Documents of Latin American and Latino Art

The author of this text, signed “Savonarola,” affirms that he and painter Enrique Domingo Barreda are old friends, and he remarks on Barreda’s outstanding personal qualities. Notwithstanding, the author believes that, due to his prolonged [...]

In this letter, David Alfaro Siqueiros tells Blanca Luz Brum that the Troubadour—the ship on which he sailed from Buenos Aires in December 1933—had arrived in Port of Spain, Trinidad and Tobago. Siqueiros talks about the book he wrote on the trip [...]

Other than the intimate details of the communication between Siqueiros and Brum, this letter provides extremely interesting insights into Siqueiros’s public relations in Buenos Aires, as well as his opinions and intentions concerning the local [...]

Pedro Figari wrote this letter to José Cúneo, who had recently shown his paintings at a joint exhibition with Bernabé Michelena in Montevideo (1918). The letter, published in the newspaper La Mañana, was Figari’s public recognition of the young [...]

In this letter dated June 20, 1988, the English critic and curator Guy Brett expresses his gratitude to the Brazilian collector Adolpho Leirner and his wife, Fulvia Leirner, for the time they spent together in São Paolo. Brett is especially [...]

This letter from the Asociación Estímulo de Bellas Artes (AEBA) in Argentina to the Federación de Estudiantes Plásticos del Uruguay (FEPU) invited the Uruguayan students to attend the opening of the exhibition Arte argentino del pasado y del [...]

This is a letter sent by the Uruguayan artist Pedro Figari to writer Alberto Zum Felde at the magazine La Pluma, which the latter directed. It is recognition by the famed artist, lawyer, and philosopher of the magazine’s cosmopolitanism, Latin [...]

This document is a handwritten letter in German to Gego from the German photographer Peter Hönig, dated December 17, 1982, which concerns the photographs of the Reticulárea (1982) that Gego installed in a room at the Alte Oper building in Frankfurt [...]

This document is a typewritten letter from Gego to Delpre C.A., Unidad Comercial La Florida, Caracas, dated June 10, 1972; it is addressed specifically to the architecture firm Siso, Shaw and Associates. In the letter, Gego informs the architects [...]

In this letter written in English and dated May 7, 1974, Stanton L. Catlin informs Gego that he has been named a professor of art, and director of the galleries at Syracuse University, New York. He states that he will also be collaborating with the [...]

This is a personal letter written to the Venezuelan artist originally from Germany, Gego (Gertrud Goldschmidt, 1912–1994), from her friend, Ruth Weddle. Weddle was an editor who was Gego’s classmate at the Tamarind Lithography Workshop in San [...]

This document is a letter written to Gego in German by the architect, Christian Thiel, from Frankfurt on October 15, 1982. After a short introduction, Thiel talks about his nostalgia for Reticulárea, installed in the Alte Oper [Old Opera Building], [...]

This letter written in English by Gego, a Venezuelan artist of German origin, is addressed to Mr. James Harithas, director of the Everson Museum of Art, Syracuse, New York. Dated July 21, 1972, the letter states that despite her enthusiasm, Gego must [...]

This letter written by Gego in English is addressed to Mrs. Sandra Trop Blumberg, executive director of the Everson Museum of Art, Syracuse, New York. In it, Gego acknowledges receipt of Blumberg’s letter, dated July 3, and informs her that she [...]

According to Luis Zevallos Hetzel, the painting that took the prize at the Festivales Ancón is not exactly a work of art because it is an (exact) reproduction of an advertisement for a brand of motorcycles. Though the painter claims he is under no [...]

This document is the letter sent by eminent Peruvian intellectuals, writers, and artists to Benjamín Roca Muelle—president of the Corporación Nacional de Turismo—upon learning that the property that houses “Pacho Fierro,” a folk music venue [...]

This is a letter written by Eduardo Ramírez Villamizar twelve days after his arrival in France in September 1950. The painter writes to his friend, the art critic Casimiro Eiger, who lived in Bogotá, describing his impressions of his first brief [...]

