Documents of Latin American and Latino Art

French critic and art historian Yve-Alain Bois bases his analysis of Gego’s work, particularly Reticulárea (1969), on poetic texts from ancient Greece, as well as the philosophy of Lucretiusand of Karl Marx. In his analysis, Bois, who taught in [...]

In his review of Luisa Richter’s paintings, Kurt Leonhard lists the criteria that might be used to rate a work of art, such as its originality, openness, innovative expression, and “energy for change.” Leonhard studies her work, paying [...]

The text reproduces the inaugural speech delivered by Vordemberge-Gildewart on October 2, 1953, for the opening of the exhibition Grupo de Artistas Modernos Argentinos [Modern Artists Group of Argentina] at the Stedelijk Museum of Amsterdam. The [...]

In this essay, the critic Ferreira Gullar discusses his opinion of the work of Lygia Clark, which he believes is an example of how the Neo-Concrete movement was breaking with traditional ways of using the exhibition space. Ferreira Gullar construes [...]

The curator María Elena Ramos discusses the problem of space, both in architecture and in works of art that involve manipulating art and space; her frame of reference ranges from what is “visible and exists” (architecture, real space) to what is [...]

Indeed, by way of a manifesto, this document is signed by the Equipo Poligráfico Ejecutor [Polygraphic Work Team], made up of David Alfaro Siqueiros, Lino Enea Spilimbergo, Enrique Lázaro, Juan C. Castagnino, and Antonio Berni. The article [...]

Jorge Romero Brest’s introductory text refers to his method, including the explanation behind why artworks are realities that allude as much to reality as to unreality, and that they produce beings within the [social] imaginary. Along this [...]

Josep Renau believes that, to fully understand a work of art, one must know something about the artist’s chronological evolution, the artist’s work, and the artist’s milieu. He states: “a work of art should be . . . the latest expression of [...]

In this newspaper article, Antonio Velluto describes the incident at the Caracas Cathedral when the parish priest, Augusto Laborem, took a stick to the sculpture Retrato espiritual de un tiempo, by Miguel von Dangel, and destroyed it because he [...]

This essay includes the text of the speech given by Paul Klee as he presented his work at the Museum of Jena in 1924. Klee explained the relationship between the colors, lines, values, and so forth, of a painting based on a comparison with an image [...]

This article includes the text of the speech given by Paul Klee as he presented his work at the Museum of Jena in 1924, in which he discussed the plastic qualities and the content of the works. Klee referred to the importance of the dimension of the [...]

In this analytical article, Alfredo Hlito takes a sweeping look at our culture and evaluates artistic activity as it relates to social function. He seeks to understand how proposals of a more general nature —the non-artistic context — are [...]

In the following passages, Luis Felipe Noé reflects on the function and methods of art in the contemporary atomized society. He asserts that transformations of art imply a constant revolution. Today’s artists must examine and expose the [...]

In this text, María Luisa Torrens responds to Aracy Amaral’s article arguing that the installation entitled Etsedrón, which appeared at the 1975 (XIII) São Paulo Biennial, constituted a promising new direction for Latin American art. Torrens [...]

In this text, Aracy Amaral considers the strong negative responses provoked by a work entitled Etsedrón in the 1975 (XIII) São Paulo Biennial. She argues that this work provoked such responses because of its visceral power and because it is [...]

In this critical overview of the work of Farnese de Andrade—an artist from Minas Gerais—Arlindo Daibert examines the origins and sources of production that ceaselessly attempt to combine opposing elements. In his text, Daibert pays particular [...]

In this essay, the critic Ronaldo Brito reviews the experimental installations created by Cildo Meireles, and discusses the constant deconstruction of expectations he finds in the artist’s work. According to Brito, Cildo’s work “dismantles the [...]

On the orders of the Mexican Under Secretary of Education, Bernardo J. Gastélum (the office manager), confirmed the dismissal of all the Etridentista painters who—led by Diego Rivera—had painted murals on the walls of the annex of the SEP, the [...]

This brief text was published in the first edition of the book Beyond Craft: The Art of Fabric (1973), written by two experts in textile art, weaving technique, and design: American curator Mildred Constantine, and American textile businessman and [...]

The subject of the essay, “Todo final es un comienzo” [Every End is a Beginning], is the Reticuláreas by the Venezuelan artist originally from Germany, Gego (Gertrud Goldschmidt, 1912–1994). The text emphasizes the developmental process of [...]

Yasmín Monsalve interviews Gego and discusses the artist’s latest project, the series known as Tejeduras [Weavings]. Monsalve mentions certain facets of Gego’s life—such as her arrival in Venezuela and her architectural-engineering studies in [...]

In this essay, English critic and curator Guy Brett examines precisely what elements are responsible for making Gego’s creations works of art rather than works of design or visual investigation, both ideas that are closely bound to her work. Brett [...]

In this essay, Iris Peruga analyzes most of the work created by Gego between 1955 and 1990. The curator examines the similarities between Gego’s artwork and that of her contemporaries. Examining the artist’s relationship with the trends of [...]

In this essay, Ruth Auerbach discusses Bichos [Creatures]—the three-dimensional works by Venezuelan artist Gego—within the overall context of her production. After providing an overview of Gego’s art, Auerbach states that these works are [...]

In this essay, Colombian critic and journalist Álvaro Burgos analyzes the sculptures by Gego, a Venezuelan artist of German origin, included in the exhibition Gego: Esculturas, 195­7–1967, held in Colombia. Burgos asserts that Gego’s works form [...]

