Totem Negro XVI

María Martínez-Cañas, Totem Negro XVI, 1992, gelatin silver print, sheet and image: 53 ¹⁄₂ x 9 ³⁄₈ in. (135.9 x 23.8 cm.), Smithsonian American Art Museum, Museum purchase through the Smithsonian Institution Collections Acquisition Program, 1997.68, © 1992, María Martínez-Cañas

Artwork Details

Title: Totem Negro XVI
Artist: María Martínez-Cañas
Date: 1992
Location: Not on view
Dimensions: sheet and image: 53 ¹⁄₂ x 9 ³⁄₈ in. (135.9 x 23.8 cm.)
Copyright: © 1992, María Martínez-Cañas
Credit Line: Museum purchase through the Smithsonian Institution Collections Acquisition Program
Mediums Description: gelatin silver print
Classifications: Photography
Photoprint
Subjects: Abstract
Object Number: 1997.68
Linked Open Data: https://edan.si.edu/saam/id/object/1997.68

Artwork Description

Born in Cuba, raised in Puerto Rico, and now living in Miami, Martínez-Cañas assembled the pieces of her multifaceted identity into a totem by using a complex photographic process. She drew cubist patterns and abstracted natural forms on large-scale negatives, incorporated images drawn from Cuban colonial maps and pre-Columbian art, and printed them in black-and-white. These hybrid forms announce her multiple cultural connections and recall the paintings of Cuban artist Wilfredo Lam.

Our America: The Latino Presence in American Art, 2013

Nacida en Cuba, criada en Puerto Rico, y actualmente viviendo en Miami; Martínez-Cañas ensambla las partes de su identidad multifacética para formar un tótem usando un proceso fotográfico complejo. Dibuja diseños cubistas y abstracciones de formas naturales en negativos de gran formato, incorpora imágenes tomadas de mapas coloniales de Cuba y del arte precolombino, y los imprime en blanco y negro. Estas formas híbridas anuncian sus múltiples vínculos culturales y recuerdan la obra del artista cubano Wifredo Lam.

Nuestra América: la presencia latina en el arte estadounidense, 2013

Works by this artist (40 items)

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Collection

Artist

Saul Steinberg

Date1971

mixed media on wood

(Untitled)

Artist

Saul Steinberg

Date1967

pen and ink, ink wash and color pencil on paper

(Official Document)

Artist

Saul Steinberg

Daten.d.

screenprint

Guaranty

Artist

Saul Steinberg

Date1966

watercolor and ink

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Our America Audio Podcast - Maria Martinez-Canas, "Totem Negro XVI" (English)
Audio podcast, Nuestra America - Maria Martinez-Canas, "Totem Negro XVI" (espanol)
Meet the Artist: Maria Martinez-Cañas

MARÍA MARTÍNEZ-CAÑAS: My name is María Martínez-Cañas, and I am a photography-based artist living in Miami. The series that is here at the Smithsonian American Art Museum belongs to a series that I did titled “The Black Totems.” I did that series from 1991 to 1992. There were a group of about 17 images total in the series.

I was born in Cuba and grew up in Puerto Rico. After leaving Puerto Rico after high school, I came to the United States to do my BFA in Philadelphia, and then I moved to Chicago where did my MFA, and so I consider myself to be a Cuban born, Puerto Rican grown, American citizen. The three cultures have impacted the way that I see myself in this world and the way that I react to things and to events in my life.

The series that is here dealt – at the time that I did it, I was working with cartography and maps. I have done a project doing a Fulbright grant in Spain that I dealt with the maps and documents that Christopher Columbus utilized to discover Cuba as a foundation for my photographic work. The idea that we utilize a map as a way to find our location, and I wanted to utilize the actual maps belonging to the discovery of Cuba as a way to kind of reconnect to my roots and to kind of understand where I come from because I am from the generation that was born in the island but never had the possibility of living there or growing up there. Because of that, I had to kind of come to terms with what makes me who I am. The totems in itself, the idea of totem, totems have been used through history as a way to – it’s basically a family story or family history, and I have come upon two paintings that Wifredo Lam, the Cuban surrealist painter, had created, and I decided let me look at his work to see if I can get the iconography and visual elements that belong to where I come from. That’s basically what gave the inspiration the work.

The totems are gelatin silver print images. I utilized a technique that allowed me basically to draw on photographic paper and allows me to create images that look more like paintings and drawings and actual photographic works. It’s a technique that is basically work with negative and positive space and then overlaying negatives, actual photographic negatives, and other materials to create visual marks that I will be very interested in.

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Our America: The Latino Presence in American Art explores how Latino artists shaped the artistic movements of their day and recalibrated key themes in American art and culture. This beautifully illustrated volume presents the rich and varied contributions of Latino artists in the United States since the mid-twentieth century, when the concept of a collective Latino identity began to emerge. Our America includes works by artists who participated in all the various artistic styles and movements, including abstract expressionism; activist, conceptual, and performance art; and classic American genres such as landscape, portraiture, and scenes of everyday life.

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