Documents of Latin American and Latino Art

In the Survey Section, the journalist Ortega decided to go to the Escuela Nacional Preparatoria to ask the painters there the following question: Who is the greatest painter in Mexico? The caricaturist Ernesto García Cabral ironically responds that [...]

In this essay, the critic Roberto Guevara discusses the Cuban-born Venezuelan painter Rolando Dorrego’s career and latest work. Guevara begins with a review of the art movement of the early 1970s (in which Dorrego was an active participant), which [...]

In this text, Sérvulo Gutiérrez asserts that any classification that entails “dividing art” is conventional and falls into pigeonholing. It is misguided since it implies taking “a part for the whole.” Sérvulo Gutiérrez questions whether [...]

Antonio Rodríguez portrayed painter David Alfaro Siqueiros as an avant-garde artist because of his approach to using new pictorial materials. In this interview, Siqueiros declared that contemporary painters remained “impassive before the progress [...]

This text written by the art critic Roberto Guevara is the preface to the catalogue for the exhibition Pinturas, which exhibited work by the French artist Marcel Floris, who had been living in Caracas since 1950. The exhibition was held at the Museo [...]

Curator Juan Calzadilla begins his essay on the Venezuelan painter known as “Pájaro” [Juan Vicente Hernández] by pointing out the similarity between some, though not all, aspects of his work and orthodox Surrealism. Calzadilla comments on the [...]

Researcher and historian Bélgica Rodríguez analyzes the work of Hugo Baptista in a biographical text with quotations made by the painter; beginning with the artist’s move to Caracas in 1951 so that he could enroll in Vicente Emilio Sojo’s [...]

The art critic and researcher Eliseo Sierra reviews a decade of the life and art of the Venezuelan painter Susana Amundaraín, from her beginnings in the 1980s through 1992. After reviewing the art world at the time she began to produce art, the [...]

Here, the French critic and journalist Thiébault-Sisson performs an exhaustive review of the artistic life of the painter Emilio Boggio. The article comments on his artistic beginnings and his relationships with his teacher Jean-Paul Laurens and his [...]

In this notebook, which is one of several kept by Colombian artist Carlos Rojas, the author writes down thirty-two points essential to his art.  Written like a manifesto, this particular manuscript contains ideas that Rojas considers innate to his [...]

In this essay, the Spanish artist Angel Luque—who lived in Venezuela from 1955 to 1967— analyzes the factors that led him to painting. He describes what the concept of “risk” means to him, as applied to both art and life in general. Luque [...]

This text was written by Félix Nakamura for the catalogue for the exhibition Los pintores de Sarhua, that took place at the Huamanqaqa Gallery in Lima in 1977. Nakamura provides an account of his visit to the workshop operated by the artists Víctor [...]

To the art critic Geraldo Ferraz, Lívio Abramo’s artwork departs from a drawing that then gradually begins to give way to “expressionist manipulations” etched on “bad” wood. Towards the end of the thirties, Abramo, who was a journalist, [...]

This is a letter that was sent by José Sabogal in response to his colleague, Antonino Espinosa Saldaña, who requested his opinion on the polemics surrounding the course on “Inca Art” that was being offered at the ENBA (Escuela Nacional de [...]

This is a letter from Colombian artist Pedro Alcántara to Cuban painter Mariano Rodríguez, in which the former warns the latter that the painter Carlos Granada—who represented Colombia at the Encuentro de Plástica Latinoamericana [Latin American [...]

This draft of a text by painter Antonino Espinosa Saldaña was for a presentation at an exhibition of his work that did not take place. In it he justifies the absence of titles or any references for the works, “because one should not impose a [...]

In her brief introduction to the exhibition catalogue, Children of Darkness: Rafael Colón Morales, curator Gladys Peña asserts that Colón Morales broke away from the traditional painting of Puerto Rico by experimenting with both surrealist and [...]

Juan Calzadilla discusses the work of the painter José Campos Biscardi, explaining how hard it was for him to be acknowledged in the Venezuelan art world because he was originally from Colombia. The author attributes it to the fact that Campos [...]

In the second treinta-treintista manifesto, the group declares the reason for its dispute. It states that the struggle between independent painters and the academics intensified when the presidency changed hands, since certain conservative teachers [...]

The third treinta-treintista manifesto is a flyer written in opposition to the Escuela Nacional de Bellas Artes, its instruction methods, and the works produced at the school. Subdivided into eight points, the group’s statement describes the basic [...]

Argentinean architect Ángel Guido—invitee to the I Congreso Internacional de Peruanistas—summarizes the genesis of modern painting in general terms: “Until Impressionism, toward reality. Afterward, toward ‘unreality.’ From there, the [...]

The Colombian poet Max Grillo claims that there is an aesthetic sense that is common to all the arts. In his opinion, to enjoy the visual arts, literature, or music, one must have the ability to feel and understand the emotions that are inherent to [...]

In this feature on the Cuban-American artist Paul Sierra, Jeff Huebner writes the artist’s biography, his recent ascent in the mainstream art world, and the attendant conflicts that arose in relationship to his status as a Latino artist. Huebner [...]

This is a newspaper review of “El arte para la victoria y la pintura mexicana moderna,” the lecture given by David Alfaro Siqueiros at the Escuela Nacional de Bellas Artes de Lima in March 1943. The painter and political activist informed his [...]

On the premise that “national art has yet to come into being,” Germán Arciniegas levels harsh criticism at the works by Colombian artists Francisco Antonio Cano, Ricardo Gómez Campuzano, and Domingo Moreno Otero included in an exhibition held [...]

