Art or Monstrosity (1960)

In this essay, Edmundo O’Gorman questions the historian’s effort to make sense of “art” from another culture. Before the art historian can theorize about the meaning of art in an “exotic” or “strange” culture, she first must identify which artifacts are genuine works of art (for that culture) and which are not. It could turn out, O’Gorman suggests, that none of the artifacts typically called works of art (pottery, sculpture, painting) is in fact a work of art for that culture. Contemplating the Aztec statue of Coatlique, O’Gorman then suggests that, aside from the historical project of “getting inside the mind of the creator,” one might imagine, as a literary exercise, that rather than representing “beauty” in the Western sense, the ancient statue represents “the monstrous,” which reveals the mythical fluidity of the universe and the mythical foundation of art.