3 of 4
efore the mid-1960s artists were engaged by issues traditionally related to painting and sculpture, such as abstraction and figuration. Starting in the late 1960s and throughout the 1970s it became increasingly difficult to group artistic production into schools or movements. Many artists turned to more conceptual modes in order to explore issues of representation, politics, popular culture, marginality, and identity. Non-conventional art practices such as conceptual art and performance were also useful tools to avoid and to comment on censorship of the arts during the Southern Cone military dictatorships of the 1970s and 1980s. The 1980s and 1990s witnessed a resurgence of Latin American art on the international scene with a renewed interest in painting and, at the same time, a growing interest in installation art, which questions the boundaries of traditional media.