Documents of Latin American and Latino Art

This document is a statement issued by the Montevideo-based GRUPO 8. Although diverse, all of the group members produced “abstract art”; in the late fifties, it was a sort of avant-garde functional to local industry insofar as the group connected [...]

The synopsis and annotations in English are coming soon [...]

“Reflexiones” is just that, a collection of thoughts related to the essence of the constructivist doctrine and the concrete strategies to be adopted in an environment that was not particularly receptive to the doctrine. The intent is to [...]

In this brief article, written in a colloquial, essay style, Guido Castillo expresses the hope that the essence of modern art will be reborn from its own ashes in both the emblematic figure of Joaquín Torres-García and in Universalismo [...]

The article “Universalidad del Constructivismo” is essentially a monologue about a painting by Joaquín Torres García. The author of the article, Francisco Lanza Muñoz, muses on the subject of abstraction and its metaphysical underpinnings, [...]

In this article, which appeared in the final number of the magazine Círculo y Cuadrado (December 1943), J. Luis San Vicente discusses the spirit of cooperation among members of the TTG (Taller Torres-García). The writer also provides a [...]

This article by Héctor Ragni—one of Joaquín Torres García’s “devout” disciples—reveals the author’s profound understanding of the maestro’s doctrinaire corpus of constructive universalism [...]

In this brief essay Joaquín Torres-García outlines the goals he developed at the AAC (Asociación de Arte Constructivo) and explained in the association’s magazine. He describes the difficulties he had in trying to make [...]

This article, “El arte naturalista y el arte geométrico,” includes a discussion of Joaquín Torres-García’s main theoretical ideas. Here he restates his metaphysically-inspired philosophical approach and his [...]

This is an excerpt from the book L’Homme, cet inconnu [Man, the Unknown] by the French scientist Alexis Carrel, which appeared in issue Number 5 of Círculo y Cuadrado, the magazine published by the Asociación de Arte Constructivo [...]

The author of this document, Edgar Varèse, criticizes the exploitation of folklore by “highbrow music.” He agrees that the indigenous spirit of ancient cultures can certainly be a source of inspiration for artists, but considers its manipulation [...]

“The plane on which we should place ourselves” is one of the most synthetic statements Joaquín Torres García makes in his lectures on the theory and practice of “modern classicism.” In it he casts some doubt on the very idea of “modernity [...]

Carmelo de Arzadun stresses the importance of creating intellectual groups in Montevideo, explaining that their conversations about their various aesthetic preferences would enrich the debate in local art circles. On the whole, the article does not [...]

In this article, the Argentinean-Uruguayan artist Héctor Ragni expresses his admiration for Joaquín Torres-García’s ideas and work. Ragni lauds the maestro’s motivational skills and recalls the first time he saw his [...]

Joaquín Torres-García wrote this editorial for Círculo y Cuadrado, the journal published by the Asociación de Arte Constructivo de Montevideo that seeks to follow in the footsteps of Cercle et Carré, the magazine co [...]

Mario Sagradini discusses the connections Uricchio (the pseudonym used by Rodolfo Troncone) may have had with artists who were involved in the emergence of the Arte Concreto — Invención movement in 1944 (which was originally based in Buenos Aires [...]

In this report, issued in 1992 by NUVA (Núcleo Uruguayo de Videoarte), the Uruguayan video artist Fernando Álvarez Cozzi discusses the origins of latent cultural identities in Latin America and explores the specific nature of video art in Uruguay [...]

In this report the video artist Fernando Álvarez Cozzi reviews and contextualizes the phenomenon of video art in Uruguay and, more broadly, in Latin America. He notes that, in this field, Uruguay lags behind other countries in the region. However, [...]

This document is the catalogue to the exhibition Videos en Banda (1993), the third edition of an event dedicated to video art from Uruguay and abroad organized by the Núcleo Uruguayo de Videoarte. Held at the Museo Nacional de Artes Visuales de [...]

The catalogue La condición del video. 25 años de videoarte en el Uruguay provides a review of the major figures in the history of Uruguayan video art and describes the development of the movement in this region of Latin America from the time of its [...]

In this text, Carlos Herrera Mac Lean, a member of the Comisión Nacional de Bellas Artes since the time of its founding in 1936, defends Uruguayan figurative art and opposes the inclination toward abstraction. He looks specifically at the case of [...]

The article by Amalia Polleri analyzes the process of integrating the happenings of Uruguay within an artistic context and referencing the interventions by another Uruguayan artist, Teresa Vila. Polleri points to the trend of Latin American [...]

This article analyzes the varied impact generated by the happenings in Europe and the United States and the repercussions on those taking place in Latin America, highlighting the ethical and political particularities of the latter. In this case, it [...]

In this article, art critic María Luisa Torrens explains the importance of Uruguayan performer Teresa Vila’s “actions with theme” as demonstrating her commitment as an artist at a juncture of intense social violence in Uruguay. Vila engaged [...]

This brief catalogue essay is by Haroldo González, the curator of Las veredas de la Patria Chica, the exhibition that was organized as a tribute to Teresa Vila. The fact that González was an important figure among Uruguayan conceptual artists in [...]

