FINDING THE FORGOTTEN

“Archive of the World: Art and Imagination in Spanish America, 1500–1800”, the new exhibition at the Los Angeles County Museum of Art (LACMA), doesn’t trade in cautionary tales—indeed, it takes pains not to draw sweeping conclusions—yet a cautionary tale lurks just under the sumptuous surfaces of the culturally complex artworks and objects. The tale I came away with is that centers of power shift, often rapidly. From the time of Columbus until the advent of the 18th century, Spain was the dominant power on Earth. Mexico City, it could be argued, was the axis mundi—the crossroads of the world. California and what is now the American Southwest were Spanish, as was Florida, the Caribbean and Central and South America. Sure, Holland and Amsterdam might have been able to mount an argument, Britain was heading toward “Great” and France was on the move, but Spain ruled the waves and a good bit of the globe. And yet, to use that word “yet” yet again, Spain’s grip