This is a letter written by Lucy Tejada to Casimiro Eiger in November 1955. It was mailed from Madrid to the art critic, who had lived in Bogotá since 1943. It includes details and instructions concerning preparations for the exhibition of Tejada’ [...]

This letter was written by Jorge Gaitán Durán a few days after he arrived in Paris in 1950. It is addressed to his Polish friend in Bogotá, the art critic Casimiro Eiger. The letter rambles through several subjects, including Gaitán’s [...]

This letter was written by the Puerto Rican printmaker Lorenzo Homar in San Juan, Puerto Rico on January 12, 1977, to the Colombian artists Pedro Alcántara Herrán and Virginia Amaya Valdivieso. Homar begins his letter on a friendly note, [...]

This document is a letter addressed to the editor of the San Francisco Chronicle and signed by Artists of the Fifth Sun Exhibition. It was written in response to the review of the exhibition The Fifth Sun: Contemporary/Traditional Chicano and Latino [...]

In this letter to Peruvian writer and journalist José Carlos Mariátegui, avant-garde Peruvian writer and poet Alberto Hidalgo thanks Mariátegui for sending him a copy of his recently published book, Seven Interpretative Essays on Peruvian Reality [...]

The synopsis in English are coming soon [...]

This is a letter published in the newspaper O Estado by the art critic Mário Baratta, written posthumously to the modernist poet Mário de Andrade, a year after his death. Baratta wanted to convey to the reader a hypothetical letter that he would [...]

In a letter dated April 23, 1972, the Colombian painter Darío Jiménez Villegas tells his friend Alberto Suárez Casas, in eloquent terms that he is quite satisfied with the latter’s portrait which he had recently painted. Jiménez describes it as [...]

This document is a handwritten letter from the journal of Carlos Almaraz to William Wilson, a staff writer at the Los Angeles Times. He was responding to an exhibition review by Wilson, titled “30 Works from the Grass Roots.” In it, the author [...]

In this document, Brazilian poet, journalist, and short-story writer, Ribeiro Couto, states that “true Americanism” rejects the idea of Indianism, yet calls on these same indigenous races to make contributions to “Iberian” man. This fusion [...]

Brazilian poet and journalist Prudente de Moraes Neto remarks on the chance discovery of Alfonso Reyes in European magazines, remarking on how difficult it is to obtain books by Latin American authors in Brazil and the ease by which you can obtain [...]

Alfonso Reyes wrote this letter to Waldo Frank in New York with the purpose of sending him a clipping (or perhaps a transcription) of a text Reyes had published in an Argentine newspaper about his friendship with Frank on the occasion of Frank’s [...]

This suite of documents includes Charles (Carlos) Calvo’s (1824–1906) letter to Napoleon III, the response from M. Thouvenel, Minister of the French Foreign Office, and the introduction to Calvo’s book, Recueil complet des traités, conventions [...]

In this letter, Christopher Columbus describes for the Court of Spain the islands and peoples encountered during his initial journey across the Atlantic Ocean to what is currently known as the Caribbean. Columbus reports taking possession of the [...]

Lorenzo Homar writes to the Colombian artist Pedro Alcántara to congratulate him on being awarded the Berlin Intergraphic Festival Prize. Homar asks Alcántara to refer to the notes he includes in his letter and read them to the artists who attended [...]

In this brief letter, the Cuban professor Félix Beltrán congratulates Lorenzo Homar on the forthcoming retrospective of his work. Beltrán mentions that watching Homar work in Cali, Colombia, had been an unforgettable experience. Expressing his [...]

The director of the Museo de Arte Moderno [Museum of Modern Art] La Tertulia, Maritza Uribe de Urdinola, writes to Lorenzo Homar to inform him that the Peruvian artist Fernando de Szyszlo will be told why his work cannot be printed. She then asks [...]

