Saturday evening I went to the talk _Independent Curators International and the New Museum present The Curators Perspective: Rosina Cazali_. Although there was an interesting <a title="https://www.sothebys.com/en/auctions/2012/fine-classical-chinese-paintings-n08835/exhibitions.html" href="https://www.sothebys.com/en/auctions/2012/fine-classical-chinese-paintings-n08835/exhibitions.html" target="_blank">talk at Sothebys titled “_Masters of the Ming and Qing: Chinese Paintings and Calligraphy at Sothebys_" by Arnold Chang, before their Fine Classical Chinese Paintings exhibition and auction. I dont know how the Sotheby`s lecture went, but here is what I saw and heard at the New Museum.

While the exhibitions introduced in the talks slides were not that impressive, there were things I did enjoy and appreciate, such as a determination to deliver the talk in Spanish (with simultaneous translation, although Mrs. Cazali speaks perfect English) in order to make a subtle cultural and political statement, and Mrs. Cazalis interesting insights about the curatorial and artistic processes.

But in the end, my impression was sad, because the themes she as a curator and the artists she chose and displayed as representative of her work and art in Guatemala in the last two decades, almost all revolved around the common theme of violence from the civil war period. And as Juan Cárdenas explained to Glenn Lowry (MoMA Director) in an open letter (thanks for the link, Nebula) talking about Colombian contemporary art: 

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Al señor Glenn Lowry le parece muy interesante que nuestros artistas invoquen como tema de su obra la guerrilla, la violencia y las drogas (fenómenos que ya llevan más de 40 años). Dice que “los grandes artistas siempre responden a sus entornos”, frase muy vaga, que, se supone, aludía a esas calamidades. Pero ¿qué artistas importantes dedicaron su obra a comentar, por ejemplo, la Guerra Civil de los Estados Unidos? ¿O la Primera o Segunda Guerra Mundial? Los que lo hicieron produjeron un arte mediocre, salvo el caso solitario de Picasso con su Guernica, que, con toda su fama e inmensa divulgación, no ha tenido prácticamente ninguna influencia sobre la mentalidad guerrera del hombre, como tampoco la han tenido Los desastres de la guerra, de Goya, a pesar de la maravilla que son.

Cuando Picasso comentó sobre la guerra de Corea en un cuadro de la época produjo algo vergonzoso. ¿Y qué decir del historiador de arte Mayer Schapiro, que criticó a Monet por no haber comentado con su obra la Guerra Franco-Prusiana? El arte visual no es la herramienta más eficaz ni adecuada para combatir las dolencias y perversidades de la sociedad, como sí lo es el periodismo.

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