Industrial and Technological Revolution in Latin America, Essay Example

The period that followed the Mexican destructive civil wars of the early 1900s saw unprecedented growth in the art and technological inventions that eventually culminated in the industrial and technological revolution. During this period, artists used the discoveries to depict and represent reality differently from the 19^th-century aesthetic ideals that had dominated art in the Latin world. Artists learn to represent realities in a more liberal manner. This revolution was led explicitly by the avant-garde artists who sought to fight the then-held norms for a long time in the art industry. The following essays analyze two books, The Material of Form How Concrete Artists Responded to The Second Industrial Revolution in Latin America by Aleca Le Blanc and Mexican Modernity: The Avant-Garde and the Technological Revolution by Reuben Gallo, to understand the changing dynamics in Mexico’s art industry during the Avant-Garde and the industrial revolution.

Summary

The Material of Form How Concrete Artists Responded to the Second Industrial Revolution in Latin America by Aleca Le Blanc

In this book, Aleca Le Blanc addresses the general historical context within which the avant-garde and technological revolution took place in Latin America. While the book provides a general overview, it focuses on the technological revolution and how the revolution affected the art industry. Le Blanc starts by taking the reader on a trip down the memory lane on the civil wars’ disastrous effects that had ravaged the Latin American country (Gottschaller et al. 5). She then takes the reader through the period of recovery, with a particular focus on the art industry and the industrial revolution that followed after that.

In Chapter 1, Le Blanc offers a general introduction to the Avant-Garde and the technological and industrial revolution. Here, she introduces the reader to the beginning of radical and liberal art in Latin America (Gottschaller et al. 3). She provides various examples to bring the point home that artists began to change how they created their representations and depictions during this period. Le Blanc uses the examples of Pablo Picasso’s Analytical Cubism and de Stijl Painting by Piet Mondrian (Gottschaller et al. 2). These pieces were pioneers to what would later come to be known as the revolution of Latin American art.  Within this chapter, Le Blanc underlines the role of Tomas Maldonado, the rector of the College of Design, in influencing the new change to avant-Garde artists.

Chapter 2 of the book focuses on the importance of education during the industrial revolution in Latin America. The chapter starts with the public talk by Tomas Maldonado on the importance of education in sustaining the economic prowess of the. During this lecture delivered at MAM Rio titled “A educação em face da Segunda Revolução Industrial” (Education in the face of the Second Industrial Revolution) (Gottschaller et al. 7). Tomas concluded that “It is not an exaggeration to say that the future of our industrial civilization relies upon the success or failure of educational reforms made in the short term (Gottschaller et al. 7),” Maldonado’s efforts yielded to the establishment of the Instituto Museu de Arte Contemporanea. According to Maldonado, the education of art and design was necessary to visualize and preserve the Industrial Revolution’s gains. Visual artists such as De Barros and Hermelindo Fiamingh started visualizing the industrial in their artistic practice. These two artists and those who came after them started using the industrial paradigm in their artistic works. Further, artists like Raul Lozza started depicting the various inventions that were sprawling during this time.

Invencion 150, Relieve No. 30, and Concretos

An example of his work depicting Invencion no. 150. In this work, it is evident that Lozza was searching for a way to depict the inventions by incorporating both the hanging decide and the wall into work that usually comprised multiple freestanding elements. This was one of the emerging artistic styles. An example of this style is also portrayed in Lozza’s Relieve No. 30. In this work, Lozza uses a heavy black wire to support the four pieces of hand-sized monochromes. He then holds the pieces into a fixed position (Gottschaller et al. 6). This style retains the piece’s control of the relationships between its various elements. This practice is replicated throughout Lozza’s artistic career. It brings out perfect control of the art’s background color and the painted backboard (Gottschaller et al. 19). The ultimate result is the indication of an artist interested in the research process as the final product of their painting.

