Catha Paquette

Dr. Catha Paquette is a specialist in Latin American art and architecture from the late colonial period to the present, as well as pre-Columbian art and architecture in Mesoamerica and the Andean region. She explores questions at issue concerning knowledge practices—theoretical, methodological, and practical challenges inherent in historical narration, critical interpretation, and museum display. Dr. Paquette, who received a Getty Postdoctoral Fellowship in the Arts and Humanities in 2007–2008 and a Millard Meiss/College Art Association Publication Grant in 2015, has published essays in the United States, Mexico, and Europe on Latin American artwork and artists, as well as collectors, public agencies, and private institutions that have promoted Latin American art in the United States, including the Rockefellers, New York’s Museum of Modern Art (MoMA), and the 1940s U.S. Office of Inter-American Affairs. In At the Crossroads: Diego Rivera and His Patrons at MoMA, Rockefeller Center, and the Palace of Fine Arts (UT Press, 2017) she explores controversies surrounding Rivera’s 1930 MoMA retrospective, the creation and the destruction of his 1933 Rockefeller Center mural, and the Mexican government’s commissioning of his 1934 Palace of Fine Arts mural. With Dr. Karen Kleinfelder and Christopher Miles, she co-edited In and Out of View: Art and the Dynamics of Circulation, Suppression, and Censorship, a collection of essays, interviews, and statements by artists and scholars that invite consideration of the shifting contexts, values, and constituent needs through which controversial art moves into and out of view.

PhD, University of California—Santa Barbara, CA
MA, University of California—Santa Barbara, CA
MBA, New York University, New York, NY
BA, Wheaton College, Norton, MA

. Co-edited with Karen Kleinfelder and Christopher Miles (London: Bloomsbury, 2021).

“Museo Nacional de Historia: David Alfaro Siqueiros: Del Porfiriato a la Revolución, 1957–1966.” In Murales CdMx, edited by Ana Garduño Ortega, 66–68 (Mexico City: Cooperativa la Joplin, 2018).

“The Dictator and The Dictator Returns: Hildegarde Duane, David Lamelas, and the Video Art Scene in Southern California.” In David Lamelas: A Life of Their Own (exhibition catalogue), edited by María José Herrera and Kristina Newhouse, 116–131 (Long Beach: University Art Museum, California State University, Long Beach, and Buenos Aires: MALBA–Fundación Constantini, Museo de Arte Latinoamericano de Buenos Aires, 2017).

(Austin: University of Texas Press, 2017).

“David Alfaro Siqueiros’ Street Meeting (1932).” Kunst und Politik (Special issue: Icons of 20th-Century Political Art), Band 18 (2016): 37–44.

“Dreams and Monsters: Rubén Ortiz-Torres, Public Art and Critical Discourse.” Public Art Dialogue (Special Issue: The Cinematic Turn) 5,2 (Fall 2015): 203–230.

“Diego Rivera: El hombre, controlador del universo / Man, Controller of the Universe” and “Diego Rivera: Revolución rusa / The Russian Revolution.” In MPBA, edited by James Oles and Franklin Collao, 134–143 (Mexico City: Museo del Palacio de Bellas Artes, 2012).

“Soft Power: The Art of Diplomacy in US-Mexican Relations 1940–1946.” In ¡Américas unidas! Nelson A. Rockefeller’s Office of Inter-American Affairs (1940-46), edited by Gisela Cramer and Ursula Prutsch, 143–180 (Madrid and Frankfurt: Iberoamericana Editorial Vervuert, 2012).

“(Re)Visions: Sacred Mothers and Virgins / (Re)Visiones: Madres Sagradas y Vírgenes.” In Mex/L.A.: “Mexican” Modernism(s) in Los Angeles, 1930–1985 (exhibition catalogue), edited by Rubén Ortiz-Torres and Cecilia Fajardo-Hill, 48–57 (Long Beach: Museum of Latin American Art, 2011).