Documents of Latin American and Latino Art

In this interview, art critic Marta Traba poses ten questions to Colombian artist Beatriz González. Traba begins by inquiring about the ironic nature of González’s subjects and the kitschy character of the objects she produces. In [...]

In this newspaper article, Marta Traba asserts that Beatriz González’s art epitomizes the Colombian avant-garde. It describes the difficulty of introducing González’s oeuvre at the XI Bienal de São Paulo, and states [...]

In this article, which appeared in El Espectador (Bogotá), Marta Traba defends the portrait of Simón Bolívar (“El Libertador”) made by Beatriz González from the attacks of conservative members of the Academia [...]

In this April 1964 magazine article, Marta Traba attests to Beatriz González’s artistic talents, reaffirming the decision by MAM (Museo de Arte Moderno de Bogotá) to exhibit the young artist’s work in a debut solo exhibition [...]

For Marta Traba, the Fernando de Szyszlo exhibition in Bogotá (Colombia) evidences that “the mistake does not lie in wanting to be American, but in how one is American.” In her opinion, the series of works by the Peruvian painter inspired by the [...]

In this essay, Marta Traba presents a broad overview of contemporary sculpture. She bases her report on the writings of Werner Hoffmann, Gillo Dorfles, and Jean Clarence Lambert, who provide a breakdown of the various movements, trends, and artists [...]

Marta Traba analyzes the special characteristics of Gego’s visual language by studying the public works rendered by the artist in Caracas. In her opinion, Gego’s work is based on an understanding of the structures that underlie nature and how [...]

In her essay, “Escultura I: Más sobre Gego” [Sculpture I: More on Gego], Marta Traba writes an overview of twentieth-century sculpture, paying special attention to modern sculpture. She states that the history of modern sculpture [...]

The text “Negret” by the Argentine art critic based in Colombia, Marta Traba, consists of an analysis of the entire body of work of the sculptor Édgar Negret up to 1964. This is probably one of the first articles on the artist to present all his [...]

This document is an excerpt from the first chapter of Curso de historia del arte [Art History Course] (broadcast by Radiotelevisora Nacional de Colombia [Colombian National Radio Television], 1957–58), the television series that was directed and [...]

Renowned Latin American art historian, Marta Traba, establishes a theoretical link between cultural-economic dependency and the art of developing countries in these two milestone texts, “La resistencia” and “La cultura de la Resistencia.” [...]

Art critic Marta Traba authored the essay “Historia abierta,” which was included among the texts for the exhibition América: Mirada interior. Figari, Reverón, Santa María, in Bogotá, July 4 through August 18, 1985, published by the Banco de [...]

In this text, Marta Traba discusses painter José Campos Biscardi’s solo show Campos (Galería Living Art, Caracas, 1973) as well as his participation in different art salons in Venezuela in 1972 and 1973, asserting that his work has grown more [...]

In Marta Traba’s criticism of the Venezuelan painter Oswaldo Vigas, she deems him one of the group of artists she calls “the remains” The critic uses that category to group Latin American artists who have remained faithful to their artistic [...]

In this article, published in Bogotá’s El Tiempo newspaper on the occasion of Julio Alpuy’s first exhibition in Colombia, the Argentine critic Marta Traba reiterates her earlier strong critiques of the constructive system proposed by Joaquín [...]

The Argentine critic Marta Traba wrote a weekly column for the Bogotá newspaper El Tiempo in which she discussed the theories of the Uruguayan maestro Joaquín Torres García. On the occasion of the arrival in Bogotá of the latter’s student, [...]

The art critic Marta Traba wrote the introductory essay in the catalogue for the exhibition of works by the artist Hernando del Villar that opened at the Galería Belarca April 29, 1975. Traba describes the paintings as festive, decorative, and [...]

Critic Marta Traba’s premise in this essay is that the process by which art emerges has been a constant in the history of Colombia’s national culture. Traba uses the word “emerging” in reference to artistic expressions that transcend local [...]

In this article, the well-known critic Marta Traba discusses the solo exhibition that Enrique Grau presented in Bogotá in September 1962. Traba sees a contradiction between Grau’s preferred subjects, and paradoxically, his rejection of them in [...]

This document is excerpted from the catalogue for Los que son [Those Who Are], the exhibition organized by Marta Traba at the Galería Marta Traba in Bogotá (May 3–16, 1968). The catalogue includes ten brief critical and biographical reviews of [...]

Marta Traba wrote an exhaustive chronicle on “the high and low points” of the Festival de Arte de Cali (1964). She highlighted the performance of the actress Fanny Mikey, the enthusiastic organizer of the event, who became “Califanny” for the [...]

In early 1965, Marta Traba placed the exhibition by Norman Mejía, a Colombian artist, in the Museo de Arte Moderno of Bogotá, as one that would serve to represent “a questioning of values and of the real position of the neo-figurative art trend [...]

In this article, Marta Traba maintains that the German artists Guillermo Wiedemann and Leopoldo Richter achieved an understanding of, and transmitted the essence and spirit of “the black race and the Indian race, and the ambience characteristic of [...]

Marta Traba responds to a column that Colombian artist Gonzalo Ariza had published a few days before in the newspaper El Independiente. In her biting retort, Traba denies that she had recommended imitating Argentine artist Emilio Pettorutti (and [...]

Written by Marta Traba and published in the magazine Arte en Colombia, “El VII Salón Atenas” is perhaps the harshest criticism of the Colombian salons held in November. Traba argues that despite belief to the contrary, the Salon Atenas has not [...]

