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Shows how four Mexican artists transformed modern culture in the first half of the twentieth century.
Aesthetics of Displacement examines how four influential Mexican artists—José Juan Tablada, Miguel Covarrubias, Carlos Chávez, and José Limón—helped shape modern culture during their years in New York. Drawing on archival materials and close analysis of artworks, performances, and publications, the book uncovers a dynamic field of cultural production linking Mexico and the United States. Marco A. Martínez moves beyond frameworks of influence or exchange. Instead, Martínez argues that displacement functioned as not only as a condition of movement for these artists but also as an aesthetic and epistemic framework that shaped how they translated Mexican cultural forms for US audiences while also negotiating their own positions within emerging cultural hierarchies. By tracing these processes across art, music, dance, and literature, Aesthetics of Displacement offers a new perspective on modernism as a transnational formation structured by mediation, classification, and asymmetry. Rigorous yet accessible, the book will appeal to readers interested in modern art and culture, migration, and the intertwined cultural histories of Mexico and the United States.
"This well-researched book brings together four Mexican artists and cultural emissaries who surprisingly have not been studied collectively in a monograph before, especially from a cultural studies methodology. It is well written, combining careful close readings with a deep understanding of the artists' biographies, public interventions, and cultural trajectories in New York City. Martínez's critical style is elegant and restrained, interpreting each artist in their historical context and their aesthetic terms. Additionally, the focus on lesser-known aspects of Mexican postrevolutionary cultural production, such as music and dance, is enlightening." — Laura J. Torres-Rodríguez, Department of Spanish and Portuguese, Emory University
Marco A. Martínez is an Assistant Professor of Spanish at Penn State University.