REFLECTION OF SOCIAL STRATIFICATION IN ART: THE CASE OF CASTA PAINTINGS

Abstract

Visual culture products are not neutral objects. It can be argued that visual culture products are indicative of power relations, and that these relations are more pronounced during periods of social change and upheaval. Understanding visual cultural products beyond the confines of their frames, evaluating these images within contexts, and looking beyond the images are necessary both to conduct a profound analysis of artistic production and to reveal the dynamics of social power relations. Throughout mainstream art history, it is evident that people of colour have been represented with stereotyped identities distinct from those of whites. Western visual regimes reproduce existing inequalities and stratifications in society through racialized images. Casta paintings crystallize this perspective, depicting the process of racial mixing among the three main groups living in Mexico, which was part of the Spanish colony in the 18th century. Casta paintings narrate the ways in which a racialized society is expressed in visual culture. This study focuses on the exhibition Casta: The Origins of Caste to examine how social stratification and race are visualized in works of art.