremental, mainstream exposure of Latinx art has been a thrilling part of 2022. As a result, Latinx artists from different generations have been and continue to be significant contributors to American art and the history of contemporary art in general.
I saw a year ago that Latinx art was receiving more attention than before. In 2022, the momentum persisted. There is still still a lot of work to be done because Latinx art is still appallingly underrepresented in museums, biennials, and galleries in comparison to the general Latinx population in this country.
The newest Burns Halperin Report, released earlier this month by Artnet News, shows that the art world is still overwhelmingly white and male. In their preface, the book’s writers Charlotte Burns and Julia Halperin write, “The art world likes to think of itself as a stronghold of progressive ideas. However, research demonstrates that its sense of advancement greatly exceeds reality. The paper claims that few museums appear to have been successful in achieving equity in their permanent collections, notwithstanding how they present themselves.
With an emphasis on women-identifying artists, Black American artists, and Black American women artists, Burns and Halperin examined the acquisition procedures of 31 U.S. art museums. Notably, Latinx and Afro-Latinx artists, as well as Asian and Indigenous artists, as well as women of colour more generally, were not included in the data collection, which is a worrying trend representative of the art world in general. It’s possible that the data for these purchases is still so flimsy that they were meaningless. We don’t know because the report doesn’t mention.
Since the Smithsonian Latino Center was established in 1997, particularly under Eduardo Daz’s direction, Latinx representation has increased throughout the organization’s museums and archives. The Smithsonian Latino Center, which served as the inspiration for the museum’s debut exhibition, “Presente! A Latino History of the United States,” at the Molina Family Gallery at the National Museum of American History, has been replaced by NMAL.
The museum, whose opening is probably going to take a decade or longer, will only be previewed by this modestly sized exhibition. “Presente!” is still excellent. Given that this history is frequently passed down from generation to generation yet isn’t included in history books, it has enormous power to be shared. You might find yourself crying in a museum after seeing it, as I did after hearing someone in a video here discuss how they’d never had a real conversation with their grandmother because they frequently feel uneasy speaking in Spanish, or after I saw the history of Mexican repatriation being explained. I am aware of this history since my grandmother, Santos, was deported when she was maybe 3 years old.
There are undoubtedly some gaps that need to be filled. Because the Latinx community is ethnically varied, NMAL must include the experiences of Black Latinxs as well as the racism and colorism they encounter in our own society. Several academics, including Lorgia Garca Pea, Miguel A. Valerio, Takkara K. Brunson, and Carlos Ulises Decena, are now working on this project. National gaps also exist; it is important to tell the stories of people whose ancestors came from El Salvador, Guatemala, Brazil, and Haiti. Also absent are examples of how Latinx people have protested discriminatory educational systems, such as the Chicano Blowouts or the Mendez v. Westminster Supreme Court case from 1947, in which high school students left their classes in protest.
There are many tales to be told, some of which may be uncomfortable or contradictory. An institution of this size should strive to tell the stories behind each one.