Documents of Latin American and Latino Art

The article discusses the constant attacks that the newspaper Martín Fierro receives and all the conflicts and difficulties that result from these attacks. It also explains the attitude that will be assumed with regard to the situation created by [...]

The article points out the importance of the activity brought forth by Filippo Tommaso Marinetti in “our milieu” as a “very valuable collaboration to the renovation movement,” started—long ago—by the group involved in the publication Mart [...]

Julio Marsagot—the nom de plume used by Julio Porter—describes and reviews the work presented by Liliana Porter at the Liliana Porter exhibition at the Galería Colibrí, in San Juan (January 12–31, 1974). The writer discusses how Porter plays [...]

In this prologue to the catalog on the Argentine artists who participated in the VII Biennial of São Paulo, Julio Llinás points out the profusion of abstract or informal works that are found alongside more current international trends. He believes [...]

Writing the prologue for the catalogue of the Premio Ver y Estimar [To See and Ponder Magazine Prize] held in 1963 in Buenos Aires, the author claims to observe the distinctive feature of this competition in this statement: “it voluntarily [...]

This text presents an argument in favor of collage as a visual arts medium in spite of the “poca importancia” [little importance] it had for the general public, as well as in regard to the disdain generated by the technique’s materials [...]

The text describes the Galería del Centro Cultural Ricardo Rojas as a “a mental place that presents the art that tunes in exactly with the current times,” mentioning that, “in spite of having a joke of a budget, the Rojas space became a [...]

This text presents each of the artists who represented Argentina in the VII Biennial of São Paulo (1963). It briefly describes the characteristics of their work and identifies the variety of visual arts languages and the subtlety that “califica a [...]

In this essay, Liliana Porter discusses the work she presented at the Museo de Bellas Artes [Museum of Fine Arts] in Caracas in January 1969, at the exhibition The New York Graphic Workshop. She includes some biographical information and a list of [...]

Jorge Luis Borges answer to an opinion poll conducted by the Nosotros [We] journal of writers younger than thirty and trying to determine the existence and qualities of Argentina’s “new literary generation.” The poll consisted of seven [...]

Rubén Santantonín is selected for the Premio de Honor [Prize of Honor] at Ver y Estimar 1962 (Museo Nacional de Bellas Artes, Buenos Aires [...]

Rubén Santantonín is selected for the Premio de Honor [Prize of Honor] at Ver y Estimar 1963 (Museo Nacional de Bellas Artes, Buenos Aires [...]

This text refers to the second issue of Prisma: revista mural; underscoring the bold and at times inscrutable quality that characterized the first number of the magazine—which did not exclude the unusual way in which it was published. In this sense [...]

This text introduces the catalogue for the 1962 installment of the Premio de Honor Ver y Estimar [To See and Ponder Magazine Runner-up Prize] (Buenos Aires). According to the author, the prize, now in it its third incarnation, “has begun to reveal [...]

A photographic image of the work presented by Liliana Porter at the LI Salón Nacional de Artes Plásticas[51st National Salon of the Visual Arts] in 1962. The etching—titled Sonata y destrucciones [Sonata and Destructions]—received the Coronel [...]

A photographic image of the work presented by Liliana Porter at the L Salón Nacional de Artes Plásticas [50th National Salon of the Visual Arts] in 1961. It is titled La niña del jardín [The Girl in the Garden] and received the Mention Prize in [...]

In this article, the Uruguayan painter Pedro Figari (1868-1938) criticized the educational system in Argentina, and consequently all of Latin America, because it does not provide the practical, scientific, or industrial training that is necessary for [...]

In this text, Liliana Porter describes and reviews her art career, from her earliest experiences in Mexico City until the present day [1978 [...]

Evar Méndez maintains that the “imposition of a foreign intellectual meridian on the Argentines, whose young culture and nascent art just needs time to grow and assert itself until it achieves its own, unique identity […], is ridiculous and [...]

This is the mail art that Liliana Porter exhibited at Experiencias 69 I [Visual Practices 69 I] at the Centro de Artes Visuales at the Instituto Torcuato Di Tella (September 5–14, 1969.) Porter’s exhibit consisted of four envelopes, each with its [...]

This article refers to the activity carried out by the Proa Publishing House and its connection to the journal Martín Fierro. In this sense, it points out the date of origin; who were the founders; its mission and objectives; the working conditions [...]

On the third anniversary of Lenin’s death, this article critiques his revolutionary framework.  It states that the path of violence and force are not conducive to human happiness. It gives an example of his “blunder” though a description of [...]

This text states that the exhibition, Arte de Sistemas [Systems Art] (Buenos Aires, Museo de Arte Moderno, July 1971), contains elements that would “para entretener —o escandalizar— al público […] sirve para medir […] no solo una posición [...]

Rafael Squirru explains that the idea for this exhibition as well as its “puesta en marcha” [initiation] arose from a conversation with Martha Minujín and Rubén Santantonín regarding the defeatist and indifferent situation of the country’s [...]

The text narrates, as it explains, how the Galería del Centro Cultural Ricardo Rojas was born; the main traits of the works and artists that it housed; the support and enthusiasm received from the first moments by already acclaimed artists such as [...]

The text succinctly describes the nature of the gallery at the Centro Cultural Ricardo Rojas when it states that the artists it presents are those who “do not have access to the traditional exhibition centers.” It concludes by reporting that [...]

