10 Women Artists Who Shaped Modern Art in Latin America

Key facts

• Frida Kahlo’s My Dress Hangs There (1933) critiques US capitalism and expresses her desire to return to Mexico.
• Tarsila do Amaral’s Abaporu inspired Oswald de Andrade’s Manifesto of Anthropophagy.
• Julia Codesido was a leading artist of Peru’s Indigenismo movement, which centered Andean identity.
• Norah Borges, sister of Jorge Luis Borges, was a key member of 1920s international avant-garde circles.
• María Izquierdo’s 1940s paintings captured traditional Mexican ofrendas, blending colonial and Modernist elements.
• Amelia Peláez studied with Cubist Fernand Léger in Paris and incorporated Cuban architectural motifs into her work.
• Elizabeth Catlett was declared an “undesirable alien” by the US and became a Mexican citizen.
• Tina Modotti was deported from Mexico due to her activism, which curtailed her photography.
• Marion and Grace Greenwood painted murals at the Abelardo L. Rodríguez Market in Mexico City in 1934.
• Leonora Carrington, a British Surrealist, moved to Mexico and created works like The Lovers (1987).