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Description: Visual Voyages: Images of Latin American Nature from Columbus to Darwin
~Visual Voyages—the exhibition and the book—explores the depiction of the natural world in the region we now call Latin America, and the ways in which Latin Americans and Europeans both contributed to developments in art and science during the first truly global era, the period stretching from the voyages of Christopher Columbus at the...
PublisherYale University Press
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Foreword
Visual Voyages—the exhibition and the book—explores the depiction of the natural world in the region we now call Latin America, and the ways in which Latin Americans and Europeans both contributed to developments in art and science during the first truly global era, the period stretching from the voyages of Christopher Columbus at the end of the fifteenth century to Charles Darwin’s own voyage to the region in the mid-nineteenth century.
During this era of expanding globalization, indigenous peoples, Europeans, Spanish Americans, and people of mixed-race descent employed the elements of nature for a range of purposes. Their approaches, whether artistic, cultural, religious, commercial, medical, or scientific, led to important contributions in both art and science. As these diverse groups transformed their relationship to the natural world and to one another, images proved central, serving not only as works of art but also as means of experiencing and understanding flora and fauna. These images allow viewers—today, as then—to embark on visual voyages.
The participation of the Huntington Library, Art Collections, and Botanical Gardens in the Getty Foundation’s groundbreaking Pacific Standard Time initiative has made it possible for us to examine, for the first time, an important body of material on Latin American nature held by the Huntington Library. A number of major international loans to the exhibition have greatly enhanced this material. Significantly, many of these loaned objects have never been seen before in the United States.
For an exhibition as complex as Visual Voyages, there are many people to whom thanks are owed. In addition to the fundamental work of my co-curator Daniela Bleichmar, we are deeply grateful to Huntington staff Lana Johnson, Erin Aitali, Susan Colletta, Michele Ahern, Sharon Robinson, Lindsey Hansen, Gregg Bayne, Thomas Cabbell, Patricia Pickett, Jacob Yanes, Anders Lansing, David Zeidberg, Stephen Tabor, Dan Lewis, Vanessa Wilkie, Christina O’Connell, Annie Wilker, Andrea Knowlton, Jim Folsom, Robert Hori, Randy Shulman, Sarah Basile, Daniel Johnson, Coreen Rodgers, Patty Hanna, Susan Turner-Lowe, Thea Page, Ryan D’Orazi, Kate Lain, Catherine Allgor, Jennifer Phillips, Lindsay Ash, and, especially, former director of the art collections, Kevin Salatino, whose unstinting support throughout the planning and execution of this project made it all possible.
We are greatly indebted to Sharon and John Light, Scott Jordan, and the Ahmanson Foundation Exhibition and Education Endowment for their thoughtful and generous support, without which Visual Voyages could not have been realized.
Finally, we extend our profound thanks to the Getty Foundation for its critical support of Visual Voyages during both its research and development phase and its implementation. The timely theme of Pacific Standard Time: LA/LA (Los Angeles/Latin America) enables us to better understand the historical and cultural bond that joins these two symbiotically connected regions.
 
Catherine Hess
Interim Director of the Art Collections
Foreword
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