Toward a Cartography of Mexican Art in the Post-Nafta Era: Three Critical Perspectives1

Abstract

This review examines three recently published studies that pertain to Mexican art during the onset, development and crisis of neoliberalism as a stage of capitalism and as a social rationality: Delirious Consumption. Aesthetics and Consumer Capitalism in Mexico and Brazil (University of Texas Press, 2017) by Sergio Delgado Moya, The Incurable-Image. Curating Post-Mexican Film and Media Arts (Edinburgh University Press, 2016) by Tarek Elhaik, and REMEX. Toward an Art History of the NAFTA Era (University of Texas Press, 2017) by Amy Sara Carroll. Each volume proposes a critical device that offers the reader an understanding of the tensions that shaped art produced in Mexico in the context of global capitalism. A comparative analysis of the three volumes produces a broad understanding of the development of Mexican art, both from different historical perspectives and from various methodological approaches that are examined in this review.