Images of Ambiente: Homotextuality and Latin American Art, 1810-today [Paperback]

Rudi Bleys (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: October 27, 2000 | ISBN-10: 0826447236 | ISBN-13: 978-0826447234 | Edition: First Edition

The gay cultures of Latin America expressed themselves in a variety of ways artistically, from the early 19th century to the present. "Images of Ambiente" traces the development of such art and reflects the backlash against gay American influences.

Editorial Reviews

Review

"...as lavishly illustrated as it is intensively researched."
--Committe on Lesbian and Gay History, Fall 2002

About the Author

Rudi C. Bleys is an independent scholar and co-editor of "Vlaanderen en Latijns Ameriks." He is the author of "The Geography of Perversion: Male to Male Sexual Behabior and the Ethnographuc Imagination, 1750-1918."

Product Details

• Paperback: 288 pages
• Publisher: Continuum; First Edition edition (October 27, 2000)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0826447236
• ISBN-13: 978-0826447234
• Product Dimensions: 9.6 x 7.4 x 0.7 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.7 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (1 customer review)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #560,254 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

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6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A great history of gay & lesbian Latin(o/a) American art!, January 5, 2002

By A Customer

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This review is from: Images of Ambiente: Homotextuality and Latin American Art, 1810-today (Paperback)

Sorry for the essentialism, but originally I was skeptical about what a European academic would say about gay Latin American art. However, the author resisted Eurocentrism here and others have described his previous work as very anti-racist. In this book, Bleys looks at Latin American art from 1810 to the present, with a chapter on art from gay Latinos in the US. Bleys examines Mexico, Brazil, Cuba, and Puerto Rico under his idea of Latin American. This may frustrate some. (I hear that Argentina has a rich history of both gay expression and repression. It doesn't come up here.) Still, given the geographic, linguistic, political, racial, and historical diversity among these four countries, I think Bleys made a great effort. Too, the discussion on lesbian art may feel scant to some, but I think Bleys tried his best. This book included a huge range of photos that aided the text. Social constructionists will love this book because Bleys emphasizes artists that reject Western ideas about gay identity and artists that problematize the gay/straight binary overall. Under this constructionism, Bleys uses the term "homotextuality" which he never defines well. This book has a terrible intro. Also, Bleys' timeline is shakey. (For example, the chapter on art from 1810 to 1910 discusses much art after 1910. The chapter about 1975 ot the present focuses heavily on works from the past five years.) This book is much more typical of an art text than it is gay studies or Latino studies. Nevertheless, it will make you think deeply about what is homoerotic art, who can be a homoerotic artist, and how race intersects with those questions. This was a veritabe encyclopedia of gay and lesbian Latin American art. I am beyond impressed with this work.