Latin American Art: Severing Ties to Europe

Beginning of article

`LATIN American Artists of the Twentieth Century" at the Museum of Modern Art (MOMA) is a show that needed to happen. The exhibition, which contains 300 works from 1914 to the present by 90 artists, is like walking through a history of modern art. Major movements like Cubism, Expressionism, and Social Realism, appear. What's new is how these paintings, sculptures, and installations give unfamiliar twists to familiar styles.

Latin American artists absorbed avant-garde trends originating in Europe, but they added elements from their own cultures to create a hybrid modernism. This art blends innovative 20th-century techniques with pre-Columbian traditions and New World …