Documents of Latin American and Latino Art

Justo Pastor Mellado writes about the life and work of José Balmes, taking as his starting point an exhibition of two of the painter’s works that Mellado defines as paradigmatic: No (1972) and El luche (1994), both of which are [...]

This is Enrique Lihn’s lengthy, emphatic review of “Abstracción y Figurativismo o el dilema de la expresividad en la pintura,” an essay by Jorge Elliot. Lihn is not out to discredit Elliot’s proposals, he wants to [...]

Adriana Valdés wrote this essay for the catalogue for an exhibition of works by Mónica Bengoa. Organizing her text around six themes, Valdés writes about stories, pixels, the unspeakable, “To the sound of a smooth, soft [...]

In this essay Adriana Valdés discusses the production of women artists, and takes a sweeping look at women artists in Latin America and Chile. She follows María Zambrano’s lead regarding the cultural and historical forces that [...]

In this essay, Enrique Lihn discusses the Tango series of photographs by Paz Errázuriz, based on a review of the works of authors who have written about the origins and lyrics of this particular style of music and dance. Lihn claims that & [...]

In this essay, Rita Ferrer discusses photography based on an international critique of several periods. She refers to authors such as Roland Barthes, Charles Baudelaire, and the Chilean artist Carlos Leppe, claiming that they all share a “ [...]

In this essay Justo Pastor Mellado discusses four works produced by Alicia Villarreal in 1996–97 that were shown at various exhibitions. He sees similarities in them, in both thematic and material terms, based on their focus on books and [...]

In this essay Luis Oyarzún shares his tenets about art, describing it in aesthetic terms as an artistic experience that can be translated (via sensitive forms) in communication to express private or personal ideas. He suggests that self- [...]

In this short text, the poet Pablo Neruda writes about Nemesio Antúnez, recalling when they met and the friendship they developed over time. He identifies the different stages of this painter-printmaker’s career by referring to the [...]

In this text Gaspar Galaz writes about the prints produced by Jaime Cruz. He discusses the ones from the 1960s, which are representative of Cruz’s early work in this medium. Galaz also refers to the dominant trends in art at that time, the [...]

This article was written by Gaspar Galaz on the occasion of a retrospective exhibition of works by Claudio Bravo at the Museo Nacional de Bellas Artes in Santiago, Chile. Galaz refers to a debate about art and how it should be defined that was [...]

In this essay, the printmaker Pedro Millar reflects on the lira popular [that is, printed poetic forms illustrated with singular woodcuts], a Chilean folk tradition, as the antecedents to wood engraving in Chile. Accompanying the article was an [...]

Pedro Prado writes about Juan Francisco González after he had passed away, referring to him as “his teacher,” the teacher who taught him how to see as a painter, to find the beauty in his surroundings. Prado describes Gonzá [...]

This essay includes a compilation of statements made by members of the Tribu No, a group devoted to experimental poetry and art that was active in Chile in the late 1960s and early 1970s; it also includes statements by other individuals who were [...]

Cecilia Vicuña writes about her relationship with Juan (“Xuan”) Luis Martínez. Her memories date back to before they met, to times when they were at the same place at the same time. Vicuña mentions an occasion when [...]

Roberto Matta criticizes the conditions in Chile that have been created by the military dictatorship, using a poetic code based on the faculty of vision. He alludes to the political situation being endured by the Mapuche indigenous peoples and refers [...]

Gaspar Galaz writes about the Grupo de Los Diez, describing how the group began and providing some historical context. He gives a broad explanation about how the group operated and goes on to discuss the painters in the group and their works. He [...]

Enrique Lihn imagines a dialogue between Pedro Luna’s work and what both Victor Carvacho and Antonio Romera have written about it. According to Lihn, Luna’s painting is inspired by a natural, instinctive feeling that is focused on form [...]

Luis Oyarzún writes about the body of work that the painter Carlos Pedraza produced over the course of his three-decade career. According to Oyarzún, Pedraza attained a measure of skill in the areas he explored and, like Pablo Burchard [...]

In this essay, written for the solo show of works by Patricio de la O, the art critic and curator Justo Pastor Mellado discusses the catalogue, the gallery, and the relevant demands on both the painter and the painting itself. Pastor Mellado claims [...]

In 2003 Justo Pastor Mellado wrote an essay for the catalogue for La quinta del sordo, the exhibition of works by Guillermo Núñez. On this occasion Mellado looks back to the retrospective Núñez presented in 1993, for which [...]

In this text Diamela Eltit writes about Guillermo Núñez’s artwork on the occasion of a retrospective exhibition of his works. She discusses the political violence to which he was subjected during the military dictatorship (1973& [...]

Guillermo Machuca analyzes the work that Arturo Duclos produced in the 1980s (his first period) and then in the 1990s. The artist’s work, which is indifferent to the goals pursued by language (signs and meanings), forgets past references and [...]

The curator and critic Justo Pastor Mellado wrote this essay to be included in the catalogue for Se me nubla la cabeza. Te quiero y no puedo amarte más, the exhibition of paintings by Samy Benmayor at the Galería Sur (Santiago, 1984). [...]

In this text Francisco Brugnoli writes a first-person account of his first meeting with Alberto Pérez and records his opinions of him as an artist and an art history teacher. Brugnoli thinks back to when he originally met Pérez, who was [...]

