Casta 5
Artist
Delilah Montoya
(American, born 1955)
DateConceived 2018, constructed 2020
MediumPigment print in wood frame with glass, sand, and metal
DimensionsImage: 24 × 36 in. (61 × 91.4 cm)
Frame: 35 7/8 × 38 × 2 1/4 in. (91.1 × 96.5 × 5.7 cm)
Frame: 35 7/8 × 38 × 2 1/4 in. (91.1 × 96.5 × 5.7 cm)
ClassificationsPhotograph
Credit LineMuseum purchase from Delilah Montoya, 2021
Object number2021.9.1
DescriptionBrown wood shadow box frame with upper and lower compartments. Above is a color image of people gathered in the living room of a house. Greenish-gold upholstered love seats form a U-shape with a metal topped table at center. At left is a bent pillow covered with black-and-white fabric and a man in a black shirt and blue jeans next to a blonde woman who is turning to look behind them. Standing at her side near a large painting of a southwestern landscape is a dark-haired woman in glasses who is holding a cup in her right hand. On the loveseat at the back is a tiny brown dog and a pillow covered with black-and-white fabric. Seated at right is a man in black holding a cup and a white-haired woman standing. The second compartment has a map at center and two glass vials to the left and right, both of which are filled with different colored sand and labelled.eMuseum Notes
In this contemporary portrait of a family in Albuquerque, the artist critiques as well as imitates Spanish colonial Casta (caste) paintings common in Mexico in the 1700s. These paintings reflected and supported a strict social hierarchy that valued European over indigenous ancestry. Montoya mimics the form with her own portraits of families living in Houston, Texas, and in New Mexico, posed with their pets and possessions. Each family’s ethno-racial mix is represented below, using the results of DNA testing and a global map. For the artist, the project comments on the codification of colonial racism while illuminating how race and class distinctions affect social, economic, and esthetic choices in the United States today.
On View
Not on view
