Hispanic Heritage Month

In honor of Hispanic Heritage Month, we’re highlighting a few of the many works by Hispanic artists currently on view at SAMA. Read more about Nicario Jiménez Quispe, Miguel Covarrubias, Margarita Cabrera, and Julio Alpuy below, then visit the Museum to see their work in person.

Nicario Jiménez Quispe, Peruvian, born 1957, Yawar Fiesta retablo, 1982, Wood, potato paste, acrylic paint, yarn, 10 × 12 1/8 × 3 1/2 in. (25.4 × 30.8 × 8.9 cm), San Antonio Museum of Art, gift of Frost National Bank, 90.115.27 © Nicario Jiménez Quispe

Nicario Jiménez Quispe

You can find three retablos by the master Peruvian retablista Nicario Jiménez Quispe currently on view in the Popular Art gallery. Historically, retablos were used for private devotion and protection of the home; more diverse themes were introduced in the mid-twentieth century as they were sold for export. The retablo pictured above depicts the Yawar Fiesta, a celebration of Peru’s independence from Spanish colonial rule. During the ceremony, an Andean condor, symbolizing the Inca, is strapped to the back of a bull, representing Spain, and a violent struggle ensues as the massive bird attempts to free itself. 

Miguel Covarrubias, Mexican, 1904 – 1957, Woman from Tehuantepec, 1944, Oil on canvas, 31 x 37 1/4 in. (78.7 x 94.6 cm), San Antonio Museum of Art, purchased with funds provided by the Robert J. and Helen C. Kleberg Foundation, 96.37 © Maria Elena Rico Covarrubias

Miguel Covarrubias

In the Latin American Modern and Contemporary gallery, you can view Miguel Covarrubias’ Woman from Tehuantepec. Covarrubias was a Mexican caricaturist, writer, and painter who worked for popular US publications like Vanity Fair and the New Yorker. He created this painting, which depicts a Zapotec woman from Juchitán de Zaragoza, Oaxaca, while conducting research for his book Mexico South: The Isthmus of Tehuantepec.

Margarita Cabrera, American, born Mexico, 1973, Space In Between: Nopal (Candelaria Cabrera), 2010, Border Patrol uniform fabric, copper wire, thread and terra cotta pot, 36 × 26 × 28 in. (91.4 × 66 × 71.1 cm), San Antonio Museum of Art, gift of the Family of Helen Kleberg Groves, L.2017.3 © Margarita Cabrera / Artists Rights Society, NY

Margarita Cabrera

Also on view in the Latin American Modern and Contemporary gallery is Margarita Cabrera’s Space In Between: Nopal (Candelaria Cabrera). Handsewn from Border Patrol uniforms, the sculpture was created in community workshops where women who immigrated to the US from Mexico and Central American shared their stories through the embroidered cactus leaves. The artist and her collaborators transform a material often associated with fear or oppression into an artwork that is empowering and healing. By joining immigrants, the Border Patrol, and the landscape, Cabrera’s sculpture puts forth a space where all can coexist.

Julio Alpuy, Uruguayan, 1919 – 2009, Constructivist View of Montevideo, 1957, Oil on burlap, 79 x 47 1/8 in. (200.7 x 119.7 cm), San Antonio Museum of Art, purchased with the Mary Kathryn Lynch Kurtz Fund for the Acquisition of Modern Latin American Art, 2011.6 © Julio Alpuy / Artists Rights Society, NY

Julio Alpuy

It’s hard to miss Julio Alpuy’s Constructivist View of Montevideo. The painting—a cityscape of the capital of Uruguay—is more than six feet tall. Alpuy studied and became a teacher at the Taller Torres-García, an art school in Montevideo founded by artist Joaquín Torres-García. (See Torres-García’s work in the same gallery!) Constructivist View of Montevideo portrays the essence of active urban life and emphasizes geometric forms in the Universal Constructivism style of art that Taller Torres-García emphasized.