In this article, the theoretician Marta Traba critiques the 1978 Salón Nacional de Artistas. The Salón has been an annual fixture since 1940, and is considered the most important event on the Colombian visual arts calendar. In her article, Traba [...]

In this article, art critic Marta Traba comments on the group exhibition held at “El Callejón” gallery in 1956. She asserts that the exhibition is of interest for two main reasons. First, because of the individual works and creators included and [...]

Originally published in La Patria newspaper based in Manizales, Colombia, this text is a journalistic version of the two television programs aired in 1956 that critic Marta Traba dedicated to the work of sculptor Rodrigo Arenas Betancourt. Traba [...]

Marta Traba’s review of Insectos [Insects]—the exhibition of works by the painter Luciano Jaramillo at the Biblioteca Nacional de Colombia [Colombian National Library]—appeared in the Art Criticism section of La Nueva Prensa magazine. [...]

The Museo de Arte Moderno [Museum of Modern Art] of Bogotá (MAM) printed this catalog to introduce the exhibition, Pantoja de Bolivia [Pantoja from Bolivia] (1964). The document provides a biography of Óscar Pantoja in which he is shown to be a [...]

Marta Traba begins the fourth chapter of her book Historia abierta del arte colombiano [Open History of Colombian Art] (1970) with a quote from the Colombian art historian Eugenio Barney Cabrera, from which she extrapolates the three points around [...]

In this article, Marta Traba reviews the solo exhibition that Cecilia Porras presented at the El Callejón gallery in Bogota in November 1956. Traba is pleased to see progress and major improvements compared to the work the artist exhibited the [...]

Art critic Marta Traba assesses the work on exhibition at the Salón de Arte Moderno [Salon of Modern Art] that took place at the Biblioteca Luis Ángel Arango of the Banco de la República de Colombia. Traba claims that this event was the best [...]

This document is the catalogue in brochure form accompanying an exhibition of work by Pablo Solano (1928?2013), entitled Óleos y Dibujos [Oil Paintings and Drawings], that opened at the Museo de Arte Moderno of Bogotá (MAM) on June 8, 1965. The [...]

In this article, Argentine art critic Marta Traba presents the outcome of the Primer Salón Intercol de Artistas Jóvenes [First Intercol Salon of Young Artists] (1964), which she describes as a way to come into contact with emerging trends in [...]

This fully illustrated catalogue to the Primer Salón Intercol de Artistas Jóvenes [First Intercol Salon of Young Artists] (1964) is divided into five parts: the cover, featuring a photograph of the exhibition that took place at the first seat of [...]

In this book, Marta Traba asserts that Colombian artist Beatriz González is “the ‘key figure’ to understanding a specifically Colombian strain of art.” Traba argues that on the basis of critical positions on culture in general and on popular [...]

In the introduction to the catalogue of the exhibition Pintura abstracta de Colombia (Biblioteca Luís Ángel Arango, Bogotá, June 11-25, 1958), Marta Traba points out two problems related to the reception and production of abstract art in Colombia [...]

This text was written by Marta Traba in 1961 on the occasion of the second solo exhibition of Colombian artist Beatriz Daza. In relation to Daza’s formal experiments with enamel works exhibited in this show, Traba refers to Informalism as a return [...]

In this text art critic Marta Traba analyzes the production of Colombian sculptor Eduardo Ramírez Villamizar up to 1963. Written for the catalogue of the exhibition Seis artistas contemporáneos colombianos, organized by Traba and Hernán Díaz [...]

This document is the catalogue for the exhibition Tres pintores argentinos (1963), featuring the work of Antonio Berni, Carlos Alonso, and Carlos Uria. In addition to a text written by art critic Marta Traba that presents the artists and works—and [...]

In this short article written in late 1957, Marta Traba writes about the work of the Colombian painter and editor Judith Márquez. As indicated in the title, Traba argues that it is “the most serious and interesting work, and shows the most effort [...]

The catalogue for the exhibition Tumbas (1963) by Juan Antonio Roda consists of a two-page leaflet; on the first page, which is fully illustrated, is the exhibition title and artist’s name. On the next page, there are four paragraphs written by the [...]

In this article, Marta Traba once again addresses the harsh and unsympathetic attitude of the Latin American public toward modern art. She explains that a lack of knowledge and a disinclination to learn, coupled with a presumption of connoisseurship [...]

This text written by Marta Traba presents the first solo exhibition of Colombian artist Beatriz Daza. Traba asserts that “in the restless and discontented spirit of 20th-century visual art” ceramics runs the risk of losing its specificity as it [...]

This text by Marta Traba—a well known Argentine critic who lived in Venezuela at the time—introduces the exhibition Los novísimos colombianos held at the Museo de Arte Contemporáneo in Caracas in 1977. Traba analyzes the overall development of [...]

The article “Propuesta para una doble lectura” is a statement of principle as well as a thesis that Marta Traba formulated on the occasion of an exhibition of Modern Colombian art in Paris. In this text, Traba provides a periodization of [...]

In this article, Marta Traba provides a critical analysis of the different stages of Luis Caballero’s career from the time he was awarded first prize at the Primera Bienal de Coltejer (held in Medellín in 1968) until 1980. Traba begins by [...]

As the editorial to the first issue of the magazine Prisma, this text by Marta Traba introduces the magazine of art criticism, which was committed to publishing research and “objective” studies of local and international art. The members of the [...]

In this text, critic Marta Traba reviews the exhibition entitled Pintura y Grabado Hoy en Venezuela [Painting and Printmaking in Venezuela Today] held at the Biblioteca Luis Ángel Arango in Bogotá in 1968. She questions the representativeness of [...]