Casta: The Origins of Caste by Yıldız Öztürk

Critical aspects in art historiography over the last 50 years have problematized issues of class, gender, and sexual orientation, as well as ethnicity and race. In connection with this, representations of social inequalities in art are debated through exhibition practices. Black Lives Matter and various social movements, on the other hand, protest the colonialist sculptural figures in museums and squares, artists who are unquestioned in the canon of art history. Both academic literature and grassroots movements raise doubts about the origins of objects in museums, while critical modes of display transform hegemonic narratives. 

Whether artefacts in museum storerooms should be exhibited or not stands at the intersection of art and politics. For instance, Linda Nochlin questions the existing art historical canon and highlights the structural aspect of discriminatory practices in her essay titled Why Have There Been No Great Women Artists? (1971). For this reason, she argues that the mainstream historical narrative is repeated in the art scene, which consists of Western, white, middle-class men. Alice Correria, in the introduction of her edited book What is Black Art?, points out that art history education is Western-centred. And she describes her experience in the education process as follows: “As an art history student in the late 1990s I learnt about the history of twentieth-century modernism and the way the white European artists including Paul Gauguin, Pablo Picasso and Henry Moore had appropriated Oceanic, African and South American art and visual culture in their work. But while it was clear that ‘global cultures’ were central to the development of modernist art in Europe, I also realized that I could name very few artists of colour.” (2)

Due to recent studies, the history of art is being rewritten. Among those who have contributed to this historiographical endeavour is curator Tara Munroe, who rediscovered the Casta paintings within Leicester Museums and Galleries’ collection. So, was it just a coincidence that these paintings had been in storage for so many years? When we listen to Munroe, it seems that this is not the case.

Exploration of Caste, Class, and Classification in Paintings

Curated by Tara Munroe of Opal22 Arts and Edutainment in Partnership with Leicester Museum and Art Gallery and funded by the National Heritage Lottery Fund. As stated in the texts in the exhibition, Opal22 positions itself as more than an arts organisation: “At Opal22 Arts and Edutainment, we are more than just an arts and heritage organisation – we are storytellers, creators, and custodians of the past, present, and future.” (3) This definition directly affected the exhibition narrative, exhibition practices and curatorial policies. Munroe, the founder of Opal22 Arts and Edutainment, curated an exhibition that excels in both form and content. The curatorial choices emphasized the intersection of socio-political issues and art. This makes Casta: The Origins of Caste a timeless exhibition to be discussed even after it ends. 

Curator Munroe describes Casta: The Origins of Caste exhibition as a journey. I realized how true this is when I had the opportunity to attend Munroe’s talk on the development of the exhibition. Also, during my visit to the exhibition, I watched a video in the gallery that provided a detailed explanation of the exhibition process. More than 10 years in the making, the first step in this journey was a chance encounter with the paintings in 2010 when Munroe was a trainee curator at Leicester Museums and Galleries. Munroe says that all five of these paintings were damaged in some way. In the following process, these five paintings were restored and presented to the audiences. Although the starting point of the exhibition was to explore the themes of caste, class, and classification through the works of Juan Rodríguez (1675-1728), the echoes of these themes in the “scientific” approaches of the period were also included. Before addressing this “scientific” point, let us ask the question: Why were these five paintings so important? 

When she examined the paintings in detail, she realized that they included people of colour, in family settings. The pictures showed a mixed-race family, including a black female, a white male, and a mixed-race child. Casta paintings depict domestic scenes featuring interracial couples and their children. As noted in the family portraits section of the exhibition, each portrait is accompanied by written descriptions detailing the genetic backgrounds of the individuals. These descriptions, at times, employ less favourable language, occasionally resorting to animalistic terms. Curator Munroe also indicated that the scenes and representations in the paintings were quite different from other examples of the period. 

This genre of painting is known as casta paintings. Casta paintings, widely seen in Mexico in the 18th century and constructed in sets of 16, are an expression of racial classification in the form of painting. She explains the purpose of the paintings as follows: “The original set is thought to have been created by Juan Rodríguez Juárez, commissioned by the Viceroy of Mexico to be delivered to King Charles of Spain, to show how the races could be brought back to white through racial dilution. Unfortunately, the King did not share this same sentiment and sent the paintings back, with the note that this was ‘unpurifying’ the Spanish Bloodline and this was not something to be celebrated. These paintings were then used as a form of visual representation that assisted people to be identified by their physical appearance.” (4)

The exhibition featured a pyramid of the social structure in Mexico in the 18th century. According to this, Indigenous people were at the bottom. The pyramid, divided into 7 groups, was as follows from top to bottom: “Spaniards (white individuals born in Spain), Criollos (offspring of the Spaniards born in the Americas), Mestizos (people of mixed European and Indigenous ancestries), Mulatos (people of mixed European and African ancestries), Zambos (people of mixed Indigenous and African ancestries), Africans (people of African descent), Indigenous (Indigenous Indians who would not convert).” (5) The following statements were included in the artistic representation of people of colour section of the exhibition: “For much of art history, people of colour have often been depicted using stereotypes that reinforced racial biases and hierarchies.” (6)

Returning to the issue of scientific, as shown in the not-so-great men of science section of the exhibition, the theories of many scientists of this period were clearly based on racism, not facts: “Throughout the 1700s and 1800s, many European scientists wrote about people of colour using theories based on personal opinions rather than facts, using a form of pseudo-science to justify their theories.” (7) In this part of the exhibition, racist discourses in the scientific approaches of the 18th and 19th centuries were presented in detail. This was quite remarkable and impressive. From philosophy to medicine, the racial classification of people under the heading of “science” was openly exposed. Casta paintings reflect the “scientific” classification principles of the Age of Enlightenment in terms of form. It was shown that the scientific and artistic understanding of the period reproduced racism. Casta: The Origins of Caste delved into the dynamic relationship among visual art, science, and racism, with a specific focus on the Casta paintings. Therefore, this multifaceted exhibition can be considered as a kind of social history narrative. The statement “A painting says a thousand words, but who controls the narrative?” above the door at the entrance of the exhibition invited audiences to engage with social history. Have notions of caste, class, and classification in the work of Juan Rodríguez lost their relevance today? Racial discrimination is a deeply embedded tradition. Hence, there are racist practices that continue today, perhaps not so directly, but still sometimes implicitly and sometimes explicitly. We must bear in mind that decolonization comprises tangible actions involving actual individuals, rather than being merely a rhetorical concept. Munro’s curatorial approach has valuable aspects, including the exhibition discourse that connects with the present and the portrayal of individuals without victimization. 

Lastly, the curatorial narrative of the exhibition managed to connect the past-present-future without detaching the audience from the artistic context. The interactive area at the end of the exhibition included audience feedback. In this section, the audience was asked four questions using digital methods. These four questions are as follows: Question one: Did the exhibition show the Casta Paintings’ historical significance and connection to racial hierarchy and oppression?  Question two: Did you have an emotional response to the paintings? Question three: Did the exhibition enable you to understand racism in contemporary society? Question four: Overall, did the exhibition increase your awareness and understanding of the links between visual art, science, and racism? 

The table below shows the percentage of responses to the questions during my visit to the exhibition. As the results indicate, the level of reception of the exhibition by the audiences is quite high.

Table 1. Results for 29 November

Between 16 September and 3 December, the exhibition was on show to those who had the opportunity. But it seems the exhibition’s impact will be talked about for a long time. And enthusiastically we are looking forward to her new projects.