The editorial categories are research topics that have guided researchers during the recovery phase and continue to be the impetus behind the Documents Project’s digital archive and the Critical Documents book series. Developed by the project’s Editorial Board, each of the teams analyzed this framework and adapted it to their local contexts in developing their research objectives and work plans during the Recovery Phase. Learn more on the Editorial Framework page.
Hide
This article includes the text of the speech given by Paul Klee as he presented his work at the Museum of Jena in 1924, in which he discussed the plastic qualities and the content of the works. Klee referred to the importance of the dimension of the lines and of the chromatic features. He also suggested forming an alliance between a contemplation of the world and the pure exercise of art with which to create a work of great importance that might control all its elements, that is, the subject, the content, and the style.
Six issues of the Boletín de la Asociación Arte Nuevo [New Art Association Bulletin] were published between 1956 and 1958. The journal’s objective was to explore the theoretical aspects of the works of nonfigurative artists, as well as to report on their projects in progress. Members of the commission included Manuel Álvarez (who translated Klee’s essay), Carmelo Arden Quin, Martín Blaszko, Ana Sacerdote, Luis Tomasello, Towas, Gregorio Vardánega, and Virgilio Villalba.
Manuel Álvarez is an Argentinean artist involved with the abstract art trend. He studied at the Facultad de Filosofía y Letras [College of Liberal Arts] until 1946, and attended Jorge Romero Brest’s art history classes. Álvarez currently lives and works in Buenos Aires.
This essay was chosen because it illustrates the interest that was shown by this group in transmitting news concerning international abstract art to Argentina’s cultural milieu that, in turn, sought a means to sanction its own proposals. The first portion of the speech was published in the previous issue of the Boletín de la Asociación Arte Nuevo [Journal of the New Art Association] and can be seen in “Ensayo de Paul Klee” [Essay by Paul Klee: (document no. 743050)].