smithsonian latino art collections - Smithsonian Latino Center

S M I T H S O N I A N I N S T I T U T I O N
L A T I N O , H I S P A N I C A N D L A T I N A M E R I C A N ART
C O L L E C T I O N S
Compiled by
Olga U. Herrera
For the
Smithsonian Latino Center -- Latino Virtual Museum
The Smithsonian Latino Virtual Museum (LVM) is a digital initiative of the Smithsonian Latino Center
(SLC) that highlights the vast and rich collections, research & scholarship, exhibitions and educational
activities of the Smithsonian Institution as they relate to U.S. Latinos and Latin America.
A pan-institutional immersive education initiative based on bilingual mixed media experiences, LVM
utilizes twenty-first century media and communication technologies as an innovative gateway to create
presence, to provide access to information and resources, and to facilitate the increase and diffusion of
knowledge to local and global online audiences about Latino/Hispanic history, cultural heritage, and
American experience.
The Smithsonian Latino/Hispanic and Latin American Art Collections survey pilot project was initiated in
late 2002 to create a centralized list to provide a complete picture of the large and growing Smithsonian
Latino and Hispanic collections. Once the Latino Virtual Museum became established in 2007, this
project became a permanent feature of the online pan-institution museum.
The purpose of this reference guide is to facilitate research and to provide an assessment of art
collections by U.S. Latino and Latin American artists at the Smithsonian Institution. This listing provides
label information for artworks, archival materials and reference collections in the Archives of American
Art; the Cooper-Hewitt National Design Museum; the Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden; the
National Air and Space Museum; the National Museum of American History; the National Portrait
Gallery; the Smithsonian American Art Museum and its Renwick Gallery, and the Smithsonian Institution
Libraries.
The significance of this survey/list as it pertains to artworks and art collections reveals a pattern of
collecting on the part of the Institution. Prior to the 1990s, most artworks originated as transfers, gifts or
part of bequests such as the Joseph H. Hirshhorn Gift in 1966 and the Joseph H. Hirshhorn Bequest in
1981 to the museum that now bears his name with a minor number as museum purchases. Similarly,
some artworks in the Smithsonian American Art collections of the 1970s and 1980s came as transfers
from the General Services Administration in 1974 (Santos), 1979 (Rafael Ferrer), 1985 (Maria Alquilar,
Patrocinio Barela, Pedro Cervantez), and 1988 (Luis Jimenez, Manuel Neri and Roberto Rios); as well as
from transfers the National Endowment for the Arts in 1983 (Adal Maldonado, Anthony Hernandez and
Joe B. Ramon).
Other artworks came as part gift/museum purchase with proceeds from de-accessioned artworks from
the Ralph Cross Johnson Collection such as the Waide Hemphill Collection, which entered NMAA in 1986
with Hispanic and Latino artworks by Felipe Benito Archuleta, Arroyo Hondo Painter, Pedro Antonio
Fresquis, George Lopez, José Dolores Lopez, Alexander A. Maldonado, Jose Mondragon, José Benito
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