With Latinx and Hispanic communities spread all over the planet, it’s easy to see why Latinx art, history, music, and culture are influential in our everyday lives. Rooted in Spanish exploration and colonization of Latin America, Latinx refers to people with origins from Mexico, Central and South America, and the Caribbean. Hispanic describes someone whose ancestry derives from a Spanish-speaking country.
To celebrate the cultural impact of Latinx and Hispanic artists from around the world during National Hispanic Heritage Month (September 15-October 15), we’ve got a stunning list of famous artworks and where to find them, from Mexico and Spain to Cuba and Columbia.
1. Two Fridas by Frida Kahlo
Where to find it: Museo de Arte Moderno, Mexico City
Most recognized by her signature bushy eyebrows, Frida Kahlo is a famous Latinx artist to be reckoned with. She was diagnosed with polio as a young child and was involved in a tragic bus accident at 18 that left her partially paralyzed and in lifelong pain.
Her dreams of medical school dashed by her disabilities led her to create Mexican folk art scenes and self-portraits that blended pre-Columbian Mexican heritage and Catholic beliefs. None represents this juxtaposition better than Two Fridas at the Museo de Arte Moderno, which depicts the artist herself in two forms. One wearing popular European attire on the left, and the other donning traditional Mexican garments on the right, with a single artery connecting the hearts of both.
While you can find Frida Kahlo’s work in galleries around the world, her childhood home in Mexico City has been converted into the Frida Kahlo Museum, showcasing Kahlo’s work and her personal dress collection.
2. The Jungle by Wifredo Lam
Where to find it: Museum of Modern Art (MoMA), New York City
A Cuban contemporary of Frida Kahlo and Diego Rivera, Wifredo Lam’s repertoire includes paintings, sculptures, ceramics, and prints that depict Afro-Cuban culture and customs. A winner of the prestigious Guggenheim International Award, Lam has certainly left his mark on this list of famous Latinx artists.
His most famous work, The Jungle, currently on display at the Museum of Modern Art in New York City portrays humans, animals, and plants in hybrid form.
The colors and technique are a nod to Lam’s inspiration and formal training in Spanish modernism and surrealism styles. African masks, palm fronds, and sugar cane stalks pay homage to Cuba’s history of slavery and its interracial blend of cultures throughout Portuguese and Spanish occupation.
You can also find works from William Lam at the Art Institute of Chicago, Museum of Contemporary Art (Chicago), and in Paris, Miami, and Havana.
3. Persistence of Memory by Salvador Dalí
Where to find it: Museum of Modern Art (MoMA), New York City
Best known for his depiction of melting clock faces and hybrid animals, Salvador Dalí’s dreamscapes put him near the top of this list of famous Hispanic artists.
Dalí has been dubbed the “Father of Surrealism”, and is often credited as a source of inspiration for so many modern artists around the world. His eccentric lifestyle and mustachioed persona are commemorated in international art exhibits from Catalonia to California.
You can find his most famous work – The Persistence of Memory – in the permanent collection at the Museum of Modern Art (MoMA) in New York, as well as an extensive collection of his most recognizable pieces at the Dalí Theatre-Museum, a whimsical structure that was once the home of the artist, his final resting place, and an art gallery.
4. Sculpture of Poet Ramón López Velarde by Francisco Zúñiga
Where to find it: Jardín del Arte Velarde in Jerez, Zacatecas, Mexico
One of the most famous Latino artists in the world is best known for his sculptures. Francisco Zúñiga harnessed the ability to make cold bronze look lifelike – poised hands, textured clothing, and a contemplative gaze make his famous sculpture of Mexican poet Ramón López Velarde in Zacatecas seem to come to life.
Born in Costa Rica in 1912, Zúñiga’s parents were also sculptors. Earnings from his first individual art exhibition paid his way to Mexico City, and he continued to win multiple awards for his work. However, due to controversy surrounding some of his nude sculptures, he destroyed some of his sculptures.
You can find sculptures that remain all over the world, including the Metropolitan Museum of Art (Met) and the Museum of Modern Art (MoMA) in New York City, as well as Museo de Arte Moderno in Mexico City, Ponce Museum of Art in Puerto Rico, and the Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden in Washington, D.C.
5. Sunday Afternoon Dream at the Central Alameda by Diego Rivera
Where to find it: Alameda Park, Mexico City
An artist himself, and the notorious husband of fellow Latinx artist Frida Kahlo, Diego Rivera carved his own niche into the art and culture of Latin American communities. Inspired by the Cubist style of Picasso and Salvador Dalí on his European tour, Rivera painted scenes of Mexico in both large and small formats.
From portraits of children and humble farmworkers to murals depicting controversial political messages, Diego Rivera’s art can be found everywhere from Mexico City to Detroit.
Sunday Afternoon Dream at the Central Alameda – a 51-foot long mural – showcases Mexico’s rich history, from indigenous imagery, Calavera (sugar skulls), traditional Mexican instruments and costumes, as well as a tribute to the Mexican Revolution in the early 20th century.
You can find several of his paintings in Mexico City and abroad, including the Frida Kahlo Museum, the Art Institute of Chicago, Museo Dolores Olmedo, and the Museo Nacional de Arte.
