ABSTRACT
This chapter utilizes the collection of paintings sent by the United States to Argentina, Chile, and Uruguay to explore the relationship between the fine arts, agriculture, and the applied arts, to examine the ideological use and political motivations for international exhibitions in the southern cone. At the centenaries of 1910, mechanically reproduced illustrations in the popular press provided trenchant commentary upon painting and sculpture, that which was handmade and original, in a period of rapidly expanding print communication. A guiding assumption of cultural diplomacy, in the words of Claire Fox, is "that dialogue and contact among intellectuals lead to greater understanding and mutual respect among their respective societies." The political and economic conflicts that kept US Argentine, Chilean, and Uruguayan diplomats busy throughout the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries were mostly avoided in reviews of the fine art displayed at the 1910 exhibition.
