Art Museum of the Americas
Encyclopedia
AMA | Art Museum of the Americas (AMA) is an art museum located in Washington, D.C.
, primarily devoted to exhibiting works of modern
and contemporary art
from Latin America
and the Caribbean
. The museum was formally established in 1976 by the Organization of American States
(OAS). Artists represented in the AMA's permanent collection include Candido Portinari
, Pedro Figari
, Fernando de Szyszlo
, Amelia Peláez
and Alejandro Obregón
.
The art collection of the OAS was initiated under the organization's Visual Arts Unit, beginning with the first donated artwork by the Brazilian neo-realist
artist Portinari, in 1949. In the following decade the Permanent Council
of the OAS determined to establish an acquisitions fund, in order to build up a permanent collection of artworks by significant contemporary artists from the member states of the OAS. A number of works were also purchased from or donated directly by artists, after the temporary exhibitions periodically held at the OAS gallery.
The Art Museum of the Americas itself was established in 1976 by Permanent Council resolution, on the occasion of the United States Bicentennial
. The museum opened in what was formerly the official residence of the OAS Secretary General
, a Spanish Colonial-style structure designed in 1912 by the architect Paul Cret.
Initially the permanent collection held some 250 artworks, expanding over the next quarter-century to almost two thousand items of painting
, sculpture
, installations, photography
, and drawing
, from the early 20th century and onwards. In addition to its permanent collection of mainly Caribbean
and Latin American art
, AMA hosts temporary and special exhibitions from across the region, and provides educational seminars and lectures from invited speakers.
The Art Museum of the Americas has also expanded its programs to include evening events, such as Art After Dark. The Pink Line Project has collaborated with AMA to throw these evening parties with cutting edge, music, video, and performance art.
When the museum officially opened in 1976, the collection numbered 250 works. Today, the collection has grown to close to 2000 objects in varying media including painting, sculpture, installations, prints, drawings and photographs.
Artists represented in the Art Museum of the Americas' permanent collection include:
Washington, D.C.
Washington, D.C., formally the District of Columbia and commonly referred to as Washington, "the District", or simply D.C., is the capital of the United States. On July 16, 1790, the United States Congress approved the creation of a permanent national capital as permitted by the U.S. Constitution....
, primarily devoted to exhibiting works of modern
Modern art
Modern art includes artistic works produced during the period extending roughly from the 1860s to the 1970s, and denotes the style and philosophy of the art produced during that era. The term is usually associated with art in which the traditions of the past have been thrown aside in a spirit of...
and contemporary art
Contemporary art
Contemporary art can be defined variously as art produced at this present point in time or art produced since World War II. The definition of the word contemporary would support the first view, but museums of contemporary art commonly define their collections as consisting of art produced...
from Latin America
Latin America
Latin America is a region of the Americas where Romance languages – particularly Spanish and Portuguese, and variably French – are primarily spoken. Latin America has an area of approximately 21,069,500 km² , almost 3.9% of the Earth's surface or 14.1% of its land surface area...
and the Caribbean
Caribbean
The Caribbean is a crescent-shaped group of islands more than 2,000 miles long separating the Gulf of Mexico and the Caribbean Sea, to the west and south, from the Atlantic Ocean, to the east and north...
. The museum was formally established in 1976 by the Organization of American States
Organization of American States
The Organization of American States is a regional international organization, headquartered in Washington, D.C., United States...
(OAS). Artists represented in the AMA's permanent collection include Candido Portinari
Cândido Portinari
Candido Portinari was one of the most important Brazilian painters and also a prominent and influential practitioner of the neo-realism style in painting....
, Pedro Figari
Pedro Figari
Pedro Figari was a Uruguayan painter, lawyer, writer, and politician. Although he did not begin the practice until his later years, he is best known as an early modernist painter who emphasized capturing the every-day aspects of life in his work...
, Fernando de Szyszlo
Fernando de Szyszlo
Fernando De Szyszlo Valdelomar is a Peruvian artist who is a key figure in advancing abstract art in Latin America since the mid-1950s, and one of the leading plastic artists in Peru.-Studies and influences:...
