Documents of Latin American and Latino Art

This newspaper article is about the first Festival Americano de Pintura, organized by the IAC (Instituto de Arte Contemporáneo) and the Asociación Cultural Jueves as part of the Festivales de Lima. The article quotes the Argentinean critic and [...]

This short newspaper article discusses the results of the first Festival Americano de Pintura, held in October to November (Lima, 1966). The Chilean painter Roberto Matta won the First Grand Prize (three thousand dollars) for his work Grande decoraci [...]

This is a letter by Felipe Buendía to the editor of Caretas, a magazine published in Lima, regarding the inauguration of the IAC (Instituto de Arte Contemporáneo) new building. The writer and journalist complains that the institution closed its [...]

This newspaper article about the closing of the first premises occupied by the IAC (Instituto de Arte Contemporáneo) in Lima was written by Francisco Moncloa at the request of the director of the magazine Oiga. Moncloa lists a series of “anecdotes [...]

In this article, Sebastián Salazar Bondy discusses the work of Chilean painter Roberto Matta. In Salazar Bondy’s view, true art does not copy the appearance of “everyday vulgarity,” but questions conventions. That is why the run-of-the-mill [...]

The author highlights here the intensity of activities on the arts scene of the Peruvian capital in 1954, both for the number and the importance of exhibitions, a fact which, in his judgment, demonstrates the ever-increasing affirmation of the visual [...]

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 [...]

This document was written by the Colombian critic and historian Álvaro Medina by way of an introduction to Gustavo Zalamea’s 1975 exhibition El gran Burundún-Burundá, presented in the gallery Viva México, in the city of Caracas, Venezuela. This [...]

Chilean art critic Miguel Rojas Mix provides an overview of the exhibition Art in Latin America held at the Hayward Gallery in London in mid-1989. Rojas Mix’s account attempts to explain the curatorial criteria underlying the show, its organization [...]

In this text, Shifra Goldman examines the problematic homogenization of the idea of “Hispanic” art and culture that was promoted by the exhibition Hispanic Art in the United States: Thirty Contemporary Painters and Sculptors organized by The [...]

In this text, Luis Felipe Noé explains his theory that the shared impulse that defines Latin American painting is its preoccupation with “inventing history.” He argues that this impulse is a direct result of Latin American artists’ experience [...]

In this text, Frederico de Morais emphasizes the importance—and to a certain extent the impotence—of a greater union among Latin American countries. In the beginning of the passage, he states that Brazil was no longer able to ignore the [...]

In this text, Damián Bayón considers the question: What qualities make art produced by Latin American artists Latin American? He begins by declaring that the art of Latin America becomes Latin American when an artist—because of his or her [...]

The Colombian artist Pedro Alcántara writes to Lorenzo Homar asking him to participate in the production of the portfolio “Grandes Maestros de la Plástica Latinoamericana” [Great Masters of Latin American Visual Art]. Ten artists are to be [...]

In this text written on the occasion of the exhibition L’Avant-Garde held at the Galería Colibrí (1965), Puerto Rican critic Ernesto Ruiz de la Mata discusses what he considers an interesting show of avant-garde prints by artists from different [...]

Sebastián Salazar Bondy replies emphatically to the article in which Luis Miró Quesada extolls the virtues of architects as champions of abstract art. Salazar Bondy suggests that painting becomes unnecessary when it eliminates any reference to “ [...]

This essay examines the impact of Roberto Matta’s presence in the United States during 1939–1948, when, as part of a Surrealist cohort of émigrés, he established temporary residence in New York to escape the war in Europe. The authors [...]

In this text, Saúl Yurkievich examines how Latin American art has been affected by its context, arguing that even as art becomes increasingly autonomous it is still a means of communication and as such must be considered in relationship to the [...]

The Puerto Rican critic Efraín Barradas writes about the full schedule of exhibitions in the United States, where he lives; according to him very few include Latin American art, since little is known about Latin American artists and their work. Be [...]

In Agustin Fernandez’s artist statement, he begins with his formal training at the San Alejandro Academy. He also discusses how he “was to be nourished by a thousand things when [he] went abroad” and was greatly influenced by both Enrique Senal [...]

In this article, critic Perán Erminy takes stock of Marta Traba’s controversial visit to Caracas in 1965, arriving at the conclusion that the resulting debate was “extremely positive.” As a Venezuelan, Erminy maintains a favorable view of her [...]

This article reviews and analyzes the collection of the Museum of Modern Art [MoMA] in New York, the Whitney Museum and three exhibitions: Salvador Dalí, Roberto Matta and Jean Dubuffet, all of them simultaneously presented in the same city. With [...]

Justino Fernández provides a roundup of the exhibitions going on in Paris at the same time as the Mexican exhibition in France. Comparing European painting with Mexican, he argues that from the beginning, Mexican painting developed its own language [...]

According to Rafael Heliodoro Valle, the distinguishing feature of the Surrealist movement is that it has “old roots” that set it apart from the rest of the avant-garde. And that, “Mexico, [which] is not a myth,” but has a mythical past has [...]

Elena Poniatowska spent time gathering opinions on the Inter-American Biennial of Painting and Printmaking. According to Octavio Paz, the four great masters of painting were Carlos Mérida, Rufino Tamayo, Wilfredo Lam, and Roberto Matta; he felt that [...]

The author offers a critical, manifesto-style review of the situation in the field of Latin American art and, especially, culture. Alberto Pérez describes himself as an “American,” “Hispanic American,” “Indian [...]

In this essay Antonio Romera discusses the collection of works by Chilean artists that was sent to the Primera Bienal Americana de Arte in Argentina. He states that the roots of current Chilean painting in the 1960s can be traced back to three [...]

In this article Pablo Oyarzún provides a critical review of the art produced over the course of three decades. He notes the lack of a tradition that could bear witness to and interpret art production in Chile. From the early twentieth century& [...]