Delia Solomons – Chicago's Panamerican Projections in 1959
In the summer of 1959, the Art Institute of Chicago hosted The United States Collects Pan American Art, the first in a wave of major museum surveys of Latin American art organized across the U.S. in the years directly following the Cuban Revolution. These shows projected for their audiences illusions of hemispheric solidarity amid Cold War tensions. At the same time, several artworks included in the exhibitions presented skeptical views of interamerican relations that undercut curatorial attempts to represent the U.S. as a good neighbor.
Austin Porter – Bankrolling Bombs: How Art Museums Helped Finance World War II
During World War II the U.S. government sponsored numerous exhibitions in some of the nation’s most highly regarded art museums. In addition to expressing themes of patriotism, sacrifice, and American military might, these exhibitions also served as fund raising opportunities for the Treasury Department’s war bond program. This paper analyzes how the resulting installations blurred cultural distinctions between high art and mass media in order to generate economic capital for the fight abroad.
Respondents: Jason Weems