This book presents the very best in modern and contemporary Latin American art. It features not only the work of artists from Mexico, Central and South America and the Caribbean, but also works by American and European artists working in Latin America and Latin American artists based in North America and Europe. Illuminating essays consider some of the region's leading practitioners and examine such prominent issues as introspection and identity, theatricality and performance in the visual arts, and the rise of multiculturalism and globalism in contemporary art. Lavishly illustrated throughout, this book is the perfect introduction to one of the finest private collections in the United States of modern and contemporary Latin American art. Featuring some of the most innovative, cutting-edge and provocative works of modern and contemporary Latin American art, "Constructing a Poetic Universe" includes major figures from the 1960s to the present, among them Mira Schendel, Ana Mendieta, Felix Gonzalez-Torres, Guillermo Kuitca and Tunga.