Documents of Latin American and Latino Art

The distinguished novelist Jorge Amado wrote this text on the Afro-Brazilian exhibition on mundane arts and crafts as well as objects of worship of Afro-Brazilian Candomblé. He referred to these utensils as “mediocre objects that highlight their [...]

This text was written by the Brazilian artist Abelardo da Hora for the exhibition called Civilização do Nordeste, organized by the Italian architect Lina Bo Bardi at the Museu do Unhão, in Salvador, the capital of Bahia, in 1963. Abelardo da Hora [...]

The renowned Brazilian intellectual and government minister Celso Furtado outlines an economic picture of Latin America as a whole. In his opinion, Latin America possesses great combined potential when seen from the perspective of a developmental [...]

The well-known writer Ariano Suassuna examines Maria Carmen’s drawings very carefully, and concludes that they are inspired by the occasionally “formless,” chaotic, and elementary nature of life forms. They remind the author of moss, anemones, [...]

This poem by Flávio Motta describes the career of artist Marcelo Nitsche by alluding to some of his works. It traces the intersection of landscape, object, calligraphy, and brushwork in Nitsche’s work. He concludes by posing a question that [...]

This essay by Oswaldo Louzada Filho speculates on the experience of a pedestrian who is converted into an observer by visiting a contemporary art gallery, describing the movement of that individual through the exhibition space, as well as the [...]

In this text, professor Gilda Mello e Souza discusses the contribution that the work of Jean Maugüé, Claude Lévi-Strauss, and Roger Bastide—three French academics—made to the early stages of the Universidade de São Paulo (USP) founded in 1934 [...]

Ariano Suassuna explains that traditional printmakers in northeastern Brazil took their inspiration from medieval Iberian stories and ballads, capturing a fantasy world in literary works and prints that teemed with action, enchantment, and deep- [...]

Flávio Motta acknowledges that the diverse biennials that took place in São Paulo established a new phase which sought out art from abroad; although they also resulted in the puzzling [concept of the] “happy native.” They [...]

Under the heading of Arte pobre, with its implicit subtext of l’arte povera, Flávio Motta presents a small object he created: Gato encaixado [Embedded Cat, 1973]. This sculpted feline figure is mounted on a little box engraved with a humorous text [...]

In this article about Mário Cravo Jr., the sculptor from the state of Bahia, Flávio Motta describes the artist’s visit to an industrial area in São Paulo in order to produce an enormous sculpture made of plastic waste that creates unusual colors [...]

French Surrealist poet Benjamin Péret wrote this text on African religions after visiting Brazil. He establishes a counterpoint between Macumba and Candomblé rituals, which he considers “almost revelatory” poetic practices of “primitive and [...]

Here, the well-known ethnologist Herbert Baldüs presents [what was then considered] the strange concept of “ethnology” as the science that studies the phenomenal and total form of people and its links with the phenomenal for­ms of other people [...]

In this study, Ladjane Bandeira argues that the movement for artistic independence in the state of Pernambuco in northeastern Brazil was an attempt to counter the influence of the European experience as “filtered” through São Paulo and other [...]

Professor Flávio Motta points out the connection (in Portuguese) between the words desenho (drawing) and desígnio [design], thereby proposing the re-establishment of a humanistic culture in which man directly influences the course of his life. He [...]

This is the catalogue for the collection of templates, pamphlets, albums, and other material printed from woodcuts that Gilmar de Carvalho donated to the Coleção de Artefatos ditos Populares at the IEB-USP (Instituto de Estudos Brasileiros da [...]

This text describes the interest among artists and critics in the Exposição Internacional de Esculturas Efêmeras [international exhibition of ephemeral sculpture] organized by artist Sérvulo Esmeraldo at Cocó, a large ecological reserve located [...]

The subject of this modernist poem is the relationship between “Fulô,” a young slave girl, and her masters: the lady (“Sinhá”) and the gentleman (“Sinhô”) of the house. Fulô is urged to [...]

