Study Trip – Precolumbian and Early Modern Art in Colombia with Carlos Rojas Cocoma, Urte Krass, and Beate Fricke
Colombian heritage has been kept out of a broad historical study, partly because of the war contingencies of the last 50 years and partly because the artistic interest has focused on the great precolumbian settlers such as the Incas, the Maya and the Aztecs. The investigative absence has led only in recent times to develop a history of art that critically interprets works of art produced in the pre-Hispanic period and in early modernity.
This excursion is designed to explore the routes of the history of Colombian art, from a heritage pending to be studied in depth. From the archeological vestiges, architecture and urban planning, as well as the main museums of the country, it will seek to trace the routes of the history of Colombian art.
We want to emphasize that we usually plan the study trips to regions, which can be reached by train. However, in this case we do make an exception, because also want to build international relationships with countries with other and/or younger traditions of art historical training and monument management.
Lecture seminar: The Shape of Colombian Art History
After the arrival of the Spaniards in 1492, political organization within the framework of the viceroyalties constituted a particular order of the American continent. The integration of indigenous population, Spanish migration and the African slavery market defined a miscegenation that was directly reflected in their cultural production. From that perspective, the historical study of the current Latin American territory is limited by semantic conditions.
To speak about transculturation or mestizaje, pre-Hispanic or pre-Columbian, colonial or viceroyalty, Latin or Hispanic America, or even current categories as third world or developing countries, organizes the history of a region, but also limits its interpretation, often leaving it as a peripheral phenomenon within a global cultural history. How then to draw an interpretive route of the history of Colombian art?
Based on the work “The Shape of Time” by George Kubler as a theoretical framework, this seminar seeks to develop a historical route of Colombian art that analyzes artistic objects in their temporal and spatial context. For this, we will study Colombian cultural production, through 10 representative objects of the precolumbian and early modern period. Through an exercise in theoretical and historical reading, as well as in the development of discussions around objects, we will look for a novel interpretation of the way Colombian works of art shape their own meaning and temporality.