Teresa Gisbert Carbonell de Mesa (30 November 1926 – 19 February 2018) was a Bolivian architect and art historian. She specialized in the history of the Andean region.

Biography

Teresa Gisbert Carbonell was born on 30 November 1926 in

La Paz, Bolivia La Paz (), officially known as Nuestra Señora de La Paz (Spanish pronunciation: ), is the seat of government of the Plurinational State of Bolivia. With an estimated 816,044 residents as of 2020, La Paz is the third-most populous city in Bol ...

. Her family emigrated from Spain. She earned a bachelor's degree in arquitecture and urbanism in the

Higher University of San Andrés Higher University of San Andrés (Universidad Mayor de San Andrés or UMSA or Major University of San Andrés) is the leading public university in Bolivia, established since 1830 in the city of La Paz. UMSA is the second-oldest university in Bol ...

(La Paz) in 1950. After finishing her studies, Teresa Gisbert travelled to Spain, along with her husband José de Mesa, whom she had married in 1950, to complete her graduate studies in

art history Art history is the study of aesthetic objects and visual expression in historical and stylistic context. Traditionally, the discipline of art history emphasized painting, drawing, sculpture, architecture, ceramics and decorative arts; yet today ...

. De Mesa and Gisbert had four children:

Carlos Carlos may refer to: Places ;Canada * Carlos, Alberta, a locality ;United States * Carlos, Indiana, an unincorporated community * Carlos, Maryland, a place in Allegany County * Carlos, Minnesota, a small city * Carlos, West Virginia ;Elsewhere ...

, Andrés, Isabel and Teresa Guiomar. During her staying in Spain, between 1953 and 1962,she served as a researcher at the Laboratory of Art of the

University of Seville The University of Seville (''Universidad de Sevilla'') is a university in Seville, Spain. Founded under the name of ''Colegio Santa María de Jesús'' in 1505, it has a present student body of over 69.200, and is one of the top-ranked universi ...

and at the Diego Velasquez Art Institute. From 1954 to 1970, she taught Bolivian culture and art history in the Faculty of Humanities at the Higher University of San Andrés and in 1972 and 1975 she taught American Art in the Faculty of Architecture of this same institution. Gisbert was the director of the National Art Museum in La Paz from 1970 to 1976. She was president of the Bolivian Society for History from 1983 to 1984. She directed the Bolivian Cultural Institute from 1985 to 1989 and was president of the

International Council on Monuments and Sites The International Council on Monuments and Sites (ICOMOS; french: links=no, Conseil international des monuments et des sites) is a professional association that works for the conservation and protection of cultural heritage places around the worl ...

in Bolivia from 1986 to 1992. Gisbert has received numerous awards and scholarships for her research in art, arquitecture and history. These include a

Guggenheim Fellowship Guggenheim Fellowships are grants that have been awarded annually since by the John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation to those "who have demonstrated exceptional capacity for productive scholarship or exceptional creative ability in the ar ...

in 1958 and 1966 to conduct research on colonial art. and a visiting scholarship at

Getty Research Institute The Getty Research Institute (GRI), located at the Getty Center in Los Angeles, California, is "dedicated to furthering knowledge and advancing understanding of the visual arts".

for the History of Art and the Humanities from 1990 to 1991 and from 1993 to 1994. She was elected to the

American Philosophical Society The American Philosophical Society (APS), founded in 1743 in Philadelphia, is a scholarly organization that promotes knowledge in the sciences and humanities through research, professional meetings, publications, library resources, and communit ...

in 2006.

Selected works

;With José de Mesa *''Historia de la pintura Cuzqueña'' (''History of Painting in Cuzco'', 1962) *''Holguín y la pintura virreinal en Bolivia'' (''Holguín and Viceregal Bolivian Painting'', 1977) ;Independent works *''Literatura virreinal en Bolivia'' (1968) *''Iconografía y mitos indígenas en el arte'' (''Indigenous Iconography and Myths in Art'', 1980) *''Arte textil y mundo Andino'' (''Textile Art and the Andean World'', 1987) *''Manual de historia de Bolivia'' (''Handbook of Bolivian History'', 1994) *''El Paraíso de los pájaros parlantes. La imagen del otro en la cultura andina'' (1999)

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Gisbert, Teresa 1926 births 2018 deaths Bolivian architects Bolivian art historians Bolivian people of Spanish descent Bolivian women writers Women art historians Writers from La Paz 20th-century women writers Women architects 20th-century Bolivian historians 20th-century architects