New Tendencies in Mexican Art - The 1990s by Rubén Gallo (review)

162 The LatinAmericanist Fall 2005 logistical nightmares haunted the war effort. Although Brazil eventuallywon the war, Diaconexplainsthat the difficulty “raised fundamental questions about whether their own ill-integrated society was ready tojoin the race to modernity” (p. 11). Diacon posits that Rondon was solely motivated by his belief in Auguste Comte’sphilosophy of Positivism,an argument that setshis scholarshipapartfrom previousstudiesof the Rondon commission. While most scholars of Brazilian history have emphasized Rondon’s work and vision in terms of nation building and the expansion of central state power in Brazil, Diacon explains how Rondon emphasized the need for the government to assert its authorityover Catholic missionaries.Diacon explains that Positivismand its influenceover Rondon has commonlybeen ignored because positivism “became anachronistic” in the early twentiethcentury(p.99).While Positivismdisappearedfrom military schools’disciplines,Rondonnever abandonedthe faith or the vision he felt it held for the future of Brazil. Rondon insisted on the incorporation,if not assimilation,of indigenous Brazilians. Diacon highlightsthe importanceof Positivismin Rondon’s work and illustrates how that philosophy pushed him to bring the indigenous peoples of north-west Brazil into the national whole. Other scholarshiphas emphasizedhow the telegraph line brought Brazil together without giving the needed attention to the incorporation of the indigenouspeople. This study’senlightening view of Rondon and his work for the Indian populationof Brazil’s hinterland would prove to be both interesting and educating for any scholar of Latin American History. CharleneT Overturf Department of History ArmstrongAtlantic State University New Tendencies in Mexican Art - The 1990s. By RubCn Gallo. New York,NY: Palgrave Macmillan,2004. p. 177, $24.95. The contemporary art scene in Mexico, particularly in MexicoCity, is as vibrantand complexas the city itself. However, although many of its artists have enjoyed a respectable level of internationalacclaim over the last twenty years, there is a notable lack of critical literature on the subject. Exhibition and auction catalogues, new surveys of the art of Latin America, and select readings in scholarlyanthologiescontributelittle to the discourse Book Reviews 163 that must accompany artistic production today for it to take its place in the global art world, and be understood and correctly interpreted. Furthermore, a single individual has dominated the few reviews and textswrittenat a local level-wherethe discourse must begin: Cuauhtdmoc Medina, Mexico’s most prolific and well-known art critic. “This one person is not enough to generate a body of criticism for an entire generation, a task that requires discussion,debate and the ongoingexchangeof ideas among critics with different viewpoints”(p.13). The intention of the author of this small compact book, Mexican scholar Rub& Gallo, is to add to the dialogue with a new approach to the descriptionof a select group of artists of the 1990s that involves a social, political, and cultural analysis. His particular area of expertise on the avantgarde in Mexico focuses on the literaryperspectiveand involves the role of new media and technology on contemporary society, and certainly accounts for his innovative method of discussing the arts produced in this turbulent period in Mexican history. In fact, it is his questioning of why the arts at this time do not appear to addressthe events of the 1990sthat prompted the publication of the book. In the introduction , Tendencies,he begins with a list of significant events that characterize the decade: “political assassinations, the Zapatista uprising in Chiapas, the signing of N m A , a catastrophic economic crisis, and the defeat of the Institutional Revolutionary Party (PFU), after 70 years of one-party rule” (p.1). While the writing suffers from editorial neglect with numerous repetitions (beginningon this page), the story opens with a succinctexplanation of these chaotic years that setsthe stage for the artists. It does makeonewonderhow artistsrespondedto suchan environmentof violence and confusion, including the corrupt presidency of Rad Salinas(1988-1994)followedby dramatic attemptsat reform,and why there was not morepoliticallymotivated works of art created. In fact, what Gallo findsmost intriguingis that “most art produced during Salinas’spresidencywas entirely apolitical” (p.7), and the artists that followedcontinuedthe same attitude,albeit with a different stylistic and technical approach. The decade of the 1990s began with the emergenceof a young generation of painters who became known as “neo-Mexicanists.” Their work represented a “new” image...