Chiquitito: Miniatures by Latin American Popular Artists
Chiquitito, or Teeny Weeny, is an exhibition especially designed for children and for those young at heart. It highlights small, fun and beautiful objects created by Latin American folk artists selected from the permanent collection of the Tucson Museum of Art with a few additions from private collections.
Chiquitito engages the eyes of the beholder in a world of miniature forms and shapes, and in media as diverse as wood carving, colorful textiles, paintings, intricate ceramics, and silver figurines. Visitors can discover how miniscule designs of flowers, squirrels, and deer transform a humble wooden tray into an object of great beauty; they can learn about the life of Andean peasants in Peru by following a narrative rendered by small, delicate incisions in a gourd; and how an indigenous Cuna woman, armed with bits of fabric, thread, needle and embroidering silks was able to celebrate the opening of an airport in Panama. With the help of a magnifying glass, viewers can decipher what is really happening inside a nutshell or whom the woman is scrubbing inside a basin.
