III.4.7 – 4.8

PROCEEDINGS OF A CONFERENCE HELD AT THE MUSEUM OF MODERN ART, MAY 28–31, 1945


Alfred H. Barr, Jr. (1902–1981), and Grace L. McCann Morley (1900–1985)—the founder and first director of the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art—delivered these papers at the Conference on Studies in Latin American Art held at the Museum of Modern Art (MoMA) in New York on May 28–31, 1945. They were among a number of leading curators, museum administrators, and scholars in the United States who spoke on their recent experiences exhibiting and studying Latin American art. Barr considers the difficulty that U.S. scholars have in determining the quality of Latin American works of art, but he asserts that MoMA’s collection is a “dynamic affair, continually changing” to add worthy objects and to eliminate those that do not stand the test of time. McCann Morley exhibits a keen awareness of critical issues involved in exhibiting and studying Latin American art in the United States. However, she warns of the illusory unity suggested by the term “Latin American” and reminds conference attendees of the diversity of Latin American nations. Like Barr, she argues that U.S. audiences and scholars will come to appreciate Latin American art only by learning more about the specific contexts in which it is made. Both texts appeared in the conference proceedings edited by Elizabeth Wilder. [Alfred H. Barr, Jr., “Problems of Research and Documentation in Contemporary Latin American Art” (1945) and Grace L. McCann Morley, “Contemporary Regional Schools in Latin America” (1945), in Studies in Latin American Art: Proceedings of a Conference Held in the Museum of Modern Art, New York, May 28–31, 1945. Under the Auspices of the Joint Committee on Latin American Studies of the American Council of Learned Societies[,] the National Research Council and the Social Sciences Research Council (Washington, D.C.: The American Council of Learned Societies, 1949), 37–43, and 82–87].