Documents of Latin American and Latino Art

The painter Diego Rivera requested an interview with composer Carlos Chávez through Alejandro Gómez Arias, the representative of INBAL; Rivera wished to resolve the matter related to his confiscated mural— Pesadilla de guerra y sueño de paz [ [...]

Given the recent re-opening of the Museo Nacional de Arte Moderno at the Palacio de Bellas Artes, the writer Francisca Olivos asks and, at the same time, answers: “Does it respond to Mexican painting as we know it and as it has been until now? [...]

As vice-president of the Frente Nacional de Artes Plásticas (FNAP) [National Front for the Visual Arts], David Alfaro Siqueiros makes the latest resolution of the group known. To wit: “to immediately initiate a national campaign directed at the [...]

This article denounces the demolition of the murals Jorge González Camarena painted in 1941 at the Guardiola building in Mexico City. According to the author, the two panels that composed La vida [Life] were destroyed on July 29of 1957: one day [...]

In this article the abstract painter and sculptor Manuel Felguérez reviews the Primer Salón Nacional de Pintura[First National Salon of Painting] that included a great number of artists from all the aesthetic trends. The Zacatecan artist notes the [...]

This short article revolves around the events surrounding the Exhibition of Mexican Art with work that ranged from pre-Columbian times up to the date of the article. Organized by the Instituto Nacional de Bellas Artes (INBA), it was about to be shown [...]

This document is the script for the documentary Pintura Mural Mexicana [Mexican Mural Painting], to be produced by Manuel Barbachano Ponce’s company, Tele-producciones. The documentary was made in response to a request from the Instituto Nacional [...]

The art critic Raquel Tibol’s review includes statements made by the team working at the Museo Nacional de Antropología [National Anthropological Museum]: Jorge Angulo, Ike Larrauri, and Mario Vázquez. When asked to describe the work with which [...]

In commemoration of the XV anniversary of the weekly magazine Hoy [Today], the Instituto de Bellas Artes (INBA) suggests the periodical publish a selection of images representing local painting throughout the ages. An article written by the critic [...]

This article is a complaint by José María García Ascot against the authorities of the Instituto Nacional de Bellas Artes (INBA), which had just published a catalog with an image of the eighteen works sent to represent Mexico in the XXIX Venice [...]

This article by Socorro García is a review of writer Antonio Souza’s tenure as the owner of the gallery that bore his name in Mexico City. After recounting the beginnings of his career, the journalist states the concerns that led him to open the [...]

This article describes the activities in the French city of Bordeaux during “Mexican Week,” the event that was sponsored by the Instituto Nacional de Bellas Artes [INBA, National Institute of Fine Arts] and organized to present exhibitions of [...]

This is a review of the exhibition of modern Mexican art that the Instituto Nacional de Bellas Artes [INBA, National Institute of Fine Arts] sent to Bordeaux, France; it was subsequently shown in Paris and Milan, Italy. Jaime Torres Bodet, the [...]

In this article Margarita Nelken, the critic of Spanish origin, reviews the Salón Anual de Pintura that is taking place at the Salón de la Plástica Mexicana (SPM) in Mexico City. After appreciating the work of a few of the exhibitors, the author [...]

The mural being painted by David Alfaro Siqueiros at the Escuela Universitaria de Bellas Artes in San Miguel Allende would be interrupted by disagreements with the school’s director, Alfredo Campanella. The director offers Siqueiros a change in his [...]

Carlos Chávez tells the press that he had received an order not to exhibit the painting Pesadilla de guerra y sueño de paz [Nightmare of War and Dream of Peace]. As such he had only two choices: remove the painting or close the museum; he opted for [...]

Eager to cultivate Mexico’s good name abroad, President Miguel Alemán made every effort to obtain the best results for the presentation in Paris of artwork created by his Mexican countrymen. Alemán wanted to make sure that this exhibition— [...]

The questionnaire consists of six questions concerning the importance of social art in Mexico. The questions are as follows: Do you believe that the function of art in our time is to deliver an eloquent message of social content to the people? Do you [...]

In a brief interview, Carlos Chávez, director of the Instituto Nacional de Bellas Artes y Literatura (INBAL, 1947), gives a detailed explanation of the efforts put forth to portray “the interior development of the country and to promote the nation [...]

Because of Mexico’s participation in the XXV Venice Biennale, the Instituto Nacional de Bellas Artes (INBA) received invitations from other European countries to mount an exhibition of Mexican art in 1950. Fernando Gamboa, INBA’s deputy director [...]

Carlos Chávez announces the opening of the Mexican art exhibition organized by the governments of Mexico and France, in which a very carefully selected collection of masterpieces would be presented, beginning with the pre-Cortés era and continuing [...]

The Instituto Nacional de Bellas Artes y Literatura (INBAL, 1947) invited Rufino Tamayo to participate in the Mexican Art Exhibition that would take place in Europe. The Oaxacan painter responded that he could not give them an answer until “he knew [...]

