Documents of Latin American and Latino Art

In this text, researcher Carmen Hernández examines the visual discourse on gender issues of women artists from Latin America. She concludes that there is no artistic movement in the region that specifically reflects on gender of the sort that [...]

Commentary by essayist Alejandro Lora Risco on the Mexican art show organized in Lima by La Crónica newspaper. From within the event’s massive audience, the author highlights the presence of the individuals most likely to read his text: Peruvian [...]

In this text, Luis Cardoza y Aragón presents the early work (1920–27) of painter Carlos Mérida as the paradigm of a new kind of modern American art. He begins the text by characterizing Mayan culture as sensual (colorful and physically effecting [...]

In the prologue to the catalogue of the 1935 exhibition of contemporary Mexican art, Mexican artist Jorge Juan Crespo de la Serna provides a brief overview of Mexican art from the time of the Mayans until the present. He asserts that Mexican art, [...]

This article analyzes the works exhibited by Abraham Ángel, Julio Castellanos, Carlos Mérida, Manuel Rodríguez Lozano and Rufino Tamayo. It also states that other artists were invited to participate: José Clemente Orozco, who promised to send [...]

Critic Jorge Juan Crespo de la Serna reviews the content of the newly opened Museo Nacional de Bellas Artes at the Palacio de Bellas Artes. After several visits to take in the breadth of the collection, he concludes that the Mexican painting section [...]

The Spanish art critic Margarita Nelken uses the term “Decoración Mexicana” [Mexican Decoration] as the title of her article on the work created at the Multifamiliar Benito Juarez [Benito Juárez Residential Project] by the Guatemalan artist [...]

This is the first systematic study of this painter’s murals in the so-called “Escuelas funcionalistas” [functional schools]. One school was built in 1932 in the Colonia Pro-Hogar (Azcapotzalco Area) in Mexico City; two years later, Alva [...]

In this essay, written in 1988, Manuel Felguérez relates the beginnings of what is known as the Ruptura movement in the 1950s. Felguérez points out that the arrival of refugees from the Spanish Civil War and other European nations in the previous [...]

The critic Margarita Nelken analyzes the success of the show organized at Galería Excélsior under the title Arte y Libertad [Art and Freedom] by the Asociación Mexicana por la Libertad de la Cultura. “The key feature of this exhibition is the [...]

On the occasion of the Exposición de Artistas Independientes [Exhibition by Independent Artists] in New York, José Juan Tablada responded—with a spirited defense of the Mexican artists whose work was on display—to rumors he had heard [...]

This article reproduces some of the works by Carlos Mérida that would be shown in his upcoming exhibition sponsored by the Academia de Bellas Artes. The author states that the artist’s personality is well defined. He points out that Mérida is [...]

In this article, art critic Jorge Juan Crespo de la Serna wrote about mural painting and its importance in the evolution of Mexican art. He believed the murals should be intimately connected to the life of the country that produces them given their [...]

In this document Juan de la Cabada responds to Luis Cardoza y Aragón’s criticism of the first art exhibition organized by the Liga de Escritores y Artistas Revolucionarios (LEAR) [League of Revolutionary Writers and Artists]. At the same time de [...]

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 [...]

Agustín Yáñez applauds the elements embedded in Carlos Mérida’s work. He mentions his search for Americanism in the color, which he considers “a terribly dangerous route . . . to his exposure to failure . . .”. However, in Yáñez’s [...]

Carlos Mérida was interviewed on the occasion of his first exhibition in Mexico at the Escuela Nacional de Bellas Artes [National School of Fine Arts]. This article reports on that interview, quoting from the brief text written by the painter for [...]

In this document José Gorostiza analyzes the works of eight artists who participated in the Pintores mexicanos modernos [Modern Mexican Painters] exhibition organized by Carlos Mérida and Carlos Orozco Romero for the brewery, Carta Blanca. He [...]