This style was referred to as seriality. It was used by other artists, Judith Lauand, a fellow concrete artist from Sao Paulo. Judith always numbered her titles to portray sequential progression or a possible relationship from one composition to another. Judith painted Concreto 36, and Concret0 37 were painted plywood of the same dimensions (Gottschaller et al. 17). This portrayed a conceptual connection between the final pieces. Instead of framing her boards, Lauand, just like Lozza and Fiaminghi, used to develop and use a specific hanging device (Gottschaller et al. 6). The purpose of this hanging device was to project the work from the wall. In other works, Lauand would use small wooden boxes that she would attack at the back of the work and install painting surface to make it float in the space, unhinged, contrary to the conventional hanging in the 19^th century.

Mexican Modernity: The Avant-Garde and the Technological Revolution, by Reuben Gallo

As opposed to Le Blanc, who focuses his work on the technological and industrial revolution, Gallo focuses this work on the use of media and the cultural transformation in Latin America post the civil wars. Reuben discusses how the use of media and the technological revolution influenced the art industry. Instead of the industrial revolution, the book is about cultural transformation. Instead of engaging in a physical war with guns, the revolution turned into an artist way fought with paintbrushes and art by writers and artists (Gallo 3). The artists’ purpose of this war was to dethrone the 19^th-century aesthetic ideals.

Reuben Gallo begins this book by providing an extensive discussion of Mexican Muralists’ works, Diego Rivera, at the Detroit Ford Company plants. Here, Diego Rivera painted an industrial mural known as Detroit Industry (Gallo 4). The mural is a depiction of the new thinking at the time by avant-Garde to depict the industrial revolution. This forms the extensive discussion under chapter 1 of the book. According to Reuben, Diego’s work was not just a depiction of the Ford Company. It was a tribute to history and a celebration of machinery. The book also addresses the use of cement and the new architecture that is presented (Gallo 3). Cement came to prove to be a powerful symbolism of aesthetics that was inherent in it.

Reuben then ventures into an extensive discussion of the cultural responses to technological media. This forms the crux of the entire book. During this era, it is when technological media such as cameras, radios, cement, and typewriters were invented. These forms of media revolutionized the mechanization of cultural production. Various aspects of technological media such as sharp focus, oblique objects, and close-ups revolutionized the way images were captured and stored. Literary aesthetics were equally transformed.

Chapter 1 of the book extends to the discussion of Tina Modotti’s industrial photographs and their contribution to the debate on the role of photography in the contemporary world. The photographs changed the way art was depicted by depicting oil tanks, typewriters, and telephony wires (Gallo 4). Chapter 2 discusses the specific implication of typewriters to Mexican art. Chapter 3 focuses on the rise of radio broadcastings and its influence on the avant-Garde artistic representations. Reuben also discusses Estridentistas’s experiments in creating radiogenic literature (Gallo 4). Chapter 4 concentrates on the aesthetics of cement. In chapter 5, Reuben discusses the impact of stadiums as a symbol of technological advancement.

Detroit Industry

This was a mural by Muralist Diego Rivera depicting Ford Factory in Detroit. It was painted on 27 wall panels held together to form both North and Side Walls of the Mural (Gallo 3). The mural captured the factory’s specific details, all the parts of the machines at the factory, and the assembly lines, and the entire manufacturing and assembly processes (Gallo 2). Every step involved in the manufacture of the automatable was captured. According to William Valentiner, the then director of the Detroit Institute of Arts, the function of the machine was so well understood that when the engineers located at the finished murals, they found each part accurately designed” (Gallo 2). The mural was not just a painting; it was a tribute and homage to machinery. It was an acceleration of Modern technology.

Conclusion

These two books are similar in that they trace the historical development of liberal art and design in Mexico. They focus on the Avant-garde artists that thrived after the civil wars of the 1920s and 1930s. While the books focus on different aspects of the period immediately after the civil way, they address the same historical contexts. However, Le Blanc focuses on avant-Garde art in general, the industrial revolution, and the technological revolution. Instead of providing a general view, Rueben Gallo, on the other hand, focuses on the cultural revolution and the impact of technological media on the artistic and industrial revolution.

Works Cited

Gallo, Rubén. Mexican modernity: The avant-garde and the technological revolution. Cambridge, MA: Mit Press, 2005.

Gottschaller, Pia, et al. Making Art Concrete: Works from Argentina and Brazil in the Colección Patricia Phelps de Cisneros. Getty Publications, 2017.