Documents of Latin American and Latino Art

In this essay, Mexican poet, writer, and diplomat Octavio Paz analyzes Mexican artist Rufino Tamayo’s relationship with Mexican popular art and Pre-Columbian art. According to Tamayo, popular art should not be seen as art but as a functional [...]

In “Wifredo Lam y su obra vista a través de significados críticos,” Cuban anthropologist Fernando Ortiz analyzes the work of Cuban painter Wifredo Lam through the lens of his biography and cultural heritage. Ortiz describes Lam’s painting [...]

This article was written by Argentinean artist Martín Malharro in 1903 in the first issue of Ideas magazine. In the article, Malharro investigates the notion of an Argentinean national art, and insists that artists should pursue the creation of a [...]

In this article, Mexican politician, writer, and journalist Ignacio Manuel Altamirano evaluates the causes of what he deems a lack of originality among the Mexican artists of his time. Although Altamirano greatly admires the work of Mexican artists, [...]