Take an Altar-nate View

Arte Latino: Treasures from the Smithsonian American Art Museum opens tomorrow at the Terra Museum of American Art in Chicago.

The exhibition highlights more than 200 years of Latino art from across the United States and Puerto Rico. Among its seventy gems, the show features this work by contemporary artist Amalia Mesa-Bains.

In this altar-like installation, Mesa-Bains honors a movie star and cultural icon whose international fame spanned five decades. She has said that "with a career in both the American and Mexican cinema, Dolores symbolized a universal yet particularly Mexican beauty … and gave meaning and power to a generation of Chicanos suffering rejection because [they did not fit] the accepted Anglo standard of beauty." Mesa-Bains's materials—a photograph of del Rio, draped satin, dried flowers, lace, confetti—are associated with glamour and fame, and with soft, feminine qualities.

Source: Virginia Mecklenburg. Arte Latino: Treasures from the Smithsonian American Art Museum (exhibition text, Smithsonian American Art Museum, 1999).

Pictured: Amalia Mesa-Bains, born 1943, An Ofrenda for Dolores del Rio, 1984, mixed media installation including plywood, mirrors, fabric, framed items and decorative elements, 96 x 72 x 48 in., Smithsonian American Art Museum, Museum purchase through the Smithsonian Institution Collections Acquisition Program.