Documents of Latin American and Latino Art

This is a report on the opening of the exhibition Os artistas pelas Diretas at the entranceway of the Folha de S. Paulo newspaper facilities in February 1984. The management of the newspaper, in conjunction with various artists, conceived the [...]

In this excerpt from his book Pancetti (Rio de Janeiro: Ministério da Educação e Cultura, 1960), Medeiros Lima recounts José Pancetti’s first experiences with paintings when he was still a sailor. The section cited begins with the painting work [...]

To start with, the newspaper’s editorial statement was very clear concerning the basic purpose of A parte do fogo [The Fire’s Part]: to take part in Brazil’s cultural process and create a space devoted to reflection and to the production of [...]

In this essay the critic Mário Schenberg discusses the political and cultural changes he sees in the wake of the uprising led by Getúlio Vargas that was known as the Revolução de 1930. Schenberg believes that the agricultural oligarchy’s loss [...]

In this interview, the sculptor José Resende describes his training as an architect and his career as an artist since the mid-1970s. He discusses the development of the Grupo Rex and the founding of the Escola Brasil, in both of which he was [...]

In his testimony, the artist Abelardo da Hora (1924–2014) mixes autobiography with episodes that refer to the organization of the Sociedade de Arte Moderna (SAM) in Recife and the workshop known as the Atelier Coletivo as well as the Movimento de [...]

In this article written in 1917, Anita Malfatti records her impressions of her travels in the United States and Europe. The Brazilian artist enthusiastically describes the protests prompted by the paintings she exhibited on her return to São Paulo. [...]

Echoing what Manoel de Bonfim had written previously, in his 1903 book A América Latina: males de origem [832506 and 833254], Sílvio Romero attributes the “ills” of Latin America to the Iberian colonization inflicted by predatory nations like [...]

This is an illustrated text in which José Geraldo Vieira defines the characteristics of “naïve” or “primitive art” at a time which coincided with Brazilian art critics’ growing interest in the trend. In his judgment, it is an instinctive [...]

This was a lecture by the art historian and critic Walter Zanini about the arts activities of the Japanese community in Brazil, particularly in the cities of São Paulo and Rio de Janeiro. Although this study is focused on the art world after World [...]

In this newspaper article, the journalist Miguel de Almeida reviews Idéias Modernas, the exhibition of work by Guto Lacaz that was presented at the Galeria São Paulo in 1982. The journalist comments on the inventiveness and excellent humor he sees [...]

This essay discusses and criticizes the Monroe Doctrine (1823), which although it advocated a so called protectionist policy for Latin American countries, was in fact facilitating their subjugation. The author of the essay, Manoel de Oliveira Lima, [...]

In discussing paintings by Anita Malfatti such as O homem amarelo, as well as work by Zina Aita and Vicente do Rego Monteiro, Graça Aranha asserts that visitors to the Semana de Arte Moderna of 1922 would consider the exhibition a “heap of ‘ [...]

In 1933, the artist Flávio de Carvalho discussed the founding of the Teatro da Experiência at the premises of the CAM [Modern Artists Club] in São Paulo. Speaking from his broader experience as an architect and set designer, he sees the theater as [...]

This anonymous article reports on the lectures given by the Swiss architect and urban designer Le Corbusier during his visit to Rio de Janeiro in 1929. Sponsored by the Instituto Central de Arquitetos (in what was then the capital of Brazil), Le [...]

This article, essentially the minutes of a meeting of the Cooperativa de Artistas Plásticos de São Paulo, was published in ABC Color, the organization’s newspaper. The article reports on the meeting of Cooperative members on July 2, 1980, at [...]

In this book by Paulo Prado, published two years after the ratification of the Brazilian constitution (1891)—which was based on the constitution of the United States—the writer responds to local Republican attempts to improve relations with the [...]

Responding to a “pure” form of nationalism that was in vogue in the early 1920s, Henrique Abilio proposes a “synthetic” approach to art: the “Universalist” movement. In general terms, this approach means being modern in time, as well as [...]

The professor and essay writer Celso Favaretto assesses the parameters that frame the work of Hélio Oiticica, from the experience of pure art to the statement made by environmental art. In Favaretto’s opinion, the path followed by the artist from [...]

This “study sketch,” as it is called by its writer, Theon Spanudis, performs an in-depth analysis of the artwork created by Alfredo Volpi. It provides a brief review of articles written as of that time (1956) by the critics Mário Schenberg, Sé [...]

This newspaper article reports on the raid carried out at the Teatro Ruth Escobar, in São Paulo, on June 8, 1968, when federal police violently shut down the Iª Feira Paulista de Opinião, an event produced by the Teatro de Arena group and directed [...]

In this text, Jorge Mautner looks at Brazilian artists working in different disciplines (in the visual arts, music, literature, film, and theater), and the parallels between their past and present work. His thesis is that there is a liberating [...]

This is a scathing critique of the 1st Latin American Biennial held in São Paulo in November and December 1978, which featured exhibitions and symposia on “myth and magic.” Frederico Morais reports, “All the negative predictions concerning [...]

From the perspective of a practicing artist, Antonio Dias demands greater organization of the Brazilian cultural sector. He asserts that following the military coup of 1964, Brazilian culture became irrelevant on the global scene due not to a lack of [...]

Orlando Teruz, a little-known painter, seeks to clarify a couple of terms and subjects that are frequently mentioned in discussions about current events: modern art and Brazilian art. As defined by Teruz, a work of modern art respects the traditional [...]

