California Mexicana: Missions to Murals, 1820–1930

by Katherine E. Manthorne (Editor)

Following the U.S.-Mexican War (1846–1848), lands that had for centuries belonged to New Spain, and later to Mexico, were transformed into the thirty-first state in the United States. This process was facilitated by visual artists, who forged distinct pictorial motifs and symbols to establish the state’s new identity. This collective cultural inheritance of the Spanish and Mexican periods forms a central current of California history but has been only sparingly studied by cultural and art historians. California Mexicana focuses for the first time on the range and vitality of artistic traditions growing out of the unique amalgam of Mexican and American culture that evolved in Southern California from 1820 through 1930. A study of these early regional manifestations provides the essential matrix out of which emerge later art and cultural issues. Featuring painters, printmakers, photographers, and mapmakers from both sides of the border, this collection demonstrates how they made the Mexican presence visible in their art. This beautifully illustrated catalogue addresses two key areas of how Mexico became California, and how the visual arts reflected the shifting identity that grew out of that transformation.
 
Published in association with the Laguna Art Museum, and as part of the Getty's Pacific Standard LA/LA.
 
Exhibition
Laguna Art October 15, 2017–January 14, 2018

Genres: History

328 pages, Hardcover

Published October 31, 2017

About the author

Katherine Manthorne is Professor of Art History at the Graduate Center, CUNY.

Reviews

[Susan Eubank · Rating 3 out of 5]

Wonderful, beautifully, illustrated book on the early history of California. Editing, etc., seemed to be done in haste. Carl Eytel, hands down, was my favorite artist.

Here are the questions discussed at the Reading the Western Landscape Book Club at the Arboretum Library of the Los Angeles County Arboretum & Botanic Garden on January 31, 2018:

• What is the overarching theme of this book?
• Who is your favorite artist? Why? 2nd favorite? Why?
• What is one thing that might have made this book better?
• What is one new fact you learned and appreciated?
• What surprised you most about this book?
• Any ambiguities we need to try to clear up?
• Has this book changed your understanding of Los Angeles or Southern California? How?
• How about changing your understanding of the landscape of LA or SoCal? How?
• Which artist is not to your taste or aesthetic? Why?
• What did you like best about the book?