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- Title
Mid-twentieth-century Guatemalan modernism and the anesthetic of progress.
- Authors
Kirkpatrick, Michael D.
- Abstract
This article uses Guatemala City's Centro Cívico as a point of departure to consider the wider implications of shared Western epistemological assumptions during the Cold War. It argues that an "esthetic of progress", based on notions of economic development as well as teleological beliefs about historical change, became a dominant artistic motif in mid- twentieth-century Guatemalan modernism, emblematic of the artists belonging to the Generation of 1940. Owing to the homogenizing tendencies of the idea of progress and its universality within Guatemalan politics, however, the article suggests that the esthetic of progress also possessed anesthetic qualities that muted its political importance. In so doing, the work of the Generation of 1940 appealed to a wide variety of political actors and the "anesthetic of progress" helps to explain why the Cenho Cívico project was conceived and constructed by governments of opposing ideological convictions.
- Subjects
GUATEMALA (Guatemala); GUATEMALA; ARCHITECTURE; MODERN movement (Architecture); AESTHETICS; COLD War, 1945-1991; GUATEMALAN politics &; government; MODERNITY; TWENTIETH century
- Publication
Canadian Journal of Latin American & Caribbean Studies (Canadian Association of Latin American & Caribbean Studies (CALACS)), 2014, Vol 39, Issue 1, p3
- ISSN
0826-3663
- Publication type
Article
- DOI
10.1080/08263663.2014.978152