Documents of Latin American and Latino Art

In this article, Juan Calzadilla introduces the exhibition of work by the second graduating class from CEGRA (Centro de Enseñanza Gráfica, in Caracas). He discusses the fundamental goals of this Venezuelan school workshop, suggesting that the [...]

This is the second of the two textbooks published by Elena Izcue, which were designed to teach art based on pre-Hispanic motifs at Peruvian schools. It includes two introductory texts. The first, addressed to teachers, explains how the pedagogical [...]

On the basis of the reforms enacted by the military government under General Juan Velasco Alvarado (1968–75), Juan Acevedo criticizes capitalist models of education as well as the total unfeasibility of art as a professional career and/or the [...]

This document records the passage of Law 67, on September 11, 1882, which created an Instituto de Bellas Artes [Fine Arts Institute] in Bogotá. It refers to the Colombian government initiative that was separate from the university system of the [...]

This document, drafted in the late nineteenth century by Alberto Urdaneta, is a copy of the regulations for the Escuela de Bellas Artes of the Republic of Colombia. The official publication of the regulations fulfilled an academic plan to provide [...]

In this text, Martí Casanovas responds to a letter by Franz Tamayo considering the question of what direction the development of Indio-American culture should take. Distinguishing his philosophy from Tamayo’s, Casanovas explains that he believes [...]

This text by writer and chronicler, Salvador Novo, provides a brief history of the Escuelas de Pintura al Aire Libre [Open-Air Schools of Painting], beginning with their origins in 1913 and continuing through to the time of the writing of this text. [...]

María Izquierdo describes the customs of the inhabitants of the small mining village of Chillán, Chile, which was damaged by a strong earthquake in January 1939. Mexico declared its support for Chile, presenting Chillán with the construction of [...]

Signed in September 1914, the short article by Dr. Atl—then director of the Academia de San Carlos—states his opinion about the direction the Academy should take as the Mexican revolution raged around it. “The dilemma I am facing is this: [...]

This article describes the iconography and the technical resources used by the Coahuila painter, Xavier Guerrero, in his recent mural at the Escuela México in Chillán, “a small village in southern Chile.” The project sponsored by the Federal [...]

Juan O’Gorman addresses the problem of architecture from the perspective of functionality versus aesthetics and concludes that the two opposites should be fused into one: “architecture should serve as a useful object and as an object of [...]

This article discusses the plans proposed by the Central Department and the SEP [Ministry of Public Education] to address the matter of educating peasant children. There would be “simple buildings, spacious classrooms and playgrounds, plenty of [...]

This article mentions the forthcoming opening of the Escuela n° 6 de la Secretaría de Educación Pública [Ministry of Public Education’s School No. 6] that will be attended by President Álvaro Obregón (1920-24). The building that was once the [...]

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 [...]

This article primarily focuses on the activities of the Centro Escolar Revolución [Revolutionary Educational Center], which was emblematically inaugurated on November 20, 1934, by President Abelardo L. Rodríguez. The article highlights the [...]

The author explains the plan for the escuelas funcionalistas [functionalistic schools], a joint initiative between Narciso Bassols, Minister of Public Education (1931-1934), and Juan O’Gorman, at the time Chief of Constructions in the same official [...]

This news item describes a fight that took place at the inauguration of an exhibition at the Escuela de Artes Plásticas between Diego Rivera, director of that institution, and the architect Carlos Lazo, who was an art history teacher at the Facultad [...]

Published by a popular Mexican illustrated magazine Todo. La mejor revista de Mexico, this article highlights the leading role of the Secretaría de Educación Pública [SEP, Ministry of Public Education] and its leader Narciso Bassols in the recent [...]

In this interview Juan del Sena chats with Diego Rivera in the Anfiteatro Bolívar in Mexico City, where Rivera is starting work on the mural he calls La creación [Creation]. The painter describes both the method of using encaustic as well as the [...]

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 [...]

The text details the curriculum of the art schools for workers as well as the introduction of new subject matter. Supported by the Department of Fine Arts and the SEP, Ministry of Public Education, the staff would instruct the Mexican workers who [...]

Using the post-revolutionary education project in Mexico as a starting point, this article describes its functionalist schools and the reaction of the students. Santiago Larín compares the current pedagogical system with the one that existed during [...]

Antonio Rodríguez begins his text by justifying, to a degree, José Luís Cuevas’ harsh denunciation of the Mexican muralism movement to Marta Traba. The writer states that Cuevas, as a young painter and critic of his time, should be allowed such [...]

This article discusses different concepts associated with the representation of objective reality. In the discussion, Mele focuses on those tenets expressed in the manifesto of the school-workshop directed by Professor Cecilia Marcovich [...]

This article challenges the arts teachings offered by Professor Cecilia Marcovich. In it, Hlito reproaches her not only for her reactionary revisionism but also for teaching that modern art ended with Cubism [...]