Documents of Latin American and Latino Art

This article is one of the few that describes the murals painted in several primary schools in Mexico, thus it allows us to know what it was like before its total or partial destruction. The title of this mural by Pablo O’Higgins was Vida y [...]

In this essay, Alicia Gaspar de Alba reviews nine post-1990 exhibitions of Chicano art, all of which have sought to “materialize” Chicano/a from within the mainstream art museum, or as she calls it, the “master’s house.” The exhibitions [...]

Diego Rivera felt it would be an opportune time to publish the program of activities for the Comisión Nacional de Pintura Mural [National Commission for Mural Painting] given the lack of information that many painters had concerning its function. [...]

This essay praises the work of José Clemente Orozco and considers him one of the greatest painters in the world. Luis Cardoza y Aragón analyzes Orozco’s article step by step in a rather poetic manner. He mentions the great complexity of his work [...]

In this article, Mexican muralist David Alfaro Siqueiros explains his vision of art history which, in his view, wavers between moments of socialization (or social integration) and moments of individualism (or decadence). It is on those grounds that [...]

This article by David Alfaro Siqueiros is a theoretical analysis of the Mexican muralist movement, whose principal characteristic (and what differentiated it from the rest of the international trends) was its “functional political purpose.” [...]

In this critical essay, historian Francisco Da Antonio discusses the indebtedness of artist Héctor Poleo to Mexican muralism in terms of form and pictorial technique. He also explores the way in which Poleo’s work differs from the aesthetic- [...]

This essay, written by the Colombian attorney and philosopher Francisco Posada, is divided into nine parts: (i) an untitled introduction; (ii) “Colonial Feudalism”; (iii) “Realism and Social Conflict”; (iv) “Painting”; (v) “The Current [...]

In this text, Damián Bayón considers the question: What qualities make art produced by Latin American artists Latin American? He begins by declaring that the art of Latin America becomes Latin American when an artist—because of his or her [...]

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 [...]

In this essay, Victor Zamudio-Taylor explores the valorization of Mexico’s pre-Columbian roots as a key element in the development of cultural identity within the Chicano movement of the 1960s and 1970s. Inspired by the ideology of mexicanidad— [...]

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 art critic Luis Cardoza y Aragón talks about the transformation undergone by José Clemente Orozco over a 15-year period, as he compares the murals at the University of Guadalajara with those at the Escuela Nacional Preparatoria in Mexico City, [...]

In this essay, Xavier Villaurrutia examines José Clemente Orozco’s paintings through a prism of dread. The writer contends that this dread, this sense of horror, though not the only feeling present in Orozco’s work, is almost always the dominant [...]

The Aberlardo Rodríguez market was conceived as part of an urban development plan that would allow for the control of the itinerant commerce that encroached upon Mexico City downtown as well as the revaluation of the property within the zone. Its [...]

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: [...]

The nationalist Catholic newspaper Bandera Argentina [Argentinean Flag] writes about the lecture given by Mexican painter David Alfaro Siqueiros at Signo facilities, an association of artists directed by Leonardo Estarico. The columnist believes that [...]

David Alfaro Siqueiros describes and simultaneously defines the four positions or trends in the visual arts existing in the world. He wonders if the theoretical proposals coincide with the work of art, and chooses to explain only two: the non-realism [...]

Mario Canale presents an evaluative reading on Mexican muralism and in particular on the proselytism carried out by David Alfaro Siqueiros in Argentina. Canale writes against the use of art as a political instrument. In his judgment, art should not [...]

This article reports on the success of the exhibition of ancient and modern Mexican art that was presented in Paris and then shipped to Stockholm. In Fernando Gamboa’s opinion, the exhibition was a revelation. The Parisian press described it as the [...]

In this text, critic Raúl Pereira asserts that the works by María Izquierdo on exhibit in Lima display “distinct personality, unquestionable artistic quality, and visual daring” as they delve into the motifs of Mexican folk art. The treatment [...]

In this 1956 article, Ignacio Gómez Jaramillo presents his interpretation of muralism in Mexico. He asserts that mural paintings of historical events serve as the pictorial expression of written subjects, thus showing the people milestones of their [...]

Though using a moderate tone–and even an admiring one when he refers to the continuity, sense of color and form, knowledge of the avant-garde, and diversity in the work—García Maroto was part of the debate, discussion, or situation regarding the [...]

Federico L. Büsch Buero writes in defense of art’s social scope as an aesthetic program for Latin America. He presents the left’s widespread opinions against modern art, which is uncommitted politically. Büsch Buero asserts that modern art [...]

Rufino Tamayo made no reference to the government initiative being handled by Rivera, Orozco, and Siqueiros, although he expressed his strong opposition to the idea. In 1944 Tamayo had warned that Mexican painting was stagnating and in a state of [...]