Francisco Brugnoli reviews the work of Matilde Pérez in terms of persistence and discontinuity. In his essay, he theorizes about art’s role as a means of communication and provides a historical perspective on the evolution of a kind of [...]

Roberto Merino writes about the early career of Juan Pablo Langlois Vicuña, discussing the artist’s background in terms of both his embrace of art and his works. Following his professional training as an architect, Langlois Vicuña [...]

Justo Pastor Mellado discusses the Escena de Avanzada twenty years after Nelly Richard coined the term. Though it originally had militant undertones, the term evolved into a historical category. It applied to a set of texts and artworks that Richard [...]

In this text written for an exhibition of works by Patricio de la O, the art critic and curator Justo Pastor Mellado reviews the artist’s painting from his student days until his return to Chile after living in exile from 1974 to 1978 during [...]

In this text, Raúl Zurita discusses the work that Francisco Smythe produced from the late 1970s to the early 1990s. He begins with Poema de amor (Love Poem), a work that helps him to understand Smythe’s ouevre, which he defines as a [...]

Alberto Pérez was a member of the Grupo Signo and writes about the group in this text. He discusses what originally led to a form of art whose exponents sought to explore the global sociopolitical situation. He classifies the group’s [...]

In this essay Antonio Romera discusses the collection of works by Chilean artists that was sent to the Primera Bienal Americana de Arte in Argentina. He states that the roots of current Chilean painting in the 1960s can be traced back to three [...]

Enrique Lihn introduces an exhibition of Chilean painting that includes modern works. He discusses what it means for a viewer to relate to figurative or non-figurative (abstract) works. He claims that, when faced with a work of art that “ [...]

Pedro Prado describes an architectural project undertaken by the group known as Los Diez. He is referring to “La Torre de Los Diez,” which they planned to build in a remote, quiet, free location with no great requirements as far as its [...]

Pedro Prado discusses some of the basic principles that were shared by the members of the group known as Los Diez, outlining some ideas in this poetic text. He explains that there is a certain type of man who is endowed with a range of moods or [...]

In this essay, Antonio Romera discusses Hernán Gazmuri’s art career. Despite its merits, Gazmuri’s work has been ignored or forgotten. Romera mentions the artist’s referents, his teachers in Chile, and André Lhote& [...]

Jean Emar and José Perotti cowrote a dialogue in which they delivered a scathing commentary on Nathanael Yáñez Silva’s critique of the Grupo Montparnasse’s first exhibition. The barbs in their published text made it [...]

In this essay, Jean Emar writes about the Grupo Montparnasse’s first exhibition and its origins. He discusses the group’s name, which, for its five members, was neither a painting trend nor an objective; it was simply a referent. He [...]

In his review of Quadrivium, the installation by Gonzalo Díaz, Alberto Madrid claims that it consists of didactic sheets that can be interpreted as a display of different “lessons about things.” The project, which was dedicated to [...]

This document includes excerpts from the personal travel log of the Chilean experimental photographer Julio Bertrand Vidal, who died at an early age. The texts range from 1907 to 1911, and the log tracks his travels in Europe, noting the places he [...]

Justo Pastor Mellado wrote three interventions for the Seminario de interpretación de la coyuntura plástica. This third “polemical” text ranges from what was taking place in the visual arts field in Chile to what was [...]

In 1983 Justo Pastor Mellado addressed some discussions that were begun a couple of years earlier in his essay about Tránsito suspendido, the exhibition of works by Carlos Altamirano. He described this text as a second part, focusing the [...]

Justo Pastor Mellado discusses the unofficial shipment of Chilean art to the 12th Paris Biennial arranged by Nelly Richard, which he describes as a key moment in the birth of the Escena de Avanzada. Mellado also focuses on several landmark art events [...]

In this essay José Balmes writes about his work and shares some thoughts on “contemporary painting.” He recalls how he started painting when he was a young man in Catalonia, then moved to Chile after the Spanish Civil War and [...]

This document includes three texts, each one written from a different perspective. The first is Lynda Kahn’s very short review of The Laughing Alligator, the video by Juan Downey, the Chilean artist who lived in New York. The second is a [...]

In this poetic, thoughtful essay, Juan Downey discusses his ideas about decadence based on a description of conditions and feelings. Downey, the Chilean artist who lived in New York City, explains that, from a third-world perspective, the decline of [...]

In this text Nemesio Antúnez provides a brief description of Taller 99. He discusses the origin of the workshop and his association with Atelier 17 (founded in 1917) in Paris, where he completed his training as a printmaker, underscoring the [...]

Francisco Zegers wrote the introduction to Desacato (Disobedience), the book about Lotty Rosenfeld, which he edited. Zegers begins by explaining that Desacato is about Rosenfeld’s work, how it was produced, and the interpretations it suggests [...]

In this essay, Milan Ivelic writes about the third group exhibition of the Promoción 80 [Class of ’80]. He explains why these artists are “a group,” noting their age, where they were educated, and how they approach art in [...]

Ronald Christ writes about Catalina Parra’s exhibition Imbunches and mentions a childhood anecdote that evokes the work. He explains that the artist explores different forms of silencing, and her work therefore defies interpretation. The author [...]