, Amelia Peláez
Amelia Peláez
Amelia Peláez del Casal was an important Cuban painter of the Avant-garde generation.-Biography:Amelia was born in 1896 in Yaguajay, in the former Cuban province of Las Villas...
and Alejandro Obregón
Alejandro Obregón
Daniel Alberto Alejandro María de la Santísima Trinidad Obregón Roses commonly known as Alejandro Obregón was a Colombian painter, muralist, sculptor and engraver.-Career:...
.
The art collection of the OAS was initiated under the organization's Visual Arts Unit, beginning with the first donated artwork by the Brazilian neo-realist
Neorealism (art)
In art, neorealism was established by the ex-Camden Town Group painters Charles Ginner and Harold Gilman at the beginning of World War I. They set out to explore the spirit of their age through the shapes and colours of daily life...
artist Portinari, in 1949. In the following decade the Permanent Council
Permanent Council of the Organization of American States
The Permanent Council is one of the two main political bodies of the Organization of American States, the other being the General Assembly.The Permanent Council is established under Chapter XII of the OAS Charter. It is composed of ambassadors appointed by the member states , and it meets regularly...
of the OAS determined to establish an acquisitions fund, in order to build up a permanent collection of artworks by significant contemporary artists from the member states of the OAS. A number of works were also purchased from or donated directly by artists, after the temporary exhibitions periodically held at the OAS gallery.
The Art Museum of the Americas itself was established in 1976 by Permanent Council resolution, on the occasion of the United States Bicentennial
United States Bicentennial
The United States Bicentennial was a series of celebrations and observances during the mid-1970s that paid tribute to the historical events leading up to the creation of the United States as an independent republic...
. The museum opened in what was formerly the official residence of the OAS Secretary General
Secretary General of the Organization of American States
According to the Charter of the Organization of American States:-Secretaries General of the OAS:-Assistant Secretaries General of the OAS:*William Manger *William Sanders...
, a Spanish Colonial-style structure designed in 1912 by the architect Paul Cret.
Initially the permanent collection held some 250 artworks, expanding over the next quarter-century to almost two thousand items of painting
Painting
Painting is the practice of applying paint, pigment, color or other medium to a surface . The application of the medium is commonly applied to the base with a brush but other objects can be used. In art, the term painting describes both the act and the result of the action. However, painting is...
, sculpture
Sculpture
Sculpture is three-dimensional artwork created by shaping or combining hard materials—typically stone such as marble—or metal, glass, or wood. Softer materials can also be used, such as clay, textiles, plastics, polymers and softer metals...
, installations, photography
Photography
Photography is the art, science and practice of creating durable images by recording light or other electromagnetic radiation, either electronically by means of an image sensor or chemically by means of a light-sensitive material such as photographic film...
, and drawing
Drawing
Drawing is a form of visual art that makes use of any number of drawing instruments to mark a two-dimensional medium. Common instruments include graphite pencils, pen and ink, inked brushes, wax color pencils, crayons, charcoal, chalk, pastels, markers, styluses, and various metals .An artist who...
, from the early 20th century and onwards. In addition to its permanent collection of mainly Caribbean
Caribbean art
Caribbean art refers to the visual as well as plastic arts originating from the islands of the Caribbean...
and Latin American art
Latin American art
Latin American art is the combined artistic expressions of South America, Central America, the Caribbean, and Mexico, as well as Latin American living in other regions....
, AMA hosts temporary and special exhibitions from across the region, and provides educational seminars and lectures from invited speakers.
The Art Museum of the Americas has also expanded its programs to include evening events, such as Art After Dark. The Pink Line Project has collaborated with AMA to throw these evening parties with cutting edge, music, video, and performance art.