Flávio Motta discusses the connections between the landscape and urban living conditions in large cities, which he believes affect human relationships. Cities that grow haphazardly with no urban planning are a reflection of a disorganized society. [...]

This proposal, which envisioned a program of artistic activities in “public spaces,” was submitted to the City Hall of São Paulo in 1974 by the artist and architect Flavio Motta and the artist Marcello Nitsche. The project called for greater [...]

In her role as the director of the MAC-USP (Museu de Arte Contemporânea da Universidade de São Paulo), Aracy Amaral praises the results of the first edition of Arte na Rua [Art in the Street], the project suggested by the artists Ana Maria Tavares [...]

The article by Cacilda Costa develops her ideas about “public art” as one of the possible links for creating an alliance between “power, politics and the image.” In other words, it is a “resource that governments and companies may deploy to [...]

This is a news report on the formation of the Cooperativa dos Artistas Plásticos de São Paulo in 1979, which in fact was a pioneering initiative in Brazil. Instead of meeting to discuss issues on aesthetics, the collective sought to establish an [...]

This is a report on the seizure of flags and banners presented by artists Nelson Leirner and Flavio Motta at the corner of Avenida Brasil and Rua Augusta (December 1967); the repressive action was ordered by the city’s district attorneys. According [...]

In his essay, Paulo Herkenhoff seeks to portray Brazil as though it were one country and several countries at the same time, presenting its art as though it were both a singular and a multiple phenomenon. The critic thinks of Brazil as just a point [...]

According to the poet and critic Ferreira Gullar, the essential problem concerning the “national” nature of art is directly related to the cultural dependence of the country. By way of explanation, he suggests that this question would not arise [...]

Sônia Salzstein wrote this essay for the catalogue accompanying the exhibition of work by Carlos Fajardo that was held at Galeria A. S. Studio in São Paulo in 1997. In it, she discusses the persistence of memory in painting (the medium most [...]

In this essay, Roberto Schwarz discusses the growing prevalence of leftist politics in Brazilian cultural circles after the military coup of 1964 (which kept its grip on power for two decades). He confirms that, the right wing military dictatorship [...]

In this document, the Brazilian critic Frederico Morais discusses one of the unflattering traits for which Latin America is becoming known. He refers to the major biennials where there is scant “acknowledgement” of the specifics of regional art [...]

In this essay about Brazilian art, the critic Rodrigo Naves refers, first of all, to the formal timidity of the works produced in Brazil since the modernism of the 1920s. When compared with the modern art shown on the international circuit, which [...]

In this text, originally published in 1943 in a portfolio of drawings and prints entitled Mangue, by Lasar Segall, Mário de Andrade defines the drawing in its calligraphic, lyrical and “extra-visual” properties, coming to consider it as “ [...]

This essay posits the concept of “geometría sensível” [Sensitive Geometry] as one of the unitary characteristics of contemporary Latin American art, and notes the growing interest (within the region and further afield) in the art produced in [...]

In the view of Brazilian historian Aracy Amaral, the widespread prejudice against art with a “conteudístico” (content-based) approach hinders twentieth-century production from tackling sociopolitical issues. From the thirties through the [...]

The Mexican researcher Rita Eder discusses the possibility of consolidating an interdisciplinary approach to the study of the art of Latin America. This in fact took place in the 1970s, when the subject of “changing mental habits” was raised [...]

This article was originally published in the “Lanterna mágica” [Magic Lantern] section of O Pirralho [The Brat], a magazine founded by Oswald de Andrade (in São Paulo, 1912). The article by the young writer lobbies for a “greater expression [...]

This article—which appeared in 1939 during the III Salão de Maio held in São Paulo—reports on the statement made jointly by the sculptor Victor Brecheret and the painter Lasar Segall to the effect that they did not agree with the “trend” [...]

This interview with Carlos Zilio was written in conjunction with the exhibition Carlos Zilio: Arte e política, 1966–1976 held at the Museu de Arte Moderna do Rio de Janeiro (MAM-Rio) in 1996. The questions put to the artists by a number of [...]

After criticizing the selection made in the United States to represent Brazil at the Latin American Exhibition of Visual Arts that was held in New York during the 1939 World’s Fair, the great Brazilian polymath, Mário de Andrade continues by [...]

This is the program for the carnival party sponsored by the Sociedade Pró-Arte Moderna(SPAM) in February 1934, an event that was also referred to as the Grande Expedição às Matas Virgens da Spamolândia [Great Expedition to the Virgin Jungles of [...]

Aníbal Machado writes about the printmaker Oswaldo Goeldi, noting his “moral profile,” his “impetuous temperament,” his humble, melancholy nature, and his “artistic solitude.” Machado describes Goeldi’s childhood in Belém (in the [...]

This text summarizes artist Regina Silveira’s position in a debate held at the Galeria São Paulo in December 1981 on the state of printmaking in Brazil in the early eighties. Early on, Silveira asserts that in her view, the idea that printmaking [...]

This is Mário de Andrade’s critical review of Hugo Adami’s exhibition at the Casa das Arcadas (São Paulo, 1928). This was Adami’s first solo show following his return from Europe. De Andrade discusses the artist’s virtuoso technique and his [...]

This interview with Iberê Camargo published by Cultura magazine in 1972 is preceded by an introduction to the artist that includes biographical and professional information. They record his studies at the Escola de Artes e Ofícios at the Santa [...]