ArtPlantae Today

From The Huntington Library, Art Collections, and Botanical Gardens

Antonio García Cubas (1832–1912), agricultural map in Atlas pintoresco é historico de los Estados Unidos Mexicanos, (Picturesque and historical atlas of the United States of Mexico), Mexico City: Debray Sucesores, 1885, chromolithograph, 24 13/16 × 30 11/16 in. The Newberry Library, Chicago, Ayer 655.59.G2. Copyright © The Huntington

Visual Voyages:
Images of Latin American Nature from Columbus to Darwin
Huntington Library, Art Collections, and Botanical Gardens
MaryLou and George Boone Gallery
San Marino, CA
September 16, 2017 – January 8, 2018

Visual Voyages looks at how indigenous peoples, Europeans, Spanish Americans, and individuals of mixed-race descent depicted natural phenomena for a range of purposes and from a variety of perspectives: artistic, cultural, religious, commercial, medical, and scientific. The exhibition examines the period that falls roughly between Christopher Columbus’s first voyage in 1492 and Charles Darwin’s publication of On the Origin of Species in 1859, a work based largely on Darwin’s own voyage to the region in the 1830s.

“Information and materials circulated at an unprecedented rate as people transformed their relationship to the natural world and to each other,” said Daniela Bleichmar, associate professor of art history and history at the University of Southern California (USC) and co-curator of the exhibition. “Images served not only as artistic objects of great beauty but also as a means of experiencing, understanding and possessing the natural world. These depictions circulated widely and allowed viewers—then and now—to embark on their own ‘visual voyages’.”

Bleichmar, who was born in Argentina and raised in Mexico, is an expert on the history of science, art, and cultural contact in the early modern period. Her publications include the prize-winning book Visible Empire: Botanical Expeditions and Visual Culture in the Hispanic Enlightenment (University of Chicago Press, 2012).

An exhibition catalog will be available beginning September 2017. Published by Yale University Press in association with The Huntington, the 240-page book contains 153 color illustrations ($50.00).

Visual Voyages is an international loan exhibition that is part of the Getty’s Pacific Standard Time: LA/LA initiative, an exploration of Latin American and Latino art involving more than 70 arts institutions across southern California. Gallery text will be in Spanish and English.

About The Huntington
The Huntington Library, Art Collections, and Botanical Gardens is a collections-based research and educational institution serving scholars and the general public. More information about The Huntington can be found online at huntington.org.

Several programs and exhibitions will be occur in conjunction with this exhibition. Artists, naturalists, and educators may be especially interest in:

Visual Voyages in the Gardens
Sept 16, 2017–Jan 8, 2018
Throughout the Botanical Gardens
Visitors can enrich their experience of “Visual Voyages” by strolling the botanical gardens in search of the real-life specimens of plants they have seen depicted in the gallery. Keep your eyes peeled for two dozen “Visual Voyages” signs, pointing to cacao, pineapple, tobacco, and other plants indigenous to Latin America.


In Pursuit of Flora: 18th-Century: Botanical Drawings from The Huntington’s Art Collections
Oct. 28, 2017 – Feb. 19, 2018
Huntington Art Gallery, Works on Paper Room
European exploration of other lands during the so-called Age of Discovery revealed a vast new world of plant life that required description, cataloging, and recording. By the 18th century, the practice of botanical illustration had become an essential tool in the study of natural history. From lusciously detailed drawings of fruit and flowers by Georg Dionysius Ehret (1708–1770), a collaborator of Swedish botanist Carl Linnaeus, to depictions of more exotic examples by Matilda Conyers (1753–1803), “In Pursuit of Flora” reveals 18th-century European appreciation for the beauty of the natural world.


Free Talk and Book Signing
The Invention of Nature: Alexander von Humboldt’s New World
Oct. 15 (Sunday) 2:30 p.m.
Rothenberg Hall
Join best-selling author Andrea Wulf for a talk about the life of explorer, scientist, and early environmentalist Alexander von Humboldt (1769–1859), the subject of her most recent book, The Invention of Nature. Her talk will focus on Humboldt’s explorations of Latin America. No reservations required.


Wark Lecture (Free)
Seeing and Knowing: Visions of Latin American Nature, ca.1492–1859
Oct. 16 (Monday) 7:30 p.m.
Rothenberg Hall
Historian Daniela Bleichmar, co-curator of the exhibition, discusses the surprising and little-known story of the pivotal role that Latin America played in the pursuit of science and art during the first global era. A book signing and coffee reception will follow the talk. No reservations required.


Free Lecture
Cochineal in the History of Art and Global Trade
Dec. 10 (Sunday) 2:30 p.m.
Rothenberg Hall
Alejandro de Ávila Blomberg of the Oaxaca Ethnobotanical Garden and Oaxaca Textile Museum will explore the historical and cultural significance of this natural crimson dye. Used from antiquity, cochineal became Mexico’s second-most valued export after silver during the Spanish colonial period. No reservations required.

View all programs and additional images here

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