This document is an excerpt of the foreword written by Jorge Gumier-Maier for the exhibition catalog El Tao del Arte [The Tao of Art] (Buenos Aires: Centro Cultural Recoleta, May 13–June 8, 1997). In it, Gumier-Maier describes his concept of [...]

This article examines from a critical perspective the latest issue of Martín Fierro. In the author’s judgment, the publication has become stale given that it has lost its initial “aggressiveness [...]

In this article Damián Bayón conducts interviews with two Italian artists: the first with Massimo Campigli and the second with Léon Gischia. Bayón formulates his questions to both interviewees around the problem of explaining the “success” of [...]

This article is an interview that Damián Bayón conducted with Henry Russell-Hitchcock on the subject of modern Latin American architecture. Bayón praises Russell-Hitchcock, the scholar and curator, as “one of the great world authorities on [...]

In this article Damián Bayón interviews art historian Pierre Francastel (1900–1970) regarding the problem of abstract art, based upon what Bayón read in [Francastel’s] books. Before beginning [the interview], he states that the questions he [...]

In this article, Atalaya criticizes the results of the literary competition organized by the Sociedad Amigos del Arte [Friends of Art Society], specifically in relation to its juries. He brands them as lacking in “independence” as well as being [...]

This article deals with the work of the different Spanish artists that Damián Bayón had the opportunity to analyze during his stay in Barcelona, where he was reporting for Ver y estimar. He covered the sets and costumes that Salvador Dalí designed [...]

As part of the CAyC’s Experience Still to Come [Visual Practice Still to Come] no. 13, Luis Pazos, Héctor Puppo, and Jorge de Luján Gutiérrez proposed “a 10x5 foot mural” of the faces of the three artists screaming, with “a tape recorder [...]

The document presents three accounts of art practices that were carried out within the context of the Arte de Sistemas [Systems Art] exhibition (Buenos Aires: Museo de Arte Moderno, July, 1971). In the first one, “La Cultura de la Felicidad” [The [...]

In this article, Atalaya points out that of all the artists represented in the Salón Florida, only the works by Héctor Basaldúa, Nora Borges, Del Prete, and Xul Solar are worth seeing. As such, he goes on to analyze the characteristics of each of [...]

In this prologue, Jorge Luis Borges defends his position that Pedro Figari’s work belongs to the lyrical genre in the way it paints Argentinean remembrance and memory: both the Criollo man and his world yielding before the “new man,” in whose [...]

In this essay, Spanish philosopher José Ortega y Gasset revisits the ideas he set forth in the articles published by the journal Nosotros [Us] (Buenos Aires) under the title “Las Revistas: El tema de nuestro tiempo” [The Magazines: The Topic of [...]

In this short article, the Argentine critic, Alfredo Chiabra Acosta, questions the concept of originalidad [genuine making] in art. In his own terms, the writer ventures that originality does not stem from rarity or from something unlike anything [...]

Jorge Romero-Brest analyzes the characteristics of Argentinean art from the early 19th century to the present, considering influences of international artistic trends and their diverse consequences in the local milieu. Furthermore, the art critic [...]

In this article, Damián Bayón deals with the pictorial production of Jorge Larco. He analyzes his use of materials (oil as well as watercolor), motifs and color, among other elements. Bayón concludes that he is “a great painter” for he [...]

This is the text of the program for the seminars that were proposed by the Centro de Arte y Comunicación [Art and Communication Center] in 1970. The underlying theme of the sessions was the relationship between art and other disciplines or phenomena [...]

This article provides a brief definition and introduction to the magazine La Campana de Palo [The Wooden Bell], while also placing it within the artistic-literary milieu of Argentina [...]

This text is a postscript to the article, “El deber de la nueva generación argentina” [The Duty of the New Argentine Generation], published in the La Nación [The Nation] newspaper and written by José Ortega y Gasset. In this article the [...]

In this essay, written for the catalogue of the exhibition Liliana Porter (Facultad de Arquitectura y Urbanismo [Faculty of Architecture and Planning], Caracas, Venezuela, January 24 – February 9, 1969), the Argentine artist explains the [...]

The author builds up opposite traits to define the two most significant literary trends in the 1920s Buenos Aires, the Boedo and the Florida groups. And, as representative of Boedo, Mariani celebrates the poetic characteristics of the former while [...]

In this text, Jorge Luis Borges writes about the dichotomy created between what later became the two most important literary tendencies in the 1920s Buenos Aires: “el grupo de Boedo” [The Boedo District Group] and “el grupo de Florida” [The [...]

The text informs about the curatorial characteristics, artists, and works that are presented at the exhibition organized by the Centro Cultural Recoleta (Buenos Aires), which is sponsored by Página/12 (Buenos Aires), under the title La vuelta al [...]

In this text, which is the foreword to the catalogue for the exhibition 22 Contemporary Argentine Painters, Damián Bayón establishes the exclusive relationship with Europe of the visual art culture in Argentina, since there was “no relationship [...]

The article reviews the Harte, Pombo, Suárez III exhibition (Buenos Aires: Fundación Banco Patricios, from November 4–27, 1992). It describes the characteristics of the works presented by each one of the artists—Miguel Harte, Marcelo Pombo, and [...]