Documents of Latin American and Latino Art

In this text, Sergio Benvenuto, director of Artes journal, describes and analyzes the visual arts in Uruguay and its connections to the rest of Latin America; he points out cultural differences from Anglo-Saxon America. Benvenuto asserts that [...]

The presentation of the Premio Torcuato Di Tella 1964, written by the French critic Pierre Restany, states that art should be de-mystified. In his judgment, the divorce between art and myth was emphasized during the Renaissance and easel painting, [...]

This is a brief letter from the writer Alberto Valdivia Portugal to Caretas magazine about the first prize recently awarded at the painting competition organized by the Festivales de Ancón. After (apparently) congratulating the winner, Luis Zevallos [...]

In 1952, Daniel Mont invited Mathias Goeritz to construct “whatever he wanted.” Given such freedom, the sculptor developed the idea of Arquitectura Emocional [Emotional Architecture]: a structure that would contain the arts with the purpose of [...]

This article was published in El País, a newspaper run by sectors of the Partido Nacional, one of Uruguay’s two traditional political parties. It reports on the occupation of the Subte exhibition space in Montevideo by a group of visual artists [...]

Juan Acha examines the rationale advanced by those who, in line with the “new pictorial awareness” of the middle of the century, see greater relevance in abstract painting than in the outdated values of the figurative ideal. The main idea [...]

This text by journalist Mario Castro Arenas comments on the controversy surrounding the work Motociclista No. 3 by Luis Zevallos Hetzel, first prize winner at the painting competition organized by the Festivales de Ancón. The debate had widened [...]

Alfonso Castrillón weighs in on the controversy that erupted over Motociclista No. 3, the painting by Luis Zevallos Hetzel that won first prize at the Festivales de Ancón (a resort on the outskirts of Lima). The uproar began when the Lima magazine [...]

This document is the catalogue for the exhibition Tres pintores argentinos (1963), featuring the work of Antonio Berni, Carlos Alonso, and Carlos Uria. In addition to a text written by art critic Marta Traba that presents the artists and works—and [...]

The writer Adriano González León discusses the naming of the avant-garde group El Techo de la Ballena. His defense of the group’s use of the whale, a large animal that is not native to Venezuela, is really a pretext for a call for action in the [...]

This article is a review of the Premio Torcuato Di Tella 1966 [The Torcuato Di Tella Prize of 1966]; it describes the panorama and points out that on this occasion the Pop artists have rediscovered the attitude of creation; within it the personal is [...]

Brazilian literary critic and essayist Afrânio Coutinho wrote this article in the late- 1960s. His article states since inception that to him the term “Latin American,” is at odds with the historical, social, cultural, literary, and artistic [...]

This article published in the “Lecturas Dominicales” or Sunday Readings section of the Colombian newspaper El Tiempo (April 1962) evidences the polemic surrounding abstract and figurative art in Colombia at the time. In the introduction to the [...]

This introductory text for Guilio Carlo Argan’s exhibition analyzes the relationship between ideology and technique in order to inquire into the position and destiny of art within that context of ideas. Keeping in mind the self-directed nature and [...]

In this article, published in November 1963, the Colombian journalist Gloria Valencia Diago interviews the Spanish artist Juan Antonio Roda, in connection with the exhibition of his oil painting series, Tumbas,at the Museo de Arte Moderno in Bogot [...]

The poet, Enrique Molina wrote a literary essay on the exhibition on Arte Destructivo [Destructive Art] in which he states that its power is in the unveiling of what is hidden and prohibited. Observed with Surrealism in mind and the imprint of [...]

This is the introduction to the catalogue for the Salón de Artistas Jóvenes Latinoamericanos [Young Latin American Artists Salon]—held at the Pan-American Union in Washington, DC in 1965. It was written by José Gómez Sicre, director of the [...]

Pedro Nel Gómez, creator of the controversial frescos of the old city palace in Medellín, which at the time of this writing (2009), houses the Museo de Antioquia—explains his reasons for undertaking that major pictorial series. He also provides [...]

Roberto Guevara reviewed Gego’s Reticulárea (1969) when it was first installed at the Museo de Bellas Artes [Museum of Fine Arts] in Caracas. He mentions the artist’s use of space within the Reticulárea, which acquires a new environmental [...]

Published in the magazine Imagen in 1969, this article by sculptor and teacher Pedro Briceño takes the reader into the universe of Gego’s Reticulárea. Briceño points out that Gego is an architect as well as an artist, and then describes the [...]

The journalist Lorenzo Batallán writes about the impending opening of Signos, the exhibition of works by the painter Mercedes Pardo at the Sala Mendoza (Caracas). In his article, Batallán describes this Venezuelan artist’s experimentation with [...]

The art critic Perán Erminy reviews and analyzes the exhibition Testimonios organized by El Techo de la Ballena in the context of an international meeting of this group. In this text, Erminy points out what he finds interesting in this exhibition: [...]

By way of a brief interview, this text announces the opening of Bernardo Salcedo’s exhibition, Un mes de desahogos pasionales, at UD gallery in Parque de la Independencia in Bogotá. It explains that once the show is over, the works in it will [...]

This document is the message to the nation given by General Juan Velasco Alvarado, president of the ruling military junta from 1968 to 1975, on the “Día del Indio, Día del Campesino” (June 25, 1969). The enactment of the historic Agrarian [...]