The printmaker Lorenzo Homar writes to the Columbians Maritza Uribe and Gloria Restrepo to thank them for returning the works that were shown in the exhibition at the Museo La Tertulia, in Cali, Colombia. He mentions that he will send them some [...]

In this letter to the editor of The San Juan Star newspaper, Lorenzo Homar comes to the defense of art critic Ernesto Ruiz de la Mata in the wake of the article written by the artist Rafael Rivera García, who said that Ruiz de la Mata’s columns [...]

In this letter, José Antonio Torres Martinó tells Lorenzo Homar that the Mexican artist Alberto Beltrán greatly enjoyed the book that Homar had sent him, and would like to publish it in El Gallo Ilustrado, the supplement put out by El Día (a left [...]

The Puerto Rican artist and critic José A. Torres Martinó writes to Lorenzo Homar to tell him that he will soon be reinstalling the mural tiles that were originally installed in 1966 in the recreation area at El Escambrón. Torres Martinó refers [...]

The Puerto Rican artist and critic José A. Torres Martinó writes to Lorenzo Homar to tell him that he will try to raise the necessary fundsto meet him in Europe. Torres Martinó then continues bringing Homar up to date on what their colleagues [...]

The Puerto Rican artist and critic José A. Torres Martinó writes to Lorenzo Homar to describe the technique that was used to remove the tiles of the mural installed in the pool area of El Escambrón (the project was undertaken in 1966), and how [...]

In this letter, Colombian printmaker Pedro Alcántara comments to Lorenzo Homar on the details of his trip to Puerto Rico for an exhibition of his work at the Instituto de Cultura Puertorriqueña [Institute of Puerto Rican Culture] (ICP). Alcántara [...]

Lorenzo Homar informs Ricardo Alegría, the executive director of the ICP (Instituto de Cultura Puertorriqueña), of the difficulties he is having with his weekly class in printmaking techniques and creative design at the Escuela de Artes Plásticas [...]

Colombian artist Pedro Alcántara tells Lorenzo Homar about his travels to the Soviet Union, Peru (Lima), and Cuba (Havana). He also informs Homar that everything will be set for the printmaking workshop that Homar will give at the Museo La Tertulia [...]

Mexican artist Alberto Beltrán thanks Lorenzo Homar for his time and attention during his visit to Puerto Rico. He tells Homar that artists Ángel Bracho and Jesús Álvarez Amaya, from the Taller de Gráfica Popular (TGP), have sent works to Puerto [...]

In this letter to Uruguayan artist Antonio Frasconi, Lorenzo Homar comments on a number of topics: his resignation from the Instituto de Cultura Puertorriqueña (ICP); issues related to the Portafolio Casals and Luigi Marrozzini; and the request he [...]

In this letter that artist Lorenzo Homar wrote to Ricardo Alegría, director of the Instituto de Cultura Puertorriqueña (ICP), while he was in France, Homar states that there has been a problem with the glue used to stick the tiles on the mural of [...]

Colombian artist Pedro Alcántara thanks Lorenzo Homar for the photographs, letters, and silkscreen he sent him. Alcántara asks him to buy some printing materials he will need to create a portfolio of four works for the Communist Party. The party [...]

The artist Lorenzo Homar writes to Ricardo Alegría, director of the Office of Cultural Affairs at the time, about the selection jury for the III Bienal de San Juan del Grabado Latinoamericano (1974) [Third San Juan Biennial of Latin American Graphic [...]

Quela Rovira, an Uruguayan artist, informs Lorenzo Homar about the shipping of the posters that had been exhibited. She sends her regrets about the events that occurred in Uruguay just after the exhibition, since they worsened the sale prospects for [...]

In this letter artist Lorenzo Homar replies to his colleague, Uruguayan professor Luis Camnitzer, who had suggested that some of the artists who planned to participate in the III Bienal de San Juan del Grabado Latinoamericano [3rd San Juan Biennial [...]