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History of Art

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Manuela Portales Sanfuentes

PhD supervisor: Emily Floyd 
Working title for PhD: 'Thinking the Ornament: Collecting, Classifying and Displaying Decorative Arts in Latin American Museums'

My research looks at museums of decorative arts in Latin America to challenge conceptualisations employed to collect, categorise and display applied arts in the region. I examine the collections of three key Latin American museums: Museo Franz Mayer (Mexico City, Mexico), Museo Nacional de Arte Decorativo (Buenos Aires, Argentina) and Museo de Artes Decorativas (Santiago, Chile). I explore certain crucial areas that should be taken into account in conceptualising decorative arts in Latin America, such as issues of identity, modes of production and recontextualization processes of the objects on exhibition. 

Research interests:

Museum studies, material culture, circulation of objects, Latin American history, postcolonial and decolonial studies. 

Awards:

  • PhD fully funded by Becas Chile-Scholarship awarded by the National Research and Development Agency of Chile (ANID) 2020 - 2024
  • MA fully funded by Becas Chile-Scholarship awarded by the National Research and Development Agency of Chile (ANID) 2018 - 2019