Art

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1998.85_1b.jpg (69813 bytes)Martina López
Heirs Come to Pass, 3
1991
silver-dye bleach print made from digitally assisted montage
30 x 50 in.
Smithsonian American Art Museum, Gift of the Consolidated Natural Gas Company Foundation



After her father's death in 1986, López began using photographs, first from her Mexican American family albums and later from second-hand stores, to create anonymous family histories. In Heirs Come to Pass, 3, she placed people in Victorian clothing across an unfriendly landscape. The title is a play on words. López has said that "Heirs are the children who receive the heritage and accumulated wealth of their ancestors. The word 'heirs' is also a homonym for 'errors' … the mistakes that dot a family's history. Heirs inherit the errors as well as the fruits of an ancestor's life."



Después de fallecer su padre en 1986, López empezó a trabajar con fotografías, que encontraba, primero, en álbumes de su familia americana de origen mexicano y más tarde, en tiendas de segunda mano, para crear historias de familias anónimas. En Heirs Come to Pass, 3, coloca a personas vestidas a la usanza victoriana en un paisaje inhóspito. El título es un juego de palabras. López ha dicho que "Los herederos son los hijos que reciben la herencia y acumulan los bienes de sus antepasados. La palabra inglesa 'heir' (heredero) es homónima de 'error' (error) . . . las faltas que salpican la historia de una familia. Los herederos heredan tanto los errores como los frutos de la vida de los antepasados".

 

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Revised: January 17, 2002
URL: http://black_and_hispanic.tripod.com/hispanichistory/
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