In the twentieth century, avant-garde artists from Mexico, Central and South America, and the Caribbean created extraordinary and highly innovative paintings, sculptures, assemblages, mixed-media works, and installations. This groundbreaking book presents more than 250 works by some seventy of these artists (including Gego, Joaquín Torres-García, Xul Solar, and José Clemente Orozco) and artists’ groups, along with interpretive essays by leading authorities and newly translated manifestoes and other theoretical documents written by the artists. Together the images and texts showcase the astonishing artistic achievements of the Latin American avant-garde.

Inverted Utopias focuses on the emergence and development of this art during two decisive periods. The first marks the return from Europe of Latin American avant-garde pioneers who came home to bring the promise of a new art to societies in the early stages of modernization. The second period, following World War II, encompasses the expansion of avant-garde activities throughout Latin America as artists expressed their independence from developments in Europe and the United States. As the authors explain, during both of these periods Latin American art was fueled by the belief that artistic creations could present a form of utopia—an inversion of the original premise that drove the European avant-garde—and serve as a model for a new society.

As an insightful source for new ideas about the nature and function of modern art, Inverted Utopias is an essential book that will become a classic text in the field.