Documents of Latin American and Latino Art

In this text, artist Ricardo Basbaum reflects on specific aspects of his production in order to investigate the broader issues underlying his Novas Bases para a Personalidade (NBP) project. By means of the oral style of the text, the artist engages [...]

This is the introductory essay for À Flor da Pele [Skin Deep], the exhibition that the art critic Marcus Lontra Costa organized at the gallery in the Centro Empresarial Rio in the city of Rio de Janeiro in 1983. It is an energetic defense of “ [...]

Brazilian art critic Márcio Doctors discusses the actions carried out by the Rio de Janeiro-based group, A Moreninha, which was active in the eighties. The group members included the artists Ricardo Basbaum, Alexandre Dacosta, and Enéas Valle. [...]

This document is a technical description of the architectural solution put into effect by the implementation team working on the Ministério da Educação e Saúde (MES) project designed by Lucio Costa, Oscar Niemeyer, Affonso [...]

Art critic Paulo Herkenhoff argues that Adriana Varejão’s painting references historical frameworks that contain indelible traits of Brazilian colonial culture and art. Her work is bound to the baroque of Minas Gerais, and to the rococo, not by [...]

In this text, Ronaldo Brito analyzes the state of the art circuit and market in Brazil in the mid-seventies. He observes that the consolidation of the art market is due less to a maturation of art criticism than to conservative maneuvering. He states [...]

In this text that is peppered with poetic and ironic remarks, the artist José Roberto Aguilar examines Ângelo de Aquino’s most recent work, also recalling his first encounter with Aquino and how their friendship was established during the [...]

In this text, critic Paulo Venâncio Filho analyzes the sculpture exhibition of Ângelo Venosa held at Galería Paulo Figueiredo in São Paulo in 1991. The author argues that the excellent quality of the work is due to the fact that the art cannot be [...]

This book on artist Anna Bella Geiger forms part of the ABC—Arte Brasileira Contemporânea—a collection published by the Fundação Nacional de Artes (Funarte), a government organization with headquarters in Rio de Janeiro. In this volume, critic [...]

Frans Krajcberg, a sculptor based in Brazil, here traces his artistic trajectory, and his ever growing interest in art that connects to nature. He comments on his work together with Pierre Restany, the French critic of the Nouvelle Figuration, [...]

Critic Frederico Morais discusses the transformations that took place in the Brazilian art world in the seventies, assessing the art market, art institutions, as well as important episodes that occurred during that period. Regarding artistic [...]

In this text, art critic Márcio Doctors presents the work of artist José Damasceno in the context of an exhibition held at the Galeria do Instituto Brasil-Estados Unidos (IBEU) in 1994. In Doctors’s opinion, Damasceno’s specific identity is not [...]

In view of the contemporary events related to raids, censorship, and repression, this report collected testimonials from several artists regarding freedom of expression during the Brazilian military regime (1964–85). The artists consulted included [...]

In this essay featured in the catalogue for the exhibition Art from Brazil in New York, critic and curator Carlos Basualdo, who was born in Rosario, Argentina, argues that Brazilian art has made a threefold contribution in terms of the following [...]

In this text, Sheila Leirner analyzes the artwork produced in Brazil, starting with her assessment of pluralism in international art. She arrives at the hypothesis that artwork in Brazil is not content to reproduce foreign models. One advantage of [...]

Critic and curator Paulo Herkenhoff presents Brazilian art in the context of the exhibition Art from Brazil in New York, held in 1995. Herkenhoff argues that Brazilian culture has deep roots in “anthropophagia” and that its vast miscegenation has [...]

In this magazine article, Katharine Sater introduces the Brazilian painter Candido Portinari to the North American public as “a real bombshell.” She is referring to the works presented at the Riverside Museum at an exhibition during the 1939 New [...]

In this article, the sculptor Alfredo Ceschiatti examines Brazilian modern sculpture. It is his belief that between the artistic manifestations produced by the Semana de Arte of 1922, sculpture was the least affected. However, he considers it to be [...]

This book on artist Cildo Meireles forms part of the ABC—Arte Brasileira Contemporânea—a collection published by the Fundação Nacional de Artes (Funarte), a governmental organization with headquarters in Rio de Janeiro. The volume contains the [...]

This is the art critic Marcus Lontra Costa’s essay about the painter Cláudio Fonseca. In his preamble, Lontra takes a close look at this contemporary artist and concludes that he lives in the moment, in a place where the only possible artistic [...]

The author— Waldemar Cordeiro, a pioneer in the use of computers as a vehicle for artistic expression—provides a brief history of computer generated art in Brazil and around the world. He compares aspects of new technologies to the challenges of [...]

This text by Lucio Costa discusses the “unpredictable” nature of Brazilian architecture. In it, Costa develops a far-reaching theory of modern art and architecture to which the visual form is the sine qua non. The visual-formal component [...]

Having analyzed the art produced recently in Brazil, the critic Frederico Morais announces the demise of the concept of a “work of art,” which he believes will be replaced by something more akin to a “situation and/or proposal.” After [...]

This article by artist Milton Machado discusses paintings by Cristina Canale. He observes that the origin of Canale’s work lies in a rationalization conducive to the construction of an imaginary cartography. Machado emphasizes the material power of [...]

Fernando Cocchiarale wrote a brief overview with some information he considered essential for an understanding of Brazilian art. The writer talks about its search to define itself—condensed in the concept of cultural cannibalism—and about [...]