Pablo Mañé Garzón discusses some of the thoughts expressed by Umbro Apollonio, the director of the Biennale di Venezia’s Historic Archive of Contemporary Art. The Uruguayan critic refers specifically to the concept of “freedom” that [...]

In this article the critic Fernando García Esteban honors the photographer Alfredo Testoni, who pioneered an “abstract” painting approach to photography during the hey-day of the abstract and informalist movements in Uruguay [...]

In this letter, Joaquín Torres-García declares his intention to promote contemporary Uruguayan art to European audiences. The objective is to create a program designed to provide scholarships or grants from the Uruguayan government for [...]

This letter from Joaquín Torres García to his Uruguayan compatriot, the renowned writer José Enrique Rodó, suggests that both men agreed on the need to encourage the emerging art in their country by exposing young Uruguayan artists to what was [...]

In this letter to the writer José Enrique Rodó, Joaquín Torres García discusses the affinity they share for the Greco-Latin tradition, and expresses his wish to be in touch with contemporary Uruguayan art because, though living in Spain at the [...]

Luis Camnitzer discusses Joaquín Torres García’s exhibition at the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum in New York and assesses reactions to his work among North American audiences and intellectuals. The Uruguayan artist and critic, who lives in New [...]

From a Uruguayan perspective, visual artist and performer Clemente Padín discusses the importance of Mail Art in Latin America, as well as the problems it faces. In this article, he explains the origins of Mail Art as a movement for international [...]

This article describes the 1967 exhibition about objective art held in Montevideo at the General Electric Institute that included work by Carlos and Enrique Fernández Broglia, Amalia Polleri, Nelson Ramos, Washington Barcala, and Luis Alberto Solari [...]

This essay is about the article describing the opening of the Primer Salón de Pintura General Electric [The First General Electric Art Exhibition Hall] in October of 1963, highlighting the work of IGE (Instituto General Electric [General Electric [...]

This essay about the interview by Pablo Mañé Garzón with Ángel Kalenberg, the director of the IGE (Instituto General Electric de Montevideo [General Electric Institute of Montevideo), discussing the programs carried out by the institution that [...]

The article describes a cultural event held at the IGE (Instituto General Electric [General Electric Institute]) in Montevideo where the performances by the visual artists and the exhibition on the industrial artistic works were linked through rather [...]

This essay is on the informative publication by the newspaper El Plata on the II Salón de Pintura Moderna [Second Hall of Modern Art], organized in Montevideo by the IGE (Instituto General Electric [General Electric Institute]). It is with regard to [...]

For the first time in Montevideo in 1971, three years after the artistically-political transformative event, called Tucumán Arde, took place in Rosario and Buenos Aires, Argentina, a comprehensive, all inclusive account was published. The one who [...]

The magazine Los Huevos del Plata founded in Montevideo by Clemente Padín, published the manifesto of the Brazilian group Maldoror that politically identified itself with revolutionary and antimilitaristic principles that were plainly active during [...]

In 1965, the original manifesto of the magazine Los Huevos del Plata was an avant-garde platform advocating against Uruguayan cultural dominance by the so-called Generación del ’45, a group of writers who exerted and promoted their strong [...]

This essay is on “Hachepiencia,” the manifesto produced by the Uruguayan group Los hachepientos, which was formed by Clemente Padín, Héctor Paz, and Juan José Linares. The principal objectives of the group were outlined in the manifesto [...]

In this essay, various aspects of the II Encontro Latino-americano de Artes Plásticas [Second Latin American Meeting of the Visual Arts] held in Porto Alegre, Brazil, are summarized, emphasizing the performing artistic practices and the need to [...]

This essay is about an invitation that was extended to Clemente Padín by the Yellow Springs Institute (USA) to perform at the gathering of Latin American artists held in October of 1989, resulting from information on the event. The artist, in an [...]

This is the Brazilian art critic and curator Walter Zanini’s official invitation to Clemente Padín, asking him to take part in the XVI Bienal Internacional de São Paulo, in 1981. The document created a “diplomatic” incident that was solved [...]

This is a critical review of the I Bienal de Artes Plásticas that was held at the Subte Municipal de Montevideo, an exhibition space in the capital city of Uruguay, in 1992. The author explicitly acknowledges Clemente Padín for his presentation of [...]

In this article Clemente Padín discusses the historical development of performance art in Europe and in North America. He also refers to specific examples to describe the nature of this action art as practiced in Latin America. He believes [...]

Clemente Padín describes and discusses his vision as a creator and promoter of Mail Art in the 1970s in Uruguay. He approaches the subject from the broad perspective of the movement’s worldwide activities, providing a comparative analysis that [...]

Here Clemente Padín sketches a retrospective of his life as an artist—he was an experimental poet, graphic designer, performer, and networker—during the Uruguayan military-civilian dictatorship (that lasted from the June 27, 1973 coup d’état [...]

In this essay, critic and performer Silvio de Gracia explains the importance of and provides context for “action art” in Latin America. He demonstrates its specificity in the region, showing how it differs from similar tendencies in Europe and [...]

The art critics Fernando Davis and Fernanda Nogueira interview the Uruguayan artist Clemente Padín. The conversation focuses mainly on the artist’s literary work, especially his visual poetry which launched a literary and aesthetic revolutionary [...]