Morris in Mexico

Folklore Forum 15:1, 1982

annotated bibliography

2024

A paper which discusses Morris's view of the nature of art and the nature of craftsmanship, and his attempt to create a synthesis of Socialism and Art.

Review of Ray Hernández-Durán,The Academy of San Carlos and Mexican Art History. Politics, History, and Art in Nineteenth-Century Mexico, London and New York: Routledge, 2017. The Academy of San Carlos and Mexican Art History presents an account of the cultural and political circumstances that led to the installation of the first gallery of colonial art at the Academy of San Carlos in mid-nineteenth century Mexico City, and to the publication of José Bernardo Couto’s Diálogo sobre la historia de la pintura en Mexico (1872), considered the first art historical work on colonial Mexico. Drawing on rich archival material, the author associates the installation of the gallery and the publication of Couto’s book, to the claims of the conservative political elite of the colonial past as basis for the development of a Mexican corporate identity. Ray Hernández-Durán also demonstrates how the gallery and the associated book became a starting point for the construction of what we see today as the canon of Latin American art.

Critical Craft : Technology, Globalization, and Capitalism, 2000

Link to the journal with higher resolution images: https://online.ucpress.edu/lalvc/article/3/1/4/116185/Like-the-Flame-of-Fire-A-New-Look-at-the-Hearst The so-called Hearst Chalice at the Los Angeles County Museum of Art (LACMA) is widely regarded as one the most significant works of Mexican silversmithing from the sixteenth century. Its style, technique, and above all its unique combination of materials—including precious metals, feathers, wood carvings, and rock crystal—have led scholars to describe it as the perfect fusion of European and Ancient American (or pre-Columbian) traditions. Surprisingly, despite the consensus about the chalice’s importance, the cultural and artistic conditions that led to the creation of this singular object have not been thoroughly analyzed. By closely examining the different material components of the imposing artifact—which though carefully assembled also stand as independent units—we can better understand its uniqueness and symbolic potential. This essay espouses a synoptic approach by considering a range of agencies, perspectives, and sources—documentary and material—to restore the “Hearst” Chalice to its rightful context, without aspiring to a totalizing view of the past or a definitive decoding of its system of meaning. Categorizing its form and function as purely Indigenous and European poses a distinct set of challenges and limits its hermeneutic possibilities. The work—like many others created during the volatile period following the fall of Tenochtitlan—encodes a new visual language that reveals the highly subtle process of negotiation of these two cultures in a particular space and time. Moving away from the reductive concept of syncretism, the essay offers a fresh look at this impressive contact period work and its shifting values over time.

Design Issues, 2019

Chapter 7 in White Shell Water Place: An Anthology of Native American Reflections on the 400th Anniversary of the Founding of Santa Fe, New Mexico. Ed. F. Richard Sanchez, Sunstone Press, 2010.