AHL Foundation Art History Class
Art of Latin America:
Colonial to Modern Era

Instructor: Kyunghee Pyun [Choi], Ph.D.

South America has rich history of visual arts from pre-Hispanic era to the present. The course will focus on the period from the fifteenth century when Spanish colonialists arrived in South America to the twentieth century when the continent brought to global art centers many talented artists such as Frida Kahlo, Diego Rivera and Fernando Botero. A majority of art works in the course are devotional paintings and churches for Spaniards in Latin America from the fifteenth to eighteenth centuries. European Baroque art is often introduced in relation to art of Colonial Latin America. A global encounter among Europe, Latin American and Asia in the seventeenth century is another important theme in this course. Major monuments and altarpieces will be discussed in detail. Knowledge of European art from the Renaissance to modern periods would be useful. Those who have taken the AHL Foundation's art history lectures will be able to apply their previous learning to this course. The class will visit several important collections of Latin American art such as the Hispanic Society of New York, El Museo del Barrio New York, the New York Historical Society, the Museum of the City of New York as well as the Frick Collection and the Metropolitan Museum of Art.