Latin American Art Growing in Popularity


Art A new generation of Latin American artists are ensuring that works from the region are attracting international buyers in increasing numbers. Up until thirty years ago the majority of works coming out of the region were purchased by wealthy Latin American families who would often build their collections up over many generations. Whilst South American buyers and those of Latino origin still make up the lion share of buyers from this diverse and exciting region, Virgilio Garza, Head of Latin American Art at Christies says the category is going increasingly international “The demographics of the clients has changed, little by little there were a lot of American collectors buying Latin American art seriously. Now in the past four years there are other players who have changed the dynamic. There are Europeans, Middle Eastern, some Asian buyers looking for specific things and even Russians have been regular buyers”. Auction house Bonhams have become aware of the increasing interest in the regions’ art and told Alternative Latin Investor they are working towards a fully committed Latin American catalogue in the future. Cindy Cronk, a street art specialist for Bonhams, based in California, sees a long term potential for South American art “I think its been on the radar for a while. Its slowly growing which is actually more stable than say with contemporary Chinese artists, now their works aren’t selling. I think it’s encouraging to see it slowly building up. I think it gives it more stability”.

´Latin American Art´ is a contentious and very broad term that incorporates pre-Colonial, Colonial, an Independence period, Muralism from the last century and the modern era that has seen the emergence of exciting new talents. Though the given label has been shunned by some modern artists keen to emphasize movements within their own countries, Virgilio Garza feels the creation of the category was fundamental to its present day popularity “As a term Latin American art is very, very broad because it doesn’t really limit a time span. Latin America is so complex and there are a lot of regions so you cant really speak of one Latin American art. Ever since the beginning, the sale (at Christies) started including Spanish colonial works from the 18th century up to the present. So, in one sale you really covered centuries of art from many different regions that historically never really communicated with each other too much. Even though there was a Latin American identity there was a lot of artists, developed in the early 20th century, who were looking at Europe rather than Brazil. The catalogue and the category were very important for that reason because it really created awareness. For example Mexican collectors actually learnt about the art of other countries in La.....




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