UC Riverside

The 1921 “Exhibición de Arte Popular” established the category of arte popular in Mexico. The exhibition required that all works be made from materials originating in the country of Mexico and created through “authentic” Indigenous traditions. In other words, the focus was on creating a national identity founded in Indigeneity rather than on the Indigenous communities themselves. Since 1921, discussion of arte popular has focused on either dismissing it as a tourist trinket or advocating for its inclusion as ‘art’. However, there has been a serious lack of discussions centered on arte popular's appropriation of Indigenous cultures for a national aesthetic. This has led to an underwhelming focus on the relationships between contemporary Indigenous communities and the objects they are creating. This investigation takes a decolonial approach that focuses on the relationship between Indigenous communities and the non-human (materiality) to offer an alternative approach to studying arte popular. In this paper, I investigate the changes in the relationship between the Otomi people and amate (bark paper) and explore different ways art history can approach arte popular through materiality.