Documents of Latin American and Latino Art

In this essay, the Venezuelan writer Rafael Arraiz Lucca reviews the main aesthetic principles that underlie the work of Manuel Quintana Castillo as well as the techniques and processes that characterize the artist. In this regard, Arraiz Lucca [...]

The art historian and critic Juan Calzadilla includes his impressions of the material shown in an exhibition space in the plaza Bolívar de Caracas, along with a set of reviews and critical texts collected under the title: La figura y el lugar, an [...]

In this interview, visual artist Manuel Quintana Castillo provides an analysis and criticism of the evolution of Venezuelan art. He asserts that the aesthetic values of young artists of the sixties are not as coherent as those of the members of Los [...]

In this essay, the visual artist Manuel Quintana Castillo suggests that early twentieth century art represents the demise of the art that preceded it. He explains that modern art promotes communication, encourages personal choice as the basis of [...]

In this essay, Manuel Quintana Castillo identifies the formal assumptions upon which the Cubist aesthetic was constructed, and explains how Cubism influenced movements such as Futurism and Constructivism based on an intrinsic interest in geometry. In [...]

This essay was written by Alfredo Boulton (1908–95), the Venezuelan historian and art critic. It appeared in the catalogue for the exhibition of works by the painter Héctor Poleo at the Museo de Bellas Artes de Caracas (1974). In his essay, [...]

The introductory text in the catalogue of the Héctor Poleo exhibition was written by Miguel Otero Silva. In it he presents a chronology on the work of the Venezuelan artist that focuses on how the artist interprets the human drama through his [...]

In this essay on Venezuelan painter Héctor Poleo, historian and critic Francisco Da Antonio focuses on the last twenty years of the artist’s production and ventures a stylistic chronology and interpretation of his art. For instance, he argues that [...]

In this critical essay, historian Francisco Da Antonio discusses the indebtedness of artist Héctor Poleo to Mexican muralism in terms of form and pictorial technique. He also explores the way in which Poleo’s work differs from the aesthetic- [...]

In her essay in the catalogue for the exhibition Poleo desconocido (1997), Bélgica Rodríguez outlines her curatorial ideas. She speaks highly of the Venezuelan painter and his mystic, ethical, aesthetic, and existential qualities, all of which are [...]

In his essay—published in the catalogue for the exhibition of works by the Venezuelan painter Héctor Poleo at the Museo de Arte Contemporáneo de Caracas—the historian and art critic Alfredo Boulton identifies three periods in the artist’s [...]

In this critical essay, historian Juan Carlos Palenzuela discusses what he considers the meteoric rise of the career of Venezuelan artist Héctor Poleo, mentioning specifically the awards he won at a young age, his frequent travels, and his [...]

The art critic Alberto Junyent reviews the second exhibition of works by the Venezuelan painter Héctor Poleo at the Galerie Drouant in Paris in 1966. In his essay, Junyent formally reviews the collection of works as a whole from an aesthetic and [...]

This 1958 review by the Catalan art critic Alberto Junyent of the painter Héctor Poleo’s first exhibition at the Galería Drouant in Paris casts a spotlight on the Venezuelan artist in the French capital. Referring to this event, Junyent takes [...]

In this chapter of his book, art historian and critic Simón Noriega provides the most extensive and exacting analysis of the life and work of painter Héctor Poleo available in Venezuela at the time. The text is crucial to understanding the [...]

There are five chapters in La Pintura de Héctor Poleo, Simón Noriega’s book about the Venezuelan artist. The one chosen here is chapter III, “El surrealismo de Poleo.” Section 4—“¿Reinterpretación o Mímesis?”—presents Poleo’s [...]

“El surrealismo de Poleo” is the third of five chapters in Simón Noriega’s book La Pintura de Héctor Poleo. In the chapter’s third section, entitled “Poleo y la cultura figurativa de los años cuarenta”, Noriega reports that the [...]

This unsigned article reports on the first exhibition at the Taller de Arte Realista (TAR), presenting drawings and paintings presented in its own studios. Throughout the text, the writer outlines the motivations and positions that govern its [...]

This interview conducted by Irma Valero begins by highlighting aspects of the work of Venezuelan artist César Rengifo. In referring to his Amalivaca mural, the work entitled Nacimiento de América located in the Diego Ibarra Plaza in the Caracas [...]

In this essay, the writer Pedro Beroes discusses various aspects of the life and work of the Venezuelan painter César Rengifo, focusing on the visual art works he produced in Venezuela, Chile, and Mexico. Beroes mentions the nationalist tone of [...]