In this essay, Luis Enrique Pérez Oramas studies Gego’s work, Reticulárea (1969) as Venezuela’s first real incursion into contemporary art. The critic contrasts the premises maintained by Venezuelan Syntheticism (which claims to be the last [...]

Andreína Gómez interviews Elízabeth Gunz on the occasion of Gego. Dibujos. Dibujos, grabados y tejeduras [Gego Drawings: Drawings, Prints, and Weavings] the exhibition presented at the Centro Cultural Consolidado (Caracas, 1996). Elízabeth Gunz ( [...]

In this interview with Gego by Venezuelan journalist A. Feltra, certain aspects of the artist’s life and personality are discussed. Gego says that she does not like to expose her private life to the public, and asserts that her work speaks for [...]

In this article, Yasmín Monsalve reports on Gego’s presence at the Twenty-third São Paulo Biennial in 1996, and on her exhibition Gego. Dibujos. Dibujos, grabados y tejeduras [Gego Drawings: Drawings, Prints, and Weavings] presented that same [...]

Roberto Guevara’s review of Gego’s Reticulárea (1969) was written a year after the work was created and originally installed. Guevara calls it the most complete installation in Venezuelan visual art up to that point (1970) because the open [...]

This review, dated March 29, 1981, is based on a visit made by some journalists from the “Caracas a Diario” supplement to the newspaper Diario de Caracas to Gego, and to view her work in gallery four of the Galería de Arte Nacional (GAN) in [...]

Luis Enrique Pérez Oramas analyzes Gego’s work in light of what he considers her contribution to the history of visual art. The critic considers [the source of] that contribution to be the different artistic milieu in which her artistic life [...]

The English critic Guy Brett interviews Hélio Oiticica, who describes some of the concepts involved in the works exhibited at his London retrospective. The artist explains his concepts of creative participation, “crelazer” [a hybrid word [...]

This is a proposal for a work of art, by Cildo Meireles, to be called “Inserções em Circuitos Ideológicos — Projeto Coca-Cola.” In the proposal, the Brazilian artist gives specific instructions for the execution of the project: make the [...]

This biographical and artistic profile on Ismael Nery was written a year after his death. The author and friend of the painter, Bruno de Menezes, establishes links to his work with particular times from Nery’s life, as well as with his interest [...]

This document shows a fragment of the score, Music of Changes, by the American composer John Cage, to be presented as an accompaniment to Gego’s environmental work, Reticulárea, in the exhibition Spielraum-Raumspiele [Play Room/Play Space] at the [...]

In the first part of her review of La Batalla de San Romano—the German-born Venezuelan visual artist Miguel von Dangel’s version of Paolo Uccello’s Renaissance painting by the same name— María Luz Cárdenas analyzes similarities between the [...]

Berni himself wrote this text explaining the work, La masacre de los inocentes [The Massacre of the Innocents], whose origin, he says, goes back to nativity scenes. Berni also explains the aesthetic and political message of his work. This text was [...]

In this text, Manuel Felguérez considers the problems associated with identifying and defining a Latin American aesthetic within contemporary artistic production. He begins by explaining that the Brazilian government’s display of aspects of [...]

This article describes and analyzes the role of the “recipient” of the various messages expressed by the visual arts. At the end of the dictatorship period (1973–85), Uruguayan artists once again sought to come to grips with the question of [...]

Hanni Ossott reviews Gego’s three-dimensional works retrospectively back to 1976. Ossott observes that unlike other contemporary works, Gego’s work invites the viewer to see past technical and formal elements to find the human “perspective” [...]

In “La obra de arte en México,” the anthropologist Manuel Gamio attempts to classify Mexico’s cultural production in light of its varying cultural roots and historical adaptations. He offers the following categories for classifying artwork in [...]

In this newspaper article, F. Gil Tovar describes Gego’s work as being representative of one of the two types of German art. In the critic’s view, Gego’s work is driven as much by concept as by logic (as opposed to Romanticism, the other type [...]

The critic Víctor Guédez reviews the work of Régulo Pérez and compares the formal changes and innovations he sees in this Venezuelan visual artist’s work with his earlier material. Guédez stresses the consistency of the artist’s message, [...]

The essay “La puesta en escena internacional del arte latinoamericano: montaje, representaciones” [The International Staging of Latin American Art: Assembly, Presentations], by the French-Chilean cultural critic Nelly Richard, is in the archives [...]

In this essay, Alejandro Salas studies Gego’s piece Reticulárea (1969). Salas describes and comments on the artist’s thoughts on the different ways she has assembled this work, as well as its journey through the different spaces where it has [...]

Journalist Margarita D’Amico introduces Venezuelan artist Roberto Obregón, asking him to reflect on his series, Crónicas de flores y Disecciones de rosas [Flower Chronicles and Rose Dissections]. Obregón states that his interest in “chronicles [...]

What is relevant in this article is that it presents a synopsis of five exhibitions that were held in the Galería de Arte Moderno—which depends on the Dirección de Acción Cívica del Departamento del Distrito Federal [an entity of civic action [...]

In this essay, Hélio Oiticica reviews Lygia Pape’s career, which has been skyrocketing ever since her Livro da criação, produced in 1960. Oiticica notes that Pape’s work is increasingly concerned with sensory experience, a trend that has been [...]

According to English critic and curator Guy Brett, abstract works of art, whether systematic or informal in nature, can be seen as models of the universe. It is on this premise that he studies Gego’s work. Brett maintains that the work of many [...]