In a text about the work of Daniel Senise, critic Fernando Cocchiarale presents a reading of the retro tendency known as the “retorno à pintura” that took place in the eighties. Cocchiarale underscores the unique nature of the artist’s work. [...]

This document presents a debate promoted by the journal Módulo about the crisis in the cultural institutions of Rio de Janeiro. It took place just one decade after this city was replaced as the capital of Brazil. First, the debate addresses both the [...]

This is a review of the sculptural pieces that were produced by Sergio Romagnolo and shown at the 19th Bienal de São Paulo in 1987. In the author’s opinion the hybrid nature of Romagnolo’s three-dimensional works is one of their most outstanding [...]

In this text, Sérgio Romagnolo, who is associated with Brazilian art of the eighties, reveals the motivation for his work, which is mainly a fascination with consumerism and the deception it brings. He believes that his art encompasses not only the [...]

In this text, critic Márcio Doctors analyzes the work of Brazilian painter Eduardo Sued for whom the author asserts geometry is the translation of the unnamable space of things and a point of departure, rather than a destination. He writes, & [...]

This text by art critic Regina Teixeira de Barros discusses the exhibition of work by Ernesto Neto held at the Museu de Arte Moderna de São Paulo in 1992. She observes a division in Neto’s recent production since as it furthers the [...]

Artist Milton Machado discusses the response abroad, specifically in England, to the group show Continuum Brazilian Art 1960s–1990s, held in Essex in 1995. Machado comments on the appeal of a certain “exoticism” attributed to [...]

Painter Quirino Campofiorito was the creator of Belas Artes, a publication in circulation in Rio de Janeiro. In this text, he provides a critical reading of an exhibition of paintings by [Alberto da Veiga] Guignard held at the Palace Hotel in that [...]

In this newspaper article, Francisco Bittencourt discusses the emergence of the new media that began to be used in Brazilian art in the 1970s. Among other artists, the article mentions Arthur Barrio, Anna Bella Geiger, Ivens Machado, Ana Vitória [...]

This text by Brazilian art critic Fernando Cocchiarale was written as the introduction to the exhibition Escultura Carioca, held at Paço Imperial in Rio de Janeiro in 1994. The author’s reflection begins with the question, “What is sculpture [...]

Art critic Wilson Coutinho weaves an analysis of the photographic work of Miguel Rio Branco, stating that the artist works with the idea of the “unproductive economy,” since his photographs focus on the economically marginalized sector of the [...]

In this essay, the critic Ronaldo Brito reviews the experimental installations created by Cildo Meireles, and discusses the constant deconstruction of expectations he finds in the artist’s work. According to Brito, Cildo’s work “dismantles the [...]

According to Sônia Salzstein, the author of this review, Carlos Fajardo alternates between working [in the media of] painting and sculpture. The fundamental concerns of the work revolve around the surface and the tension between matter and time. [...]

The visual artist Rubens Gerchman writes his own autobiographical profile, including details about his most recent work. He mentions the early challenges he faced, when his work was not understood and was sometimes considered to be unfinished [...]

This is a text with a pronounced personal tone that was written for the purpose of erasing the line that divides an object from an interpretative reading of it. Frederico Morais pointed out a set of factors underlying the resurgence of painting at [...]

Art critic Carlos von Schmidt wrote this text for the catalogue to the show 3 x 4 Grandes Formatos held at the Centro Empresarial Rio in 1983. The author provides a brief historical overview of the ties between large-format works and transformations [...]

This long text by the art critic Frederico Morais, divided into 12 sections, described the mood of the art being created in Brazil in the 1980s. The emotions and pleasure were the main drivers of this new work, along with a celebration of youth. [...]

In this document, Brazilian art critic Márcio Doctors gathers Guy Brett’s testimony on the fundamental role of Brazilian artists in London, specifically, in the space opened by the Whitechapel Gallery in the late 1960s. The article addresses the [...]

Critic Paulo Venâncio Filho discusses the continuities and divergences in the photography of Brazilian artist Iole de Freitas from the seventies to the eighties. The critic argues that whereas in de Freitas’s early work the camera acts as a [...]

The diversity of Ivens Machado’s artwork is the central theme in this article by the art critic Paulo Herkenhoff. The text focuses on the sculptures executed by the artist during the 1980s using construction materials. Concrete slabs were linked to [...]

In this text, art critic Frederico Morais reviews the work of (José) Leonilson and his position, vis-à-vis what was known as Geração 80, making use of the artist’s personal testimony. After recalling a trip he made through Europe (including [...]

In 1991, Luiz Zerbini’s paintings were exhibited at the Galeria Subdistrito (São Paulo) and reviewed by the critic Marco Veloso. In the latter’s opinion, there is a pictorial transparency in Zerbini’s figurative works that combines images, [...]

Art critic Márcio Doctors analyzes the work of Lygia Pape, whom he considers the most radical of the three Neo-Concrete artists (Lygia Clark, Hélio Oiticica, and Pape). These artists set out to confront the radical experience of space as if it were [...]

The manifesto written by members of the Nervo Óptico group is critical of matters such as submitting artistic work to commercial pressure. The text, which was signed in Porto Alegre (Rio Grande do Sul), warns that the “market’s demands oblige [...]

This article by Brazilian artist and art critic Ricardo Basbaum examines some aspects of the connection between text and image on the basis of the philosophical distinction Gilles Deleuze establishes between “enunciation” and “visibility.” [...]