The press release refers to the first exhibition of the work of Venezuelan artist Gabriel Bracho at the Museo de Bellas Artes de Caracas. The opening featured a large crowd from various segments of society. It reviews the great success in support and [...]

Art critic Marta Traba authored the essay “Historia abierta,” which was included among the texts for the exhibition América: Mirada interior. Figari, Reverón, Santa María, in Bogotá, July 4 through August 18, 1985, published by the Banco de [...]

This unsigned newspaper article [dated September 2, 1960,] comments on the detention in México of the painter David Alfaro Siqueiros. As a result, 90 Mexican visual artists withdrew from participating in the Second [Inter-American] Painting and [...]

The person who wrote the text for this catalogue was the curator José María Salvador. He begins his approach to the Venezuelan public figure César Rengifo by praising the many facets that made up his life and work. In addition to being a visual [...]

In this catalogue text, critic and essayist José Ratto-Ciarlo praises César Rengifo for his multifaceted work in painting; Rengifo was not only a painter, but also a playwright, journalist, and political activist. Ratto-Ciarlo analyzes the profound [...]

This text is a review of the well-attended exhibition of work by Gabriel Bracho held at the Salón del Museo de Bellas Artes. The text describes Bracho as a good draftsman and colorist; it addresses his Marxist inclination and concern with social [...]

The Argentinean essayist Manuel García Hernández—a close friend of Gabriel Bracho—reviews the 1951 exhibition of the artist’s work at the Salón Peuser, which he deems “one of the most brilliant galleries” in Buenos Aires. Hernández [...]

In this book, psychologist Jorge Nunes includes a series of interviews with Venezuelan painter César Rengifo. He delves into numerous aspects, some unpublished, of the life and work of the artist. Of the twenty-eight chapters that compose this book [...]

In the prologue to the catalogue, Alirio Oramas explains that the TLA (Taller Libre de Arte) is honoring the Mexican painter José Clemente Orozco for his magnificent mural paintings, which reflect the history and the soul of the Aztecs through a [...]

In Bernardo Chataing’s preface, he explains that the Taller Libre de Arte (TLA) invited young painters to participate in its exhibition, which would hold them responsible for creating new art forms. In turn, this would generate multiple trends. The [...]

Rafael Pineda, the critic who wrote the preface for this group exhibition of works by members of the Taller Libre de Arte (TLA), sought to organize a universal language of Venezuelan painting. In this text, Pineda points out that the TLA members [...]

Written by the exhibiting group [which, by all indications, appears to the Buenos Aires movement known as Madí], the prologue to this catalogue is a manifesto of principles that briefly and superficially reviews the thematic changes that have [...]

The anonymous author of the prologue to this exhibition catalogue places emphasis on the need for the Taller Libre de Arte (TLA) to prepare high school students—especially those enrolled in the Liceo Fermín Toro—to become a source of aesthetic [...]

According to the essayist Pedro Lobos, the exhibition of works by the young painter Gabriel Bracho represents an evolutionary trend in the history of art in which the subject and its anecdotes play an essential role; the difference being that, in [...]

Enrique Buenaventura reviews and critiques Gabriel Bracho’s first exhibition at the Museo de Bellas Artes in Caracas. The Colombian playwright identifies the artist as a realist painter who has not yet reached maturity, which is the reason why the [...]

In his prologue to the catalogue for a show of the Taller Libre de Arte (TLA), Luis Berroterán asserts that the Liceo Fermín Toro played an important role in the origin of the TLA. He explains that the members of the TLA aspire to work with other [...]

The painter Alirio Oramas, a founding member of the Taller Libre de Arte, publishes details of his plan to reorganize the TLA. He presented the plan to Dr. Carlos Gottberg at the Instituto Nacional de Cultura y Bellas Artes (INCIBA) a year and a half [...]

Journalist Joaquín Gabaldon Márquez praises the work La bruja [The Witch] by Oswaldo Vigas, suggesting it is imbued with profound intellectual meaning. He states that the work does not seek to reproduce nature, nor achieve pure abstraction; [...]

In his article, Manuel Trujillo states that Mario Abreu is a passionate painter that knows what is happening in contemporary art because he has been to Paris. Nevertheless, his youth and geographic location have not allowed him to evolve beyond [...]

Poet Guillermo Alfredo Cook asserts that, insofar as Gabriel Bracho’s work has rendered painting literary, it has mistaken the essence of art, reducing it to political slogans and ideological propaganda. He describes Bracho’s painting as a [...]

This essay by Héctor Mujica comments on the absence of rigorous and honest art criticism within the Venezuelan milieu. The author assumes a Marxist aesthetic as an analytical framework and applies it to the work of Alejandro Otero. In his commentary [...]