'Radical Women' at the Hammer Museum is a startling show you need to see, maybe twice
The Hammer Museum's exhibition, Radical Women: Latin American Art, 1960–1985, gives visibility to the artistic practices of women artists working in Latin America and US-born women artists of Latino heritage between 1960 and 1985.
"Afro-Peruvian poet Victoria Santa Cruz welcomes visitors to the UCLA Hammer Museum’s “Radical Women: Latin American Art, 1960-1985” with a blast of energy so powerful that it will stop you in your tracks, then propel you through a mammoth exhibition that unfolds in seven sprawling chapters.
It’s a kick.
“Radical Women” is a great big avalanche of an exhibition, an exciting rush of work by scores of artists almost entirely unknown outside their home countries. Of the show’s 120 Latina and Latin American artists from the United States and 14 additional countries, I had a working knowledge of a grand total of 15; the rest, including Santa Cruz, were new to me.
A fascinating cross-section of a tumultuous time and expansive place, it’s a shining example of why Pacific Standard Time: LA/LA, the citywide Getty initiative, is so important. Liliana Porter’s elegant, conceptually marvelous photographs are a worthy metaphor: She drew a pencil line down a finger, extending it onto the ground depicted in the photograph and then across the matte that frames the picture, finally extending it out of the frame and onto the gallery wall. The line of Porter’s absent finger marks the room in which you stand.
With more than 250 works, the show is also daunting. Be prepared for a lengthy visit — or repeat visits, easy enough since the Hammer has free admission — to get a handle on things. (I’ve been twice.) Don’t expect a masterworks display; this is not that kind of show.
Instead, guest curators Cecilia Fajardo-Hill and Andrea Giunta, scholars in the burgeoning field of Latin American art history, have fashioned a sweeping overview. They have created a context within which the work of individual artists might be more clearly seen."— Christopher Knight, Sep. 30, 2017
Read the full article at the Los Angeles Times website.