06 Feb 2012

Americas Society presents Observed: Milagros de la Torre

Americas Society is proud to present Observed: Milagros de la Torre, a new exhibition opening Wednesday, February 8, 2012, guest curated by Dr. Edward J. Sullivan, Helen Gould Sheppard Professor of the History of Art at New York University Institute of Fine Arts. The exhibition is a collaborative project between Americas Society and Museo de Arte de Lima (MALI), which will host the concurrent exhibition Indicios: Milagros de la Torre from March 6- July 1, 2012.

Featuring nearly forty photographic works from the 1990s to the present, Observed will be the artist's first monographic show in New York. Focused on stark, object-based images, the exhibition examines contemporary issues related to violence, memory and the socio-political construction of identity. As Edward Sullivan has suggested, the notion of pain also plays a prevalent role throughout de la Torre's work. Never displayed in an active or aggressive manner, physical or emotional trauma manifests itself through quiet allusion. Several of her series develop out of her own experiences in countries that have experienced waves of crippling violence, such as Mexico, and in Peru during the years of the Shining Path, or that have had extended periods of censorship.

De la Torre begin each series with an in depth investigative process in libraries and archives. Research has served as a fundamental basis for her images, many of which are examinations on criminality and surveillance. The Lost Steps (1996) is a seminal project deeply informed by nineteenth-century photography procedures. De la Torre employed techniques from the period to focus on images of incriminating evidence taken from the archive of the Palace of Justice in Lima, Peru during the violent years of the Shining Path. The seemingly everyday objects, shown in an isolated manner, convey stories of acts of terrorism, passion, and other felonies. In Censored (2001), pages from seventeenth and eighteenth century manuscripts in the collection of the University of Salamanca Library, depict passages inked-out by inquisitors during the Spanish Inquisition. The series is encompassed by abstract images capturing the stroke and stain of each censored text.

De la Torre's subtle use of color is a practice she began engaging in with her first photographic project, Under the Black Sun (1991-1993). Inspired by basic street photography methods in her native Peru, used for purposes of national identification cards, de la Torre appropriates this technique by stopping the development process in the negative stage. She worked with these subjects, manipulating their images and experimenting with effects of light and color. Also, included in Observed: Milagros de la Torre is the never before seen series It All Stays in the Family. An exploration into concept of the family portrait, these photographs printed on vintage paper, use an 'unsynchronized' flash to produce an image that is covered in a shadow that increases from grey to deep black, therefore blurring the connective association between each relative.

A fully illustrated, bilingual publication featuring essays by Edward J. Sullivan, Miguel López and an interview between Anne Wilkes Tucker and Milagros de la Torre will be available in March 2012. This catalogue is part of the Visual Arts of the Americas Modern and Contemporary Publication Series, distributed by ARTBOOK| D.A.P.


Observed: Milagros de la Torre is co-presented by Americas Society and the Museo de Arte de Lima (MALI), Peru.
The Americas Society exhibition is made possible by the generous support of PromPerú, Eduardo Hochschild, Mundus Novus Collection, and Javier Zavala and Alexandra Bryce.

In-kind support is graciously provided by Arte al Día.

Americas Society's Visual Arts program is supported in part by public funds from the New York City Department of Cultural Affairs in partnership with the City Council.



PUBLIC PROGRAMS

February 8, 2012, 7PM - 9PM
Exhibition Opening


February 16, 2012, 6:30PM
Themes in Contemporary Photographic Practice: Memory, Archive and Document
Speaker include, Oliver Lutz (MIT Visual Arts Program); Siona Wilson (CUNY); Milagros de la Torre (Artist); Moderated by: Gabriela Rangel (Americas Society)
King Juan Carlos I of Spain Center
53 Washington Sq. South, New York, NY


February 28, 2012, 7 PM
Fixing Shadows: Milagros de la Torre in Dialogue with Charles Traub and Carla Stellweg
School of Visual Arts Theatre
333 W. 23rd Street, New York, NY


March 8, 2012, 6:30PM
Conversation: Milagros de la Torre and Anne Wilkes Tucker
Americas Society
680 Park Avenue at 68th Street, New York, NY


April 5, 2012, 6:30PM
Exhibition Tour with the artist and guest curator Edward J. Sullivan
Americas Society
680 Park Avenue at 68th Street, New York, NY



BIOGRAPHIES

Milagros de la Torre was born in Lima, Peru. She studied at the University of Lima and received a B.A. (Hons) in Photography at the London College of Printing. She has been working with photography since 1991 and recently received the Guggenheim Fellowship in Creative Arts, Photography. She was awarded the International Photography Romeo Martinez Prize and the Young Iberoamerican Creators Prize for her series The Lost Steps (1996). Her work is featured in the permanent collections of institutions in the United States, Latin America, and Europe, such as The Art Institute of Chicago; Museum of Fine Arts, Houston; Harvard Art Museum; Museo Nacional Centro de Arte Reina Sofia; Museo de Arte de Lima; Museo Nacional de Bellas Artes, Buenos Aires; and Museo de Arte Carrillo Gil, Mexico D.F., Mexico, amongst many others. She lives and works in New York.


Dr. Edward J. Sullivan is the Helen Gould Sheppard Professor of the History of Art at the Institute of Fine Arts and the Department of Art History, New York University. He has written over thirty books and exhibition catalogues on the arts of modern Latin America and the Iberian Peninsula. His most recent publications include The Language of Objects in the Art of the Americas (Yale University Press, 2007); Continental Shifts: the Art of Edouard Duval Carrie (Arte al Dia, 2008), Nueva York: 1613-1945 (editor) (New York: Scala Publications and New-York Historical Society, 2010). He co-curated the 2011 exhibition of the work of Spanish Abstract Expressionist Esteban Vicente (New York, Dallas, Segovia) and is currently working on a book entitled From San Juan to Paris and Back: Francisco Oller & Caribbean Art in the Era of Impressionism.