The Museum of Fine Arts (MFAH)in Houston has given those interested in Latin American art an enormous gift. Completing 10 years of work, the International Center for the Arts of the Americas at MFAH has begun putting their enormous treasure of primary source documents of 20th century Latin American and Latino art online. Starting by releasing some 2500 documents which they expect to expand to some 10,000. This is thanks to Mari Carmen Ramirez who has spent years fighting for Latin American art to receive the recognition it deserves, as well as to what must have been a huge amount of work from researchers all of whom are given proper credit.
The archive is free for anyone to browse, and can be searched from a variety of different categories and subheadings. A cursory glance provided some wonderful reading: There is an article written in the 50′s by Francisco Zuniga complaining about not only the art school where he was teaching but art schools in general. It is an article that should be sent ot every University with an art department. There are just amazing articles and letters, though I have to say that, at least on my woefully out of date computer some of the pieces seem next to impossible to read. Possibly if I had a new computer, they would come across more legibly, but there is still more than enough to keep anyone busy for hours. The archive can be accessed through their website
Speaking of online art, the VIP art fair is giving it a second go round from Feb 3-8. They have received something like a million dollars in investments to update their servers, etc, so presumably they won’t be plagued by some of the problems they had last year. Like last year it is a great way to see what international galleries have on offer. Especially for people here who are far away form the madding crowds and maddening crush of galleries in major urban centers, it is an extraordinary opportunity.The fair can be accessed at VIPartfair.com