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 [...]

José Guadalupe Zuno (Z) devotes this entire article to mural paintings in Jalisco, having commissioned some of them himself while he was governor. Zuno makes particular reference to the murals in the Salón de la Universidad that were painted by [...]

Raúl Anguiano believed that the best-known painters had made costly mistakes and had experienced great failures. He referred to the “pintura bajo el agua” [“underwater painting”] by Diego Rivera as much as to the sculpture-painting by [...]

Referencing such Latin American nations as Mexico, Brazil, Uruguay, and Venezuela, and the European nations of Spain and Italy, Venezuelan architect Carlos Raúl Villanueva examines certain artists and movements that in the aforementioned countries, [...]

Using newspaper sources, Esther Acevedo explores the diverse ways in which different groups of artists and intellectuals arose during 1920-1924 around the concept of “what is national,” particularly in the visual arts. She also investigates the [...]

In this article, the Colombian writer and critic Luis Vidales evaluates aesthetic methods based on spiritual causality, as distinct from positivist doctrines that seek causality in external phenomena. He suggests that style—that is, the technical [...]

Diego Rivera’s visual arts discourse echoes the ideas of José Vasconcelos in his mural La Creación [Creation], in which he expresses, within an abstract theme, a clear allusion to race through selected representative elements. These include the [...]

In the book Problemas sociales en las artes plásticas [Social Problems in the Visual Arts], the critic Walter Engel reviews different periods in the universal history of art, discussing how some cultures and artists depict social issues?such as [...]

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 an interview with Antonio Rodríguez, the painter José Chávez Morado expressed his approval of the Comisión Nacional de Pintura Mural [National Commission for Mural Painting] on the grounds that a standard must be established for decorating [...]

In this essay, the former governor of Jalisco, José Guadalupe Zuno, discusses government support of painting, stressing its modern style. He uses the opportunity to talk about Diego Rivera, emphasizing his cultural work rather than his artistic [...]

This text taken from the art news section of Signo [Sign] magazine, run by the art critic Leonardo Estarico, briefly reports on the expected arrival of Mexican artist David Alfaro Siqueiros in Buenos Aires in 1933. The magazine introduces the artist [...]

This document reports on the prohibition of David Alfaro Siqueiros’s third lecture at Amigos del Arte [Friends of Art Association] in Buenos Aires. The article mentions the part played by writer Victoria Ocampo. It also discusses the content of the [...]

Alfredo Tarruella writes a furious anti-Communist critique of both the painting and the social activism of Mexican artist David Alfaro Siqueiros. He considers Siqueiros to be a deceptive person and an agent of the Soviet Union. The Catholic poet [...]

The author of this text provides a detailed description of the mural—consisting of four panels painted by José Renau for the Casino de la Selva in Cuernavaca—and says that, "The project’s general theme is Spain and Mexico." Palencia then [...]

Jorge Vicario Román, virtually unknown as a painter, was a native of the state of Morelos. In order to receive the commission for his mural painting he had to pass through “the tortuous paths of criticism.” The author believed that Vicario Romá [...]

Sponsored by the government of the state of Jalisco, José Clemente Orozco worked on a series of frescoes for several public buildings in Guadalajara. Orozco was considered to have reached the full maturity of his creative talent, and these works [...]

In “Los nuevos pintores veracruzanos” [The new painters of Veracruz], Ortega makes a collage about what artists happen to be painting or sculpting at the Escuela Nacional Preparatoria (ENP) and the Academy. He mentions the most representative [...]

This essay is the first sketch of some of Carlos Mérida’s original concepts on Integración Plástica [Arts Integration]. He states that functional painting—the only path in contemporary art—should be created for the majority of people, in [...]

This article by Carlos Mérida begins by citing Raynolds Maryland, who stated in a text published in the New York Herald, that Mexico was experiencing a birth and not a renaissance, with reference to Mexican art. This birth resulted in a discovery [...]

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 [...]

In this interview, Marcos Raya expresses his belief that young artists must “get out of their mental and real ghetto, the Mexican ghetto,” in order to advance in their art. They must, he says, “be part of the whole city of Chicago and still be [...]

In this article, painter María Izquierdo again decides to express her viewpoint without the use of intermediaries. She had done so one month before and here she again declares her disapproval of the monopoly created by the Comisión Nacional de [...]

David Alfaro Siqueiros sends the architect Carlos Lazo, project manager at Ciudad Universitaria (UNAM) in Mexico City, three documents about the scaffolding he has erected and the mural he is executing at the university’s Rectoría [President’s [...]

This excerpt from Jacinto Quirarte’s book, Mexican American Artists, includes the introduction, chapters 4 through 8, and a short conclusion. In the introduction, the author explores Chicano identity and the unifying elements of Chicano art. While [...]