Documents of Latin American and Latino Art

In this lengthy interview, the abstract geometric artist Carlos Rojas discusses various aspects of his work and mentions some of the series [he undertook]: pueblos, horizons, El Dorado, and sculptures. He claims that they are a means of documenting [...]

In this short article written in late 1957, Marta Traba writes about the work of the Colombian painter and editor Judith Márquez. As indicated in the title, Traba argues that it is “the most serious and interesting work, and shows the most effort [...]

This text written by Marta Traba presents the first solo exhibition of Colombian artist Beatriz Daza. Traba asserts that “in the restless and discontented spirit of 20th-century visual art” ceramics runs the risk of losing its specificity as it [...]

In this handwritten text found in one of Carlos Rojas’s notebooks, the artist explains some of the ideas surrounding his work, specifically in relation to two major questions: his perception of the laws of nature, which he understands in terms of [...]

In this notebook, which is one of several kept by Colombian artist Carlos Rojas, the author writes down thirty-two points essential to his art.  Written like a manifesto, this particular manuscript contains ideas that Rojas considers innate to his [...]

In this letter to the editor of the Bogota-based newspaper El Tiempo, a group of artists, journalists, and individuals connected to the Colombian art world voice their displeasure at the Academia Colombiana de Historia’s position on the planned [...]

This document makes some relevant points in the debate over abstract art in Colombia that was sparked by the monument to Bolívar, originally commissioned from the sculptor Édgar Negret by the Ministry of Public Works. In the article, the Colombian [...]

This press release, written by the Minster of Public Works and Transportation (1980) Enrique Vargas Ramírez, was distributed to the Colombian media on the occasion of the controversy concerning the monument commissioned from the sculptor Édgar [...]

Theater director Juan Monsalve wrote the monologue Ondina (1983) specifically for María Teresa Hincapié, who was an actor at the time. This text, which is influenced by the Japanese theater of fragmentation that emerged after World War II, is a [...]

This document is the program handed out to the public at the performance of María Teresa Hincapié’s Una cosa es una cosa [A Thing Is a Thing] (1990) which received first prize at the XXXIII Salón Nacional de Artistas (1990). In a text that [...]

This is a typewritten text by Colombian video artist José Alejandro Restrepo on María Teresa Hincapié’s performance Una cosa es una cosa [A Thing Is a Thing] (1990), which was awarded first prize at the XXXIII Salón Nacional de Artistas in [...]

In this special article written in Mexico and published in the Colombian art magazine Plástica [Visual Arts], the Guatemalan artist Carlos Mérida discusses the values and processes involved in pictorial abstraction. Mérida describes abstraction as [...]

In this article, Marta Traba sets out to provide an overview of abstract art in Latin America on the basis of problems common to the countries in the region. She asserts that the first of these problems is a lack of knowledge of the art produced in [...]

In this 1972 lecture, delivered at the Primer Seminario sobre Diseño Artesanal in Bogotá, and organized by the Asociación Colombiana de Promoción Artesanal and the Artesanías de Colombia, Carlos Rojas discusses creativity, understood as the [...]

In this text, Carlos Rojas discusses the close relationship between art and the natural and social environment in which it is produced. Rojas asserts that every society has certain unifying notions that determine a collective personality. That [...]

In June 1960, the exhibition, 3000 años de arte colombiano [3000 Years of Colombian Art], was held in Miami and Washington. The journal Lámpara [Lamp] (Bogotá, published 1952–85) printed a supplement with writings by the curators who performed [...]

In June 1960, the exhibition, 3000 años de arte colombiano [3000 Years of Colombian Art], was held in Miami and Washington. The journal Lámpara [Lamp] (Bogotá, published 1952–85) produced a special supplement with writings by the curators [...]