Documents of Latin American and Latino Art

This essay on the subject of 111 the work by Nuno Ramos is divided into three parts. The art critic Alberto Tassinari begins by describing the sociopolitical, cultural, and ideological conditions in Brazil on October 2, 1992, when military police put [...]

This is a report on the opening of the exhibition Os artistas pelas Diretas at the entranceway of the Folha de S. Paulo newspaper facilities in February 1984. The management of the newspaper, in conjunction with various artists, conceived the [...]

Carlos Zílio, Carlos Vergara, Rubens Gerchman, and Waltercio Caldas, cofounders of Malasartes magazine, co-wrote this article in which they discuss the magazine’s genesis and the goals it set out to accomplish as a monitor of Brazilian art in the [...]

Interview with artist Nelson Felix conducted by art critic Rodrigo Naves and three artists: Lygia Pape, José Resende and Nuno Ramos (São Paulo, May 24, 1997). Felix comments on his education as an architect; his love of music; his first drawings, [...]

The eleventh issue of Nervo Óptico shows the sequential photographic record of a performance presented by Flávio Pons, Cláudio Goulart and Vera Chaves Barcellos in Amsterdam in February 1978. Entitled On Ice, the event consisted of a gradual [...]

This article by the art critic Stella Teixeira de Barros provides a general overview of Brazilian urban art presentations and performances since the 1960s. It also classifies the production of “street art” in three basic categories: 1. Anonymous [...]

Oswald de Andrade explains that the term Pau-Brasil [Brazil Tree, which yielded the wood that was exploited for export and gave the country its name] that he used in his 1924 manifesto was intended as a “slogan,” an invention with which [...]

This tenth issue of Nervo Óptico, still on an atypical bimonthly schedule, is double the usual size (32cm x 45cm) and folded in the middle. Its cover has the title “Urban Stories: Sociedade Anónima”. In addition, it bears this notice: “Any [...]

In this text, artist Ricardo Basbaum reflects on specific aspects of his production in order to investigate the broader issues underlying his Novas Bases para a Personalidade (NBP) project. By means of the oral style of the text, the artist engages [...]

According to Frederico Morais, the emergence of audiovisual work in several exhibition halls was linked to the introduction of the “object” category that freed up other more traditional categories. In his opinion, “the object” implied a [...]

This text by architect Lina Bo Bardi describes the difficulties she faced as the head of the Museu de Arte Moderna da Bahia (MAMB) and of the Museu de Arte Popular (MAP), both of which were located in the Solar do Unhão (since 1963), a seventeenth- [...]

This essay by Murilo Mendes appeared in the exhibition catalogue for work by the sculptor Maria Martins at the MAM-RJ (Museu de Arte Moderna do Rio de Janeiro) in 1956. Mendes thinks the uniqueness of her work arises from a confrontation at a [...]

In this article, the writer Ronald de Carvalho questions the undeniable presence of foreign styles in the decorative art to be seen in the city of Rio de Janeiro, and suggests using ornamental motifs inspired by Brazilian flora and fauna and native [...]

In this article, Barboza Leite identifies the artists who contributed to the founding of the SCAP (Sociedade Cearense de Artes Plásticas) from 1941 to 1949, when the association was launched. He provides a detailed description of the endemic [...]

In this excerpt from his book Pancetti (Rio de Janeiro: Ministério da Educação e Cultura, 1960), Medeiros Lima recounts José Pancetti’s first experiences with paintings when he was still a sailor. The section cited begins with the painting work [...]

This is the catalogue for Nipo brasileiros. Mestres e alunos em 50 anos, the exhibition held at the Pinacoteca do Estado de São Paulo (São Paulo, 1984). It includes an essay by Maria Cecília França Lourenço, the art historian and curator of the [...]

In this text, experimental artist Abraham Palatnik discusses the questions of information and technology in relation to human evolution. In Palatnik’s view, evolution is key to the dynamic of culture as man adapts to the world at large and to his [...]

The artist Rubens Gerchman discusses Pare, the exhibition he jointly presented with Roberto Magalhães, Antonio Dias, Carlos Vergara, and Pedro Escosteguy at the G-4 gallery in Rio de Janeiro in April 1966. Gerchman explains that the exhibition [...]

To start with, the newspaper’s editorial statement was very clear concerning the basic purpose of A parte do fogo [The Fire’s Part]: to take part in Brazil’s cultural process and create a space devoted to reflection and to the production of [...]

In this text critic Mário Pedrosa discusses the Tiradentes mural by Candido Portinari, commissioned by the Colégio dos Cataguases (in the state of Minas Gerais) to be created in a building by architect Oscar Niemeyer. The mural represents the key [...]

This essay was published in the leaflet produced for the 1960 solo exhibition of Brazilian painter Willys de Castro at the Galeria Aremar in the city of Campinas. The artist himself defines the most distinctive quality of his visual art, which he [...]

This is the fourth issue of the publication Nervo Óptico. This issue publishes “fake news” signed by the artist Carlos Pasquetti. Looking like news in a community newspaper, a photograph covers the entire editorial space, with the headline: “ [...]

This text by architect Luis Saia discusses the collection of popular sculptures he put together during his trip to northern and northeastern Brazil in 1938. The architect presents a thesis on the African origin of the “miracle,” the name used for [...]

While researching feminine strokes in Anita Malfatti’s painting, Mário de Andrade discerns her impetuous nature, the masculine strength of her colors, and the tragic energy of her subjects, though he also glimpses hints of humor and sadness. He [...]