This document is Carlos Chávez’s response to the letter that Rufino Tamayo had written to Fernando Gamboa on August 20, 1951. In it, Tamayo asks to know the government’s point of view on the Mexican Art Exhibition that would take place in Europe [...]

The Mexican paintings included at the Venice Biennale generated such unanimous excitement among the critics and the European public that a request was immediately submitted to the Venice board of directors and the director of the exhibition to ship [...]

The Instituto Nacional de Bellas Artes (INBA) and the Organizing Committee of the III Congreso Latinoamericano de Ginecología y Obstetricia [3rd Latin American Obstetrics and Gynecology Conference] organized an art contest as one of the cultural [...]

This article wonders about the new slate of directors that will take over at the Instituto Nacional de Bellas Artes (INBA) during the new administration under President Adolfo Ruiz Cortines (1952-58). Though the article praises the accomplishments of [...]

This is a review of the exhibition Diego Rivera. 50 años de su labor artística [Diego Rivera: 50 Years of Artistry], held at the Museo de Artes Plásticas in the Palacio de Bellas Artes, and which analyzed the aesthetic “influences” of his [...]

The Instituto Nacional de Bellas Artes [INBA, National Institute of Fine Arts] invited all painters, regardless of their trend, to take part in the first Salón Anual de Pintura [Annual Painting Salon]. The selection of works and the awarding of [...]

José Luis Cuevas was in Caracas when he received his invitation to the Bienal Interamericana de Pintura y Grabado [Inter-American Biennial of Painting and Printmaking] and he declined it when he learned of the control exerted by the members of the [...]

Both Jorge Juan Crespo de la Serna and Luis Cardoza y Aragón agreed that the deliberations of the International Jury’s Panel (which had established the parameters for awarding the prizes) for the Bienal Interamericana de Pintura y Grabado [Inter- [...]

Art critic Jorge Juan Crespo de la Serna believed that it was unfair to lodge harsh criticism against an international art competition like the first Bienal Interamericana de Pintura y Grabado [Inter-American Biennial of Painting and Printmaking], [...]

In a short article published on May 31, Miguel Álvarez Acosta, the director of the Instituto Nacional de Bellas Artes (INBA), stated: “The fact that the best paintings by Rivera, Orozco and Siqueiros did not appear in the Biennial was Carrillo Gil [...]

On the occasion of the first Inter-American Biennial of Painting and Printmaking, Miguel Salas Anzures, chair of the Visual Arts Department of the Instituto Nacional de Bellas Artes (INBA), interviewed the art collectors Inés Amor and Dr. Alvar [...]

Art critic Rosa Castro asked three respected Mexican artists for their opinions on the Bienal Interamericana de Pintura y Grabado [Inter-American Biennial of Painting and Printmaking]. Raúl Anguiano felt that the biennial was the most important [...]

The art critic Jorge Juan Crespo de la Serna was very disappointed that Rufino Tamayo had not participated in the Bienal Interamericana de Pintura y Grabado [Inter-American Biennial of Painting and Printmaking], and felt it was a capricious decision [...]

Art critic Ceferino Palencia identified the advantages of contests such as the one held within the context of the Inter-American Biennial of Painting and Printmaking. In the first place, he said, such contests gave painters the possibility of [...]

Rufino Tamayo expressed his ideas on the need to protect freedom of expression in the creative process. He explained that he did not belong to any group; on a personal level, however, he expressed his support for one of the “inalienable rights of [...]

The Instituto Nacional de Bellas Artes (INBA) [National Institute of Fine Arts] discredited the exhibition of the “independents,” saying that it was for foreigners who were not invited because they were not Mexican nationals and also because [...]

Fausto Castillo interviewed Mr. Miguel Salas Anzures who—when asked about the accusation that he was spending a great deal of money on the first Bienal Interamericana de Pintura y Grabado [Inter-American Biennial of Painting and Printmaking], [...]

According to the art critic Raúl Flores Guerrero, the current stagnation and crisis of Mexican painting, was mainly due to three factors. The first factor was the lack of adequate preparation of the new generation, the second one was due to the [...]

Diego Rivera speaks at length to the newspaper Excélsior on learning that President Miguel Alemán’s administration has refused to send his mural to the 1952 Paris Exhibition. In the first place, Rivera claims that the government has ridden [...]

María Elena Sodi de Pallares discusses the inconsistency shown by the INBA (Instituto Nacional de Bellas Artes) while sponsoring a mural by Diego Rivera to be displayed at the Paris exhibition, but then decided not to submit it after all when the [...]

On February 26, 1952, Diego Rivera was advised via communiqué number 2578 that his mural could not be shown in Paris because it contained serious political accusations against foreign countries with which Mexico cultivated friendly relations. The [...]

This brief article, which was probably excerpted from an anonymous interview with Diego Rivera, reports that if no solution can be found to the problems that have arisen between the painter and Carlos Chávez, the Director of the INBA (Instituto [...]