This document analyzes the national repercussions that the Sindicato de Obreros Técnicos, Pintores y Escultores [SOTPE, Union of Technical Workers, Painters and Sculptors] had on an art scene that was then dominated by individualism. Siqueiros [...]

This article, published in Revista Moderna [Modern Magazine]?which contributed to the rise of modern art criticism (in particular of the kind inspired by Charles Baudelaire and by the French parameters)?sketches a brief history of Japanese painting. [...]

The curator María Elena Ramos provides a broad overview of Alejandro Otero’s oeuvre on the occasion of a retrospective exhibition of his work. Ramos reflects on the Venezuelan painter and sculptor’s essential concerns which, in her opinion, wove [...]

Author Dorothy Chaplik provides an overview of the life and art of Alejandro Romero, a recognized Chicago-based Mexican painter and muralist. She traces his artistic career from his childhood in Tabasco and youth and Mexico City, when he first [...]

In March 1983, members of the Research Department of the Museo de Bellas Artes in Caracas interviewed the painter Ivan Petrovszky about his exhibition at the Art Museum of the Americas in Washington, DC (that same year). By way of introduction, the [...]

In this brochure produced for the exhibition of works by prizewinners at the 1960 Prêmio Leirner de Arte Contemporânea, Gerardo Ferraz discusses how Anatol Wladyslaw’s work transitioned from the “mathematics and geometry&rdquo [...]

In 1957 Aníbal Gil Villa returned to Medellín after studying art in Italy, where he met other Colombians, including Enrique Grau and Fernando Botero. On his return he said: “I am not trying to paint in this or that style because I think that is a [...]

This essay is an article written by the Brazilian art critic Mário Baratta on his visit to the interior of the state of Ceará in 1951 with artist Antonio Bandeira. The article analyzes Bandeira’s work before and after he first resided in Paris [...]

Arqueles Vela writes a review of the most recent work by Antonio Ruiz, nicknamed “El Corcito” whom he considers a “contemporary Mexican painter.” He emphasizes the essential traits of his paintings and at the same time reveals a criticism of [...]

In this text, critic Federica Palomero explores the development of Venezuelan painter Víctor Hugo Irazábal, from his formative period (the early sixties) and subsequent experimentation with various media and genres through his encounter with the [...]

Painter Bernando Monsanto Cocking analyzes the life and work of Armando Lira. In this text, he succinctly recounts the work of the Chilean-Venezuelan artist as an exponent of Venezuelan culture beginning with his arrival in the country through the [...]

The 1932 article "Armando Reverón,” written by Venezuelan journalist, writer, and lawyer Julián Padrón is a short biography of Venezuelan artist Armando Reverón, and a description of his working method. Rever& [...]

The art critic Alberto Junyent reviews the second exhibition of works by the Venezuelan painter Héctor Poleo at the Galerie Drouant in Paris in 1966. In his essay, Junyent formally reviews the collection of works as a whole from an aesthetic and [...]

This article in the Revista Semana discusses the research and sketches being done by Santiago Martínez Delgado in order to portray the congressional session in Cúcuta when the Liberator, Simón Bolívar, and General Francisco Santander took office [...]

This brief interview with Fernando de Szyszlo took place upon his return to Lima after having lived in Paris—which he calls “a fountain of life”—for a number of years. With enthusiasm, he describes the stimulating cultural milieu of the [...]

Journalist Miyó Vestrini interviews Narciso Debourg for his first solo exhibition in Venezuela. The conversation covers the methods of expression used by the Venezuelan painter and sculptor (based in Paris); these include serial usage of elements, [...]

The Puerto Rican educator Luis Quero Chiesa explains that after the printing press was introduced to Puerto Rico in 1806, many newspapers were started and books were published in the nineteenth. From the very beginning, the press was harassed by [...]

Puerto Rican painter and educator Luis Quero Chiesa explains that life is hard for painters in the island because they need to rely on another line of work to survive. In his opinion, Puerto Rican art is an “indigenous art inspired by our symbols [...]

This article by José Sabogal is about the recent work produced by the Indigenist painter Camilo Blas. The author discusses Blas’ two scenes of Cajamarca that are to decorate the new Salón de Palacio, which opened in 1924 in celebration of the [...]

In this text, María Luz Cárdenas discusses Ricardo Benaim’s artistic development and the premise presented in Una visión de Gaia, a solo exhibition of his paintings and prints. Cárdenas describes Benaim’s work as an example of critical [...]

Here, the writer sketches the artistic development reflected in the work of Alfredo Ruiz Rosas through the five years covered by the exhibition in the Peruvian capital. Bondy acknowledges the persistence of  “the same emotion” in the artist’s [...]

In this 1925 letter, Ángel Zárraga acknowledges Manuel Rodríguez Lozano as a painter and a friend. After a brief introduction of indeterminate tone, Zárraga points to his discovery that “Race” and “People” are grandiose concepts that lead [...]

Though he does not mention a change as such in José Sabogal’s latest paintings, the author detects the presence or hint of certain nuances he had not noticed before. Carlos Raygada compares Procesión del Señor de los Milagros—painted in 1923, [...]

This article by the critic Carlos Raygada is about the painter and poet César Moro, considered “one of the few exponents of modern art in Peru.” According to Raygada, Moro’s work is unknown because it “never appears in the kind of [...]

This exhibition essay overviews the trajectory of Arturo Cuenca’s photographic practice from his time spent in Cuba in the 1980s until his arrival in New York in the early 1990s. In the late 1970s, he transitioned from making Photorealist/Pop [...]