ABSTRACT
Defining modernism in Latin American art entails addressing issues pertaining to colonialism, self-definition, and social justice. Content and context are crucial to Latin American modernism; formalist approaches, on the other hand, are insufficient and often detrimental to its understanding. Unlike the hermeticism that characterized some facets of modernism in Europe and the United States, Latin American modernism was not driven primarily by formal innovation and self-reflexivity, but directed towards an engagement with the world. Indeed, certain scholars describe Latin American modernism as a subversive practice. Andrea Giunta considers Latin American modernism as ‘an ideological inversion of values’ (1996: 64). Similarly, referring to the avant-garde in Brazil, Sérgio B. Martins claims that ‘it did not simply take modernism on a detour – it actually hijacked it’ (2013: 2).