According to José Corral, it is unquestionable that Mexico is completely unaware of Latin American art history, since the whole continent takes its cues from Europe and the United States. This is why the arrival of the Guatemalan sculptor Rafael [...]

Carlos Mérida was one of the first artists to reply to Antonio Rodríguez’s questionnaire. The Guatemalan painter, a naturalized citizen of Mexico, agreed with David Alfaro Siqueiros regarding the use of new materials. Nevertheless, he doubted [...]

This is the last installment of an article in four parts by painters David Alfaro Siqueiros and Jean Charlot, about the character of the current movement of painting in Mexico. The article, as foretold by the title, is going to be about the positive [...]

Carlos Mérida reports that given the global importance that Mexican painting has taken on and the interest generated by its evolution, the Departamento del Distrito Federal [DDF, Mexico City-City Hall] founded an art gallery to exhibit works by [...]

Renato Molina Enríquez praises the “mural decoration” that Carlos Mérida painted on the ground floor of the SEP (Ministry of Public Education), in the Biblioteca Infantil [Children’s Library] annex of the main library. The theme for the mural [...]

Based on the exhibition presented by Carlos Mérida at the gallery of the Palacio de Bellas Artes, and the recent favorable reviews received abroad by the artist himself, Guillermo Jiménez establishes the parameters that he considers necessary to [...]

In this essay from 1937, Justino Fernández conducts a study on the evolution of Mexican art during the 1920s and 1930s. The text is organized in three large sections: mural painting, general painting and sculpture. Fernández characterizes mural [...]

In this essay entitled “The Mexican School,” Laurence E. Schmeckebier analyzes the rise and evolution of the “Mexican School of Painting.” Schmeckebier places the origin of this “school” in the first generation of muralism and in [...]

In this book, published in 1951, Virginia Stewart looks back at the 45 most representative artists of modern Mexican painting. Her list, created at the end of the golden era of the “Mexican School of Painting,” includes painters from the first [...]

From a European perspective, Paul Westheim gives his first impressions on modern art in Mexico. He identifies two of its qualities: first, an originality and independence from European art and, second, a rebirth of folk art that is removed from the [...]

Through diverse photographs, Mathias Goeritz shows the development of what he calls the “problem” of Integración Plástica [Plastic Integration], a dogmatic movement in which the architect Mario Pani actively participated together with several [...]

Baciu produces a panorama of the work by French painter Jean Charlot, from his early links to his country’s avant-garde and his integration into the first Mexican muralist movement, through to his relationships with the Estridentista movement and [...]

The article covers the exhibition organized by the Galería de Arte Moderno in celebration of its first anniversary. The author comments on the Mexican capital’s vocation toward art, both in terms of diffusion and stimulus. He also mentions some of [...]

The article suggests that only a few isolated painters existed in Mexico before 1930. Nevertheless, the text points out that by the time of the article’s publication Mexican painting already existed as a movement, shaped by indigenous art, although [...]

This brief review deals with Carlos Mérida’s exhibition at the Delphic Studios in New York. It was widely accepted and attended by a large public that included artists, critics, and journalists. Some sections of comments about the show, published [...]

This article by Mathias Goeritz looks at the level of plastic integration achieved by the Benito Juárez Multifamily Urban Unit, a project under the architectural direction of Mario Pani and Enrique del Moral, working together with the plastic artist [...]

In this article Carlos Valdés writes a short review of the 1961 Salón la Plástica Mexicana [1961 Salon of the Mexican Visual Arts]. He tells the story of a woman who approached him at the exhibition and asked him if he understood why prizes had [...]

In 1927, Xavier Villaurrutia attempted an assessment of the Mexican art movement using Diego Rivera’s career as a timeline, since he considered Rivera’s history to be the least boring. Villaurrutia claims that, although the genre of painting that [...]

Painter Carlos Mérida thanks and praises Alfredo Ramos Martínez, who was then director of the Escuela Nacional de Bellas Artes, for organizing a series of exhibitions that would influence the artistic development of Mexico. In the introduction to [...]