In this chapter of her book on Evandro Carlos Jardim, Yvoty Macambira mentions the printing workshop created in 1987—the Atelier Experimental de Gravura Francesc Domingo Segura—whose name pays tribute to Jardim’s mentor. The workshop operated [...]

Hélio Oiticica and Rogério Duarte describe the group experience called Apocalipopótese, a hybrid term that combines the words Apocalypse, hypothesis, and hippopotamus. The essay is written in a decidedly irreverent, poetic style that establishes a [...]

This text was to be placed on the main wall of the exhibition on Brazilian painting organized by the Museu de Arte Moderna da Bahia (MAMB) in 1960. The text asserts that the true innovating power of a culture is found by delving into its popular [...]

According to Ivo Mesquita, it is due to political-economic changes and social crises in Brazil—the results of a colonial project—that the country is influenced by the non-optimistic perspectives that have taken hold in the rest of the world with [...]

The visual artist Willys de Castro reviews the exhibition of drawings by his lifelong companion Hércules Barsotti at the Galeria de Arte das Folhas, in São Paulo. De Castro discusses Barsotti’s technique in great detail, including [...]

This text is the minutes of the first meeting of the Grupo Seibi (1935). It presents the deliberations that took place in a meeting that stated the following objectives for the group: (1) Encourage ties among the members; (2) Hold a monthly meeting [...]

The signatories of this manifesto—a statement of solidarity with the struggle of the Brazilian people defending freedom of expression in all areas—are opposed to the dictatorship’s practice of using art as a symbol of prestige for the military [...]

This is the third chapter of the book by Lourival Gomes Machado that analyzes the development of modern art in Brazil, in which the author includes a reference to the contribution made to contemporary painting by the “spontaneous” artists (whose [...]

In this article, the artist Hélio Oiticica discusses the work of Lygia Clark. He believes that her work has become part of a historic art movement, and underscores his connections to the artist’s work. Oiticica expresses his admiration for Clark [...]

In this essay, the well-known Argentinean critic Jorge Romero Brest attempts to assess national problems as they were understood by the most famous Brazilian artists, touching on a raw nerve concerning the differences between the art produced in [...]

This interview features Luís Otávio Pimentel and Flammarion, the organizers of and participants in Orgramurbana, the happening at the Aterro do Flamengo beach in Rio de Janeiro in 1970. Both of them say that Orgramurbana was a “post concept” [...]

In this essay the critic Mário Schenberg discusses the political and cultural changes he sees in the wake of the uprising led by Getúlio Vargas that was known as the Revolução de 1930. Schenberg believes that the agricultural oligarchy’s loss [...]

In this lecture, Luis Martins discusses various aspects of modern Brazilian painting from the 1920s through the mid-1930s. He describes Brazil as a “country of reflections” that passively echoes the challenges faced by the visual arts in the rest [...]

As President of the Artistic Solidarity Committee with Chile, Mário Pedrosa addresses then President Salvador Allende Gossens during the reception ceremony for the works that would make up the collection of the Museo de la Solidaridad in Santiago. [...]

Aracy A. Amaral asserts that there is no such thing as a unified expression of Latin American art, but instead a desire for cultural integration that has not yet been resolved. She understands that the countries of the Americas share common problems [...]

This text is an introduction to an exhibition of work by the painter Paulo Pasta at the Museu de Arte Contemporânea da Universidade de São Paulo (MAC-USP), written by the art critic Lorenzo Mammì. The writer emphasizes Pasta’s pictorial [...]

In this text, Professor Walter Zanini presents the exhibition 8ª Jovem Arte Contemporânea held in 1974. He states that the exhibition is conceptual at its core, which means it is oriented toward ideas. He believes that the work of the artists [...]

This is the first issue of the Brazilian journal Nervo Óptico (April 1977). A seven-line text/statement (all the text in that publication) sets forth the manifesto written by the N.O. group in December 1976, which assumed a “critical stance [...]

In this article Marjorie Devon, the director of the Tamarind Institute in the United States, lists the Institute’s various exchange programs with Brazilian artists who work in the field of lithography. Cláudio Mubarac, Iran do Espírito Santo, and [...]

Mário Schenberg introduces PANAMÉRICA, the book by José Agrippino de Paula e Silva, whom he describes as an important figure in the new generation of Brazilian writers. In the critic’s opinion, this is a contemporary epic about the American [...]

In this interview, the sculptor José Resende describes his training as an architect and his career as an artist since the mid-1970s. He discusses the development of the Grupo Rex and the founding of the Escola Brasil, in both of which he was [...]

This is an article by the Italian architect Lina Bo Bardi, who lived in Brazil, about the first exhibition held at the MAP (Museu de Arte Popular) in 1963 in Salvador, the capital of the state of Bahia. The exhibit included everyday items handcrafted [...]

The distinguished novelist Jorge Amado wrote this text on the Afro-Brazilian exhibition on mundane arts and crafts as well as objects of worship of Afro-Brazilian Candomblé. He referred to these utensils as “mediocre objects that highlight their [...]

Playwright Augusto Boal declares that all the stories contained within his book are true, and were written based on testimony overheard during different trips that occurred after he left Brazil in 1971, during the height of the military dictatorship [...]

This poetic text by the artist Rubens Gerchman is based on the opposition of certain words. Influenced by concrete poetry, this text is similar to works Gerchman produced at the time when the connection between word and image, and word and object, [...]

This text consists of excerpts from the catalogue for the exhibition Para nunca esquecer. Negras memórias/ Memórias de Negros, held at the Museu Histórico Nacional (in Rio de Janeiro in 2001). It includes scores of texts and poems by writers who [...]