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| De Espanol y Negra produce Mulato (A Spaniard and a Black produce a Mule) at the conservation studio |
Last November I received an email out of the blue inviting me to be a guest speaker at The Origins of Caste event along with a few background links about the Casta project and paintings. I’d never heard of Casta paintings so wasn’t sure this would be for me however once I read Tara Munroe’s Casta story in the Guardian, how she first came across this 18th century Black presence in a “stack of discarded oil paintings” in Leicester Museum’s basement - I was in!
Casta paintings were painted in the 18th century Mexico by dual heritage artists to depict and name the progeny of different intermarriages between Whites, Indians and Blacks and their resultant off springs’ marriages. The series of sixteen paintings are rooted in the racist white supremacy beliefs of the white Spanish colonists.
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| Casta Paintings |
The subsequent invitation from Tara Munroe's heritage and arts organisation Opal 22 turned into three memorable days in Leicester – looking at, talking about and debating on Casta painting then eventually presenting my views on Casta paintings and Tara’s remarkable discovery in Leicester Museum basement. In addition to me, I was in the company of three academics with an interest in and passion for Casta paintings – Ilona Katzew , Department Head and Curator, Latin American Art, Los Angeles County Museum of Art, Dr Susan Deans-Smith, Associate Professor, Department of History, University of Texas Austin, Professor Rebecca Earle, Department of History, Warwick University.
The first day - and for me the high point - was spent in Annabelle Monaghan's wonderful conservation studio with the others looking at the works being carefully, meticulosulsy ...and have to say it, lovingly conserved. A great experience - honoured - to see how the paintings are being painstakingly, literally being brought back to life. The colour and detail revealed as the layers of old varnish and the paint from previous restorations is slowly, delicately removed, square millimetre by square millimetre, was astonishing. (here's a Facebook story from Opal 22 summarising the day)
There was much discussion on the quality of the original work now made manifest by the conservation. We also discussed the poor-quality retouching and additions the conservation revealed. For me the vase with cup and saucer in sitting on top in lower right of De Espanol y Negra produce Mulato (A Spaniard and a Black produce a Mule) was an addition, as neither seem to fit into the composition both in terms of positioning and colour. While on Indios otomies queue ban a la feria ( Native Indians going to the market) what looks like one chicken being held by the young boy, on cleaning we can now clearly see he’s actually holding three chickens!
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| De Espanol y Negra produce Mulato (A Spaniard and a Black produce a Mule) (detail) |
The following day was spent with each of us giving our views – to camera - on the paintings and their conservation. I discussed the white supremacy to found in them and how those ideas moved from the Spanish to the English colonists in the 18th century and are still with us today in the evil that is colourism and the expression ‘mixed race’ implying there is a pure race.
The third and final day was a series of academic presentations – Casta , Caste and Classification - chaired by the facilitator Cheryl Garvey. Tara opened the meeting with a brief review of her journey and her vision for the Exhibition to be held later this year, Ilona Katzew gave a review of the history and development of the genre- casta paintings, Dr Susan Deans-Smith considered the purpose and market for the paintings, Professor Rebecca Earle, presented us with the history and provenance of Leicester’s Casta paintings, finally I presented my ideas on the colonial and imperialist interpretations of the works.
The discussions in the conservation studio and the pieces to camera will be remixed and made into film which will be on show as part of the Casta Painting Exhibition later this year, where the narratives surrounding the Casta Paintings will be reframed informed by work done at the Casta , Caste and Classification event presenting the paintings to the public with a contemporary narrative, reflecting society today - I look forward to it !