6. Silhouettes by Ana Mendieta
Where to find it: Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, New York City
One of 14,000 unaccompanied minors who traveled to the US from Cuba during Operation Peter Pan, Cuban artist Ana Mendieta left her mark on the Latinx art world in the 1970s and 1980s.
A victim of domestic abuse herself, Mendieta brings to light ongoing violence against women, as well as the relationship between the mind, body, and nature, Mendieta used natural materials like rocks, mud, grass, and flowers to create her most famous art series simply titled Silhouettes.
Over time, Mother Earth reabsorbed these artistic figures, but photographs from her 1973 display can be found in the permanent collection of the Guggenheim Museum in New York City.
7. Untitled by Jean-Michel Basquiat
Where to find it: Privately-owned
One of the most sought-after Latinx artists in the world, Jean-Michel Basquiat’s graffiti-style art is some of the most expensive to ever sell at a private auction. His most famous work titled Untitled was sold for more than Andy Warhol’s Shot Marilyn at a whopping $110.5 million.
An American artist with roots in Haiti and Puerto Rico, Basquiat was an influential artist on the cultural scene in Brooklyn during the 1980s. Heavily influenced by an emerging street culture in Brooklyn – including street art and rap – Basquiat was one of the youngest artists to exhibit at the Whitney Biennial at the age of 22.
While you may not be able to see Untitled in person, you can see dozens of his other masterpieces featured at galleries around the world, including the Vancouver Art Gallery in Canada, the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York, and the Barcelona Museum of Contemporary Art (MACBA) in Spain.
8. Guernica by Pablo Picasso
Where to find it: Museo Reina Sofía, Madrid
Pablo Picasso’s most famous Cubist work needs no introduction. The black, white, and gray shapes are instantly recognizable as Guernica, and one of the most powerful pieces of Hispanic artwork on the planet.
Guernica depicts violence, pain, and suffering after a devastating bombing in 1937, inflicted by German and Italian Fascists. Screaming women, a gored bull, and a flayed soldier are only parts of the rubble viewers can dissect from one of the most famous anti-war paintings to date.
Its current home is the Museo Reina Sofía in Madrid, which attracts nearly 3 million visitors per year, but you can see other Picasso masterpieces at the Picasso Museum in Barcelona, Centre Pompidou in Paris, and the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art (SFMOMA).
9. I Am Awake by Feliciano Centurión
Where to find it: Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, New York City
Latinx art is represented in a variety of materials – paintings, murals, sculptures, and drawings are the usual variety. Latino artist Feliciano Centurión brings textile artworks to the forefront to honor the Latin American tradition of embroidery – the literal thread that connects modern Latinx individuals to their ancient ancestors.
Because of its laborious nature, creating embroidered garments, or meticulously stitching textiles like quilts, were reserved only for special occasions.
Born in Paraguay, Argentinian artist Feliciano Centurión uses a thread and needle to weave simple – but powerful – messages into the fibers, as is seen in I Am Awake, on permanent display at the Guggenheim Museum in New York City.
10. Shibboleth by Doris Salcedo
In 2007, Colombian artist Doris Salcedo was commissioned to design the Turbine Hall for the Art and Materials Room at the Tate Modern in London as part of the Unilever Series.
Made with Columbian rockface, Salcedo created a craggy fissure down the center of the hallway, flanked by barbed-wire fencing. The term shibboleth – as well as the namesake for her masterpiece – is a biblical reference to cultural exclusion, and is representative of Salcedo’s view of museums of today and their failure to include pieces from non-European artists.
Her most recent exhibition can be found at the Fondation Beyeler in Basel, her first sculptural exhibition in Switzerland, and a headliner for the Latinx art community.
11. Las Meninas by Diego Velázquez
Where to find it: Museo Nacional del Prado, Madrid
Adorning the walls of Museo Nacional del Prado in Madrid is Las Meninas, another famous work by Hispanic artist Diego Velázquez. Known for his cheeky self-portrait in this depiction of the Spanish royal family, Velázquez was a leader in the mid-17th century Spanish art world for his ability to blur reality and illusion.
Literally translating to “ladies in waiting”, Velázquez expertly depicts five-year-old Infanta Margaret Teresa and her entourage in the luxurious confines of the Royal Alcazar of Madrid.
To the left, the viewer can see the artist as he paints the scene in real-time, as King Philip IV and his queen magically appear in the mirror hung in the background as if supervising the spectacle.
12. The Juggler by Remedios Varo
Where to find it: Museum of Modern Art (MoMA), New York City
From a very young age, Spanish-born Latinx artist Remedios Varo escaped war-torn Spain in the 1930s, was again uprooted from France during WW2, and finally settled in Mexico where her art career boomed.
Varo took direct inspiration from her Spanish surrealist counterparts and created works that echoed themes of the occult. As seen in The Juggler – currently on display at the Museum of Modern Art (MoMA) in New York City – a masked character seems to have bewitched a group of townspeople draped in black cloth. The magician’s face features an inlay of mother-of-pearl, a unique feature in a two-dimensional painting.
In her lifetime, Varo created over 500 works, which can be found at Museo Patio Herreriano de Valladolid in Spain and the National Museum of Women in the Arts in Washington D.C.
While you are searching the globe for famous Latinx and Hispanic art, be sure to check out this list of famous female artists and where to find their work.