This is the text of a lecture given by Mario Baratta at the opening of the II Salão de Abril in 1946 in Fortaleza, the capital of the state of Ceará. Baratta criticizes the departure of local artists (who left their home state in search of broader [...]

Bruno Zevi discusses the event that prompted the cancellation of Civilização do Nordeste, the exhibition that was to have been presented at the Galleria d’Arte Moderna di Roma, as expressly instructed by the Brazilian embassy on orders from the [...]

The Brazilian artist Sérvulo Esmeraldo describes his interest in the phenomena of physics. He recalls some experiences in his childhood in northeast Brazil (Ceará), when he and his brothers turned ampoules into powerful lenses which they then used [...]

This is an album of drawings and prints by Lasar Segall depicting the red light district in Rio de Janeiro known as “Mangue.” The album includes essays by the writers and poets Jorge de Lima, Mário de Andrade, and Manuel Bandeira. The first of [...]

In 1978, the French art critic Pierre Restany drafted a manifesto along with two artists, the Brazilian (born in Poland) Frans Krajcberg, and the Yugoslav based in Brazil Sepp Baendereck. The text is a rallying call in defense of art that is “ [...]

Mário de Andrade was a staunch supporter of “Brazilianizing literature and music with injections of the art of the people,” a strategy he thought would narrow the gap between high and popular art by incorporating oral literature into the written [...]

In this text art critic Mário Pedrosa comments on the paintings by patients at the psychiatric center of the Engenho de Dentro, exhibited in an art gallery in Rio de Janeiro. He takes the opportunity to analyze the works of the following residents: [...]

The Brazilian artist based in France at the time, Sérvulo Esmeraldo, introduces his well-known series, “Excitáveis.” The text includes practical step-by-step instructions explaining the functioning of these works, the artist’s methodical [...]

In this article Lívio Xavier discusses the production of handcrafts in the state of Ceará, which are brought into town and offered for sale in the markets in Fortaleza, the state capital. Xavier notes the wide variety of artisan products produced [...]

This document includes poetic notes on the work of art by Flávio Motta. In his notes, he speculates on the development of processes that could be used to create an unusual situation and how long it would take for it to be understood. Motta is [...]

This is a book of poems by the Brazilian writer Jorge de Lima, with illustrations by the painter Lasar Segall. The poems address various aspects of the life experiences of Africans and their descendants in Brazil. There are references to the slavery [...]

On the basis of his understanding of history, Clarival do Prado Valladares places popular artists into three categories: the primitive, the genuine, and the archaic. He criticizes the first for making what appears to be “ingênua” work for [...]

The art critic Olívio Tavares Araújo claims to see certain parallels and similarities between Sérvulo Esmeraldo’s “object-poems” and the kinetic works known as “Excitáveis” [Excitables] that the Brazilian artist was producing in the [...]

In this text, critic Prudente de Moraes Neto discusses an article by French writer Benjamin Crémieux published in the Nouvelle Revue Française. In his view, Crémieux fails to give due importance to the unconscious aspect of the artistic process, [...]

In this brief article, the artist Sérvulo Esmeraldo explains his works, which he calls “Excitáveis” [Excitables], describing them as “paintings that appear to be static” but that in fact are like natural phenomena in which everything is in [...]

Sixteen years after having worked in northeastern Brazil, specifically in the state of Bahia, architect and cultural administrator Lina Bo Bardi evaluates the state of drawing in a dependent and capitalist country that underwent intense [...]

The professor and architect Flávio Motta thinks that language is the result of the social organization of work, and is recognized as a form of the relationships that arise therein. But the very transformative nature of work can contradict the [...]

Raul Bopp wrote this book of poems on slavery in Brazil. It recounts the memories of black slaves and the living conditions of their descendants. The selected poems center on their desire for a life of freedom in Africa, the violence and humiliations [...]