Documents of Latin American and Latino Art

In this article the Austrian critic Walter Engel reviews the exhibition of works by the painter Andrés de Santa María held at the Galerías de Arte in Bogotá. Engel begins his article by mentioning that the Colombian artist died in Brussels, [...]

In this letter to Gonzalo Ariza published in Bogotá-based newspaper El Tiempo, Austrian-born critic Walter Engel responds to statements by Ariza, a Colombian artist, published in the same newspaper a few days earlier. Engel asserts that the fact [...]

In this text, the Austrian art critic based in Colombia, Walter Engel, discusses the exhibition by the painter, Cecilia Porras, at the gallery El Callejón in Bogotá (July 1955). Engel begins by remembering 1948 as an important year in terms of [...]

In these two supplements, Viennese historian and critic Walter Engel describes exhibitions and artists that in his view shaped the modern art scene in Colombia from 1934 to 1957. Engel distinguishes two distinct periods: 1934 to 1951, and 1952 to [...]

Walter Engel wrote the review “David Manzur. En la Biblioteca Luis-Ángel Arango”, which was published on October 1, 1961, in the daily newspaper El Espectador. This article analyzes important aspects of the visual arts in Colombia in the 1960s. [...]

This text by historian and critic Walter Engel may be the first essay to specifically focus on Eduardo Ramírez Villamizar’s work in relief, which Engel considers key to the artist’s transition from painting to sculpture. Engel’s provides a [...]

This text is an excerpt from the first book published about the painter Fernando Botero, who was twenty years old at the time. It was illustrated with twenty of his works (rendered between 1950 and 1952), in which we can see the influence of Mexican [...]

This article attempts to trace the historical relationship between the public and artworks that rupture with tradition; its aim is to analyze how Modern art was judged at the time it emerged. To that end, Walter Engel, an Austrian historian and [...]

In this text, Austrian historian and critic Walter Engel, who lived in Colombia starting in 1938, discusses the suspension of the Salón Anual de Artistas Colombianos from 1947 to 1949. He observes that during that period “historic” events took [...]

In this article, Walter Engel, an Austrian critic who lived in Colombia, reviews the group exhibition held on the occasion of the opening of “El Caballito” gallery in Bogotá in 1956. Engel asserts that the opening of the gallery represents a [...]

Walter Engel, the Austrian art critic living in Colombia, wrote this manuscript on the occasion of the exhibition of paintings by the Spanish artist Juan Antonio Roda, at the Sociedad Colombiana de Arquitectos in Bogotá (November 1956). To Engel, [...]

In this article, the art critic Walter Engel, an Austrian based in Colombia, wrote an overview of how various contemporary artists represent the human figure. To Engel, regarding this genre, in concept “no period or country may claim [it] for [...]

In this short essay, critic Walter Engel attempts to demonstrate that, due to the maturity, breadth, and social content of its painting, Latin America will become a new center for art on a par with Paris. Engel—an Austrian critic who lived in [...]

The Austrian critic and art historian Walter Engel wrote the article “La Poesía de la Chatarra” [The Poetry of Scrap Metal] that appeared in El Espectador on October 4, 1964, on the occasion of the second solo exhibition of sculpture by Feliza [...]

In this article, Vienna-born critic and art historian Walter Engel discusses the Primer Salón de Arte Femenino [First Salon of Female Art] held at the Museo Nacional of Colombia in 1951. Engel addresses the event in terms of its gender-based [...]

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 [...]

In this text, Austrian-born critic Walter Engel, who lived in Colombia, discusses the life and work of Luis Alberto Acuña, a Colombian artist who was also a historian, critic, and advocate of Colombian art. In terms of Acuña’s advocacy work, [...]

In this article, the art critic Walter Engel reviews the exhibition of monotypes presented by the artist Augusto Rivera at the Galería Colseguros in Bogotá. Engel highlights the artist’s successful use of the technique, explaining how Rivera [...]

In the book Pintoras colombianas contemporáneas, Austrian critic Walter Engel presents a group of [women] artists that actively participated in the country’s art scene during the forties and fifties. Engel explains that the selection is not based [...]

Art critic Walter Engel wrote five articles on exhibitions held in 1948, among them the solo show of artist Carlos Díaz Forero, sponsored by the Universidad Nacional of Bogotá and held at the Museo Nacional in that city in August; the exhibition of [...]

This brief review of an exhibition of work by Ricardo Gómez Campuzano at the Museo Nacional in Bogotá by the art critic who came from Austria, Walter Engel (signs “W.E.”), analyzes two characteristics of the artwork. First, it points out the [...]

Walter Engel, an Austrian art critic and historian who lived in Colombia, introduces Guillermo Wiedemann, an artist exiled from the repressive environment of Nazi Germany who found the freedom required to develop his personal style in Colombia’s [...]