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In the Library: Latin American Architecture in Circulation

Past Exhibition

January 8 – April 26, 2024
East Building, Ground Level - Library Atrium

Weekdays, 11:00 a.m.–4:30 p.m.

Across the globe, the early modern period (1450–1800) was a moment of dramatic and often violent transformation as people, objects, and ideas moved across seas and between cultures. In Latin America, this unprecedented circulation resulted in hybrid architecture that combined Indigenous and colonial traditions.

Nearly 40 prints, rare books, postcards, maps, and photographs exhibited here, from the National Gallery of Art Library, document the buildings that resulted from this exchange. They show how architects, patrons, and the ordinary people who used structures like Mexico City’s towering Metropolitan Cathedral or the imposing temples of Tikal, in modern-day Guatemala, radically altered the built environment, creating new styles and forms. These works also point to the way that people used buildings to define Latin America as a cultural and political space in the centuries between European colonization and the independence movements of the 19th century.  

Explore Selected Works

In the Library: Latin American Architecture in Circulation

Temple of Quetzalcoatl at Teotihuacan, Mexico, Mid-20th century, Gelatin silver photograph, René Huyghe Archive, National Gallery of Art Library
In the Library: Latin American Architecture in Circulation

Temple at Tikal, Guatemala, early 20th c., Rotogravure postcard, Waterlow & Sons Limited, National Gallery of Art Library
In the Library: Latin American Architecture in Circulation

Guillermo Kahlo, Interior View of the Metropolitan Cathedral, Mexico City, c. 1930, Gelatin silver print, National Gallery of Art Library
In the Library: Latin American Architecture in Circulation

René Brann, Facade of the Basilica of San Francisco in La Paz, early 20th century, Gelatin silver print, Harold Wethey Archive, National Gallery of Art Library
In the Library: Latin American Architecture in Circulation

Martín Chambi, Facade of San Sebastián in Cusco, Peru, early 20th century, Real photograph postcard, National Gallery of Art Library
In the Library: Latin American Architecture in Circulation

William Henry Brown, Facade of San Miguel in Santa Fe, New Mexico, 1870-1875, Albumen silver print stereographic cabinet card, National Gallery of Art Library
In the Library: Latin American Architecture in Circulation

Enrique A. Cervantes, Puebla de Los Angeles en el año de mil novecientos treinta y tres, 1935, Gelatin silver print, National Gallery of Art Library
In the Library: Latin American Architecture in Circulation

Hugo Brehme, Interior of the Hotel Iturbide in Mexico City, early 20th century, Gelatin silver postcard, Harold Wethey Archive, National Gallery of Art Library
In the Library: Latin American Architecture in Circulation

Abel Briquet, Kiosco Morisco from Vistas Mexicanas, c. 1906, Albumen print, National Gallery of Art Library
In the Library: Latin American Architecture in Circulation

Argentinian Pavilion at the Exposition Universelle, Paris, 1889, Albumen print|, National Gallery of Art Library

Organization
Organized by the National Gallery of Art, Washington

Passes
Admission is always free and passes are not required