Art Worlds
José Gabriel Navarro and the Creation of a Vernacular Art
Paper Presentation in a Themed Session Andrea Moreno
José Gabriel Navarro (Ecuador, 1881-1965) emerged as an intellectual figure at the first half of the 20th century, who created an educational model and a cultural discourse regarding a Pan-Latin American and Hispanic American art. Since 1911 till 1965, his labor as Director of Ecuador’s Fine Arts School at Quito, as well as his literary works, press articles and postulates transmitted at international meetings and conferences, were the medium with which he crystallized his argumentation on the authenticity and originality of Ecuadorian art. Navarro’s ouevre held a strong emphasis on the colonial artistic manifestations, although he also devoted few works to what he called local pre-Columbian art and what he treated as modern and contemporary art. His discourse was based on nationalism and modernism concepts that circulated between other Latin American intellectuals. Although a young Navarro declared that John Ruskin was his teacher, his work must be understood within a broader Latin American ideology, which advocated autonomy from North American and European artistic and cultural principles.
Design Approach to Rebuilding Frank Lloyd Wright's Banff Pavilion
Paper Presentation in a Themed Session Kendra Schank Smith, Albert C. Smith, Yew-Thong Leong, Zaiyi Liao, Matthew Lauder
The Banff Pavilion is a piece of Canadian design heritage and after restoration will be the only public Frank Lloyd Wright building in Canada. The research team in the Department of Architectural Science at Ryerson University is attempting to rebuild the currently destroyed Banff Pavilion. This will bring the master designer Frank Lloyd Wright’s work back to Canada. Frank Lloyd Wright was considered a skillful designer, artist, and master of the plan. The Banff Pavilion is an artifact and work of art that will be returned to the community when completed. Through the exploration of Frank Lloyd Wright’s design process, and specifically his use of geometries, the floor plans and drawings for the Banff Pavilion will be re-drawn. The research discovered examples of squares and the golden section ratio in plan, section and elevation. From these findings the research team was able to determine probable dimensions using proportion, and through this process, begin completing a set of schematic drawings in preparation for construction documentation. Overall this paper will study Frank Lloyd Wright’s design methodology and its effect on returning this work of art to its original intended form.
Lavorare Con Lentezza: Atlas of Sensitivity and Political Gestures
Paper Presentation in a Themed Session Mario Alberto Morales Domínguez
Lavorare con Lentezza is an artwork by the Mexican art collective Cráter Invertido. This piece was exhibited during the Venice Biennale 2015. Currently, Cráter Invertido is one of the most well-known art groups in Mexico, and they are trying to express the sensitivity of the Mexican people, especially, Mexico city. They are involved not only in the artworld but also in the ambient of activism in Mexico. Recently, after the Biennale exhibition, they have got international visibility. Lavorare con Lentezza is a 5 x 1.2 m drawing that was made by several members of the group and even external people, like colleagues both from the artworld and from the activist practice, or simply friends. It is a kind of atlas of contemporary gestures and sensitivities. It is a kind of collective iconographic manifesto. For them, every line is important, because every person has something to say. The political gesture consisted in bringing voice to lots of different traces and subjectivities. And if we put close attention on the details, there are many messages through those apparent innocent drawings. Although the official author of the work was Crater Invertido, there are lots of hands and minds implicated. There are too many Mexican issues on that work. We can see not just the political agenda of Crater Invertido, but most important we can see traces of Mexican history, identity, and idiosyncrasy.
