The role of the visual arts in negotiating a sense of place and identity is an important one, and mural paintings reveal the complex ways that artists and viewers conceptualize the space they inhabit.  

In a Chats in the Stacks talk, assistant professor of history of art Ananda Cohen-Aponte (Cohen Suarez) will talk about her new book, Heaven, Hell, and Everything in Between (University of Texas Press; May 24, 2016), about the vivid, often apocalyptic church murals of Peru from the early colonial period through the nineteenth century.

By exploring the sociopolitical situation represented by the artists, she discovers that the murals are embedded in complex networks of trade, commerce, and the exchange of ideas between the Andes and Europe. She also sheds light on the unique ways that artists and viewers worked through difficult questions of representing sacredness. Unlike the murals of New Spain that used abstract motifs preferred by the Incas, the murals of the Andes command power and contemplation, visual archives of the complex negotiations among empire, communities, and individuals.

This event is sponsored by Olin Library. Buffalo Street Books will offer books for purchase and signing. Refreshments served.