The persistence of historical memory in Latin American Art: Livio Abramo and Alfredo Quiroz

Abstract

The absence of an academic tradition in art in most Latin American countries led modernist initiatives to coexist, in most countries, with hybrid styles, schools and projects, including historical painting, within a process of transformation of the complex art, full of antagonisms and paradoxes and that demonstrates a specific way of making art. This scenario can only be understood in the light of many studies and within its own perspective, where the references are not found in the History of European Art, but in the reality of Latin American history itself and in the path of its main agents. The artistic experiences of the Brazilian Lívio Abramo and the Paraguayan Alfredo Quiroz span very different temporalities, and even so, I venture to promote some approximations between the work of both. I try to show that both Lívio Abramo (1960s) and Alfredo Quiroz (2021) take positions against hegemonic art in terms of the classical interpretation of historical facts and transposition to art. Both subvert the traditional academic order of reading historical phenomena by moving away from what is characteristic of this genre of painting. Through the specific analysis of the artists mentioned, I mobilize other art productions to understand the persistence of historical memory in the field of Latin American Art, from the academies to the present day and contribute to new definitions of Latin American art.