1 rich Libsyn https://www.libsyn.com 90 600 Race is sometimes treated as a biological fact. It is actually a modern invention. But for this concept to gain power, its logic had to be spread – and made visible. Art historian Ilona Katzew tells the story of how Spanish colonists of modern-day Mexico developed theories of blood purity and used the casta paintings – featuring family groups with differing skin pigmentations set in domestic scenes – to represent these theories as reality. She also shares the strange challenges of curating these paintings in the present, when the paintings’ insidious ideologies have been debunked, but when mixed-race viewers also appreciate images that testify to their presence in the past.&amp;nbsp; Researcher, writer, and episode producer: Christopher Nygren, Associate Professor, History of Art and Architecture, University of Pittsburgh Featured Scholar: Ilona Katzew, Curator and Head of Latin American Art, Los Angeles County Museum of Art&amp;nbsp; Special thanks: Elise Lonich Ryan, Nayeli Riano, Jennifer Josten &amp;nbsp; Genealogies of Modernity https://genealogiesofmodernity.org/season-ii <iframe title="Libsyn Player" style="border: none" src="//html5-player.libsyn.com/embed/episode/id/28829553/height/90/theme/custom/thumbnail/yes/direction/forward/render-playlist/no/custom-color/88AA3C/" height="90" width="600" scrolling="no" allowfullscreen webkitallowfullscreen mozallowfullscreen oallowfullscreen msallowfullscreen></iframe> https://assets.libsyn.com/secure/item/28829553