At the beginning of the 17th century, an indigenous Andean man, don Felipe Guaman Poma de Ayala, wrote a nearly 1200-page letter addressed to King Philip III of Spain. The first part of the letter gave the king a history of Andean culture and traditions before the Spanish conquest, providing vital historical and ethnographic information. The letter then outlined the history of the conquest and the effects of Spanish colonial rule on the Andean world, which Guaman Poma believed had been turned upside down by the unjust practices of Spanish administrators. The end of the letter proposed a new, better form of government that would incorporate pre-conquest Andean political and economic structures. In addition to his written text, Guaman Poma included 398 full page line drawings in the letter. This lecture will focus on these fascinating drawings, which provide an intriguing glimpse into life in the Viceroyalty of Peru and also illuminate Guaman Poma’s synthesis of European visual techniques with indigenous Andean systems of symbolism and spatial concepts.

Courtney Gilbert holds Ph.D. and Master’s degrees in art history from the University of Chicago and a Bachelor’s degree from Dartmouth College. Most recently she worked at the Blanton Museum of Art at the University of Texas at Austin, where she coordinated the planning for a major exhibition of Latin American abstract art. Prior to joining The Center, she also taught Art History at Columbia College Chicago, and Texas State University.