Permanent collection
The history of the permanent collection of the Art Museum of the Americas has roots in the former Visual Arts Unit of the Organization of American States. Under this unit, the first donation of art was received in 1949, a gift of painting by Brazilian artist Candido Portinari. In 1957 the OAS Permanent Council conferred institutional backing to the collection by establishing a modest Purchase Fund to support the acquisition of art for a collection that was to reflect the contemporary art of the member nations of the OAS to form an enduring cultural resource. Purchases made by the Visual Arts Unit were strongly linked to and influenced by the direction of its exhibition program, and a significant number of works were acquired directly from the artists on the occasion of a temporary exhibit at the OAS Gallery. In many cases, an OAS exhibition represented the artist's first individual exhibit outside of his/her country of origin.When the museum officially opened in 1976, the collection numbered 250 works. Today, the collection has grown to close to 2000 objects in varying media including painting, sculpture, installations, prints, drawings and photographs.
Artists represented in the Art Museum of the Americas' permanent collection include:
- Carlos Cruz-DíezCarlos Cruz-DíezCarlos Cruz-Diez is a Venezuelan kinetic and op artist. He lives in Paris. He has spent his professional career working and teaching between both Paris and Caracas. His work is represented in museums and public art sites internationally...
- Pedro FigariPedro FigariPedro Figari was a Uruguayan painter, lawyer, writer, and politician. Although he did not begin the practice until his later years, he is best known as an early modernist painter who emphasized capturing the every-day aspects of life in his work...
- Leonel Gonzalez
- Enrique GrauEnrique GrauEnrique Grau was a Colombian artist, renowned for his depictions of Amerindian and Afro Colombian figures...
- Humberto IvaldiHumberto IvaldiHumberto Ivaldi was director of the National School of Painting in Panama City.He worked with many Panamanian painters, including: Cedeño, Oduber, Silvera, Jeanine, Benitez and Alfredo Sinclair....
- Roberto MattaRoberto MattaRoberto Sebastián Antonio Matta Echaurren , better known as Roberto Matta, was one of Chile's best-known painters and a seminal figure in 20th century abstract expressionist and surrealist art....
- Carlos MéridaCarlos MeridaCarlos Mérida was a Guatemalan artist.-Early life:Mérida was born in Guatemala City to a family from Quetzaltenango, boasting a Maya and Zapotec heritage which was often an inspiration in his art. He began studying music but became hearing-impaired due to illness. He then changed to the visual arts...
- Armando MoralesArmando MoralesArmando Morales , was an internationally renowned Nicaraguan painter. Morales is considered one of the most important painters in Nicaragua....
- Alejandro ObregónAlejandro ObregónDaniel Alberto Alejandro María de la Santísima Trinidad Obregón Roses commonly known as Alejandro Obregón was a Colombian painter, muralist, sculptor and engraver.-Career:...
- Amelia PeláezAmelia PeláezAmelia Peláez del Casal was an important Cuban painter of the Avant-garde generation.-Biography:Amelia was born in 1896 in Yaguajay, in the former Cuban province of Las Villas...
- Emilio PettorutiEmilio PettorutiEmilio Pettoruti was an Argentine painter, who caused a scandal with his avant-garde cubist exhibition in 1924 in Buenos Aires. At the beginning of the twentieth century, Buenos Aires was a city full of artistic development...
- Héctor Poleo
- Candido PortinariCândido PortinariCandido Portinari was one of the most important Brazilian painters and also a prominent and influential practitioner of the neo-realism style in painting....
- Antonio SeguíAntonio Seguí- Biography :Seguí is the oldest son of a middle-class and has three siblings. In the years from 1951 to 1954 he traveled through Europe and Africa, was visiting student at the Real Academia de Bellas Artes de San Fernando in Madrid and at the École nationale supérieure des beaux-arts in Paris,...
- Fernando de SzyszloFernando de SzyszloFernando De Szyszlo Valdelomar is a Peruvian artist who is a key figure in advancing abstract art in Latin America since the mid-1950s, and one of the leading plastic artists in Peru.-Studies and influences:...
- Joaquín Torres GarcíaJoaquín Torres GarcíaJoaquín Torres García , was a Uruguayan plastic artist and art theorist, also known as the founder of Constructive Universalism...
- José Antonio Velásquez
External links
- Art Museum of the Americas, official website