Paper Traces: Latin American Prints and Drawings from the Collection at SDMA

A new exhibition curated by the UCSD VisArts Research Group reveals the depth and breadth of the Museum's Latin American collection. With approximately 60 prints and drawings of varying media and sizes—nearly all on view for the first time—Paper Traces boasts examples by major artists from all over Latin America, including José Clemente Orozco, Diego Rivera, Rufino Tamayo, Roberto Matta, José Luis Cuevas, and Antonio M. Frasconi. It also highlights SDMA's new acquisitions, such as Hugo Crosthwaite's Bartolomé and Leonora Carrington's High Priestess.

The prints, drawings, posters, and portfolios displayed range widely over time and place and include art from Argentina, Brazil, Chile, Colombia, Costa Rica, Cuba, Peru, and Venezuela. They present subject matter common to everyday life in Latin America—national identity, labor, ethnicity, social class, and family—and explore the role of traditional media in depicting these themes.

The legendary Taller de Gráfica Popular (Popular Printmaking Workshop) is represented in the exhibition with an engraving by Leopoldo Méndez, one of its leading members. SDMA's Latin American collection also reflects the vigor of Mexico's modern art movement, with works by José Clemente Orozco, David Alfaro Siqueiros, and Diego Rivera. Rivera is represented with a rare 1930s lithograph, Seated Nude with Raised Arms (Frida Kahlo), a voluptuous rendering of Rivera's wife and artistic associate Frida Kahlo.

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