Immanent Vitalities - (Studies on Latin American Art and Latinx Art) by Kaira M Cabañas (Hardcover)

Book Synopsis

A new reality for the art object has emerged in the world of contemporary art: it is now experienced less as an autonomous, inanimate form and more as an active material agent. In this book, Kaira M. Cabañas describes how such a shift in conceptions of art's materiality came to occur, exploring key artistic practices in Venezuela, Brazil, and Western Europe from the mid-twentieth century to the present. Immanent Vitalities expands the discourse of new materialisms by charting how artists, ranging from Gego to Laura Lima, distance themselves from dualisms such as mind-matter, culture-nature, human-nonhuman, and even Western-non-Western in order to impact our understanding of what is animate. Tracing migrations of people, objects, and ideas between South America and Europe, Cabañas historicizes changing perceptions about art's agency while prompting readers to remain attentive to the ethical dimensions of materiality and of social difference and lived experience.

From the Back Cover

"Through the close study of works by select artists, including Gego, Otero, and Djanira, Kaira M. Cabañas constructs a true genealogy of the art of Latin America through--to use her own very precise expression--immanent vitalities, questioning and reformulating its supposed specificity in a truly fascinating way."--Manuel Borja-Villel, Director, Museo Nacional Centro de Arte Reina Sofía, Madrid

"Cabañas is a vigorous voice in modern art history, and this book, with its theoretical edge, asks crucial questions not only about art history but also about identity, power, and modern alienation through its trailblazing analysis of Latin American cultural expressions. Bringing together her knowledge of world art and history, Cabañas instills new vitality into our understanding of our uncanny world."--Serge Guilbaut, author of How New York Stole the Idea of Modern Art: Abstract Expressionism, Freedom, and the Cold War

"With characteristic brilliance and clarity, Cabañas demonstrates the value of the new materialisms for art history--and vice versa--through incisive analyses of modernist and contemporary artistic practices in, of, and from Brazil and Venezuela. This theoretically rigorous study will resonate in disciplinary and interdisciplinary conversations alike."--Jennifer Josten, author of Mathias Goeritz: Modernist Art and Architecture in Cold War Mexico

"Cabañas offers a welcome counterpoint to the superficial assimilation of complex philosophical discussions, building her category of 'immanent vitality' from a theoretically informed (but not determined) reading of art from the last seven decades. Her book functions as a manifesto for the epistemological actuality of art history."--Sérgio B. Martins, author of Constructing an Avant-Garde: Art in Brazil, 1949-1979

Review Quotes

"An important contribution to studies on Latin American art."-- "Latin American and Latinx Visual Culture"

"Immanent Vitalities is an important, theoretically sophisticated contribution to the scholarship on art in Latin America, one that admirably integrates this art into a global modern and contemporary context."

-- "CHOICE"

"Immensely interesting and thought provoking. Dr. Cabañas's work is a great example of how art historians can interweave multiple areas, histories, and theories to explore art and innovation."-- "Book Riot"

About the Author

Kaira M. Cabañas is Professor of Global Modern and Contemporary Art History at the University of Florida, Gainesville. She is the author of The Myth of Nouveau Réalisme: Art and the Performative in Postwar France; Off-Screen Cinema: Isidore Isou and the Lettrist Avant-Garde; and Learning from Madness: Brazilian Modernism and Global Contemporary Art.