New Publication “Constructing Latin America: Architecture, Politics, and Race at the Museum of Modern Art”, by Patricio del Real

June 27, 2022
Front cover of publication “Constructing Latin America: Architecture, Politics, and Race at the Museum of Modern Art”

Professor Patricio del Real’s new publication “Constructing Latin America: Architecture, Politics, and Race at the Museum of Modern Art” will be published at the end of August. The book provides “a nuanced look at how the Museum of Modern Art’s carefully curated treatment of Latin American architecture promoted U.S. political, economic, and cultural interests.” Find out more on the Yale University Press website.

“In the interwar period and immediately following World War II, the U.S. government promoted the vision of a modern, progressive, and democratic Latin America and worked to cast the region as a partner in the fight against fascism and communism. This effort was bolstered by the work and products of many institutions, including the Museum of Modern Art, New York. Using modern architecture to imagine a Latin America under postwar U.S. leadership, MoMA presented blockbuster shows, including Brazil Builds (1943) and Latin American Architecture since 1945 (1955), that deployed racially coded aesthetics and emphasized the confluence of “Americanness” and “modernity” in a globalizing world. Delving into the heated debates of the period and presenting never-before-published internal documents and photos from the museum and the Nelson A. Rockefeller archives, Patricio del Real is the first to fully address MoMA’s role in U.S. cultural imperialism and its consequences through its exhibitions on Latin American art and architecture.”

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