This is an article written by the editorial staff at the weekly Magazine Dominical about the life and work of Alicia Tafur, the Colombian artist. It was written on the occasion of the “first large exhibition for Bogotá” at the Banco de la Repú [...]

This short news item was prepared as sketchy materials for press release  shortly after the inauguration of the Tucumán Arde [Tucumán Is Burning] exhibition at the CGT (Confederación General del Trabajo) in Rosario. The circumstances of the [...]

The author reveals a certain openness when he suggests that the experience created by the avant-garde of Rosario, Argentina, that led to Tucumán Arde [Tucumán is Burning] could be a potential bridge to what he considers the only valid “ [...]

Antonio Berni introduces Rodrigo Bonome’s exhibition of landscape paintings at the Galería Velázquez in Buenos Aires (1961) with a formal discussion on order in composition, and on color [...]

In this excerpt from his book Pancetti (Rio de Janeiro: Ministério da Educação e Cultura, 1960), Medeiros Lima recounts José Pancetti’s first experiences with paintings when he was still a sailor. The section cited begins with the painting work [...]

In a short statement, written in 1960, Libero Badii renounces any form of salon exhibition, in keeping with his other disengagements from, for example, academic continuity, material progress, and official teaching [...]

León Ferrari sketches his idea for the Christ mounted on a fighter jet for the piece he submitted to the Torcuato Di Tella Institute’s 1965 National and International Prize. This work would be known as Civilización Occidental y Cristiana [Western [...]

Jorge López Anaya writes about the rapid emergence of Grupo Sí [Yes Group] in the city of La Plata. He analyzes the use of chromatic saturation as a trait typical of the group’s artists. The critic states that the chromatic geometry represents, [...]

This essay was published in the leaflet produced for the 1960 solo exhibition of Brazilian painter Willys de Castro at the Galeria Aremar in the city of Campinas. The artist himself defines the most distinctive quality of his visual art, which he [...]

By means o a poetic prose, art critic Jorge Romero Brest states that he fearfully admires the huge sculptures and lovingly cares about the drawings and small sculptures made by Líbero Badii. He analyzes the relationship between art and life, from [...]

Ignacio Pirovano presents Enio Iommi’s exhibition (Galería Bonino, September-October, 1969) with a thorough analysis of the different periods involved: his background, the Concrete Art period, the phase begun in 1950 since the dissolution of the [...]

The artist, agent, and art critic Leonel Estrada discusses a series of paintings by Armando Villegas that were exhibited at the Chamber of Commerce in Medellín. These works, in Estrada’s opinion, reveal a departure from the artist’s earlier [...]

This foreword by Aldo Pellegrini indicates the changes of direction produced in the period of five years separating the first Arte Nuevo [New Art] exhibition and this sixth show, which he characterizes as a passage from the intellectual to the vital [...]

Vicente Caride presents Ferruccio Polacco’s exhibition (Galería Rubbers, Buenos Aires, May 1965), emphasizing his preferences for working with the geometric embodiment of images taken from archaic civilizations. Likewise, he points out the austere [...]

This article, published in the young newsmagazine Boom (Rosario, Argentina, November 1968), narrates what happened during the “lock-up” action carried out by Graciela Carnevale at the “Ciclo de Arte Experimental” [Experimental Practices of [...]

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 [...]

Hélio Oiticica and Rogério Duarte describe the group experience called Apocalipopótese, a hybrid term that combines the words Apocalypse, hypothesis, and hippopotamus. The essay is written in a decidedly irreverent, poetic style that establishes a [...]

In this set of four brief poems, Ralph de Romero, a Puerto Rican artist born in New York, expresses his thoughts about painting and art. Some of the themes he addresses in his poems are related to defining art and its elements, and he also reveals [...]

Rafael Squirru presents the exhibition that conmemorates the first 15 years of Madí Art (Museo de Arte Moderno, Buenos Aires, 1961), highlighting the overt opposition that these dedicated artists must have faced in their research of experimental [...]

This text was to be placed on the main wall of the exhibition on Brazilian painting organized by the Museu de Arte Moderna da Bahia (MAMB) in 1960. The text asserts that the true innovating power of a culture is found by delving into its popular [...]

In this article, the artist Hélio Oiticica discusses the work of Lygia Clark. He believes that her work has become part of a historic art movement, and underscores his connections to the artist’s work. Oiticica expresses his admiration for Clark [...]

This text by Guillermo Meneses is a presentation of CAL magazine, which he founded. Published in the magazine’s first issue, Meneses’s text explains the meaning of the letters in the publication’s name: C refers to crítica (criticism), A to [...]

Luis Felipe Noé writes a letter directed to the viewer containing ironic commentary on exhibition catalogs. He supports art as a permanent adventure in revelation and man as the instrument of new quests. Noé proposes “chaos”as the only truth of [...]

William Sandberg writes about the impact he experienced when he got to know the cultural life of Buenos Aires. He mentions the solidarity of the artists who worked in groups, using as an example the artists from Otra Figuración [Another Figuration [...]

In this prologue to the catalog on the Argentine artists who participated in the VII Biennial of São Paulo, Julio Llinás points out the profusion of abstract or informal works that are found alongside more current international trends. He believes [...]

Jorge Romero Brest points out that in the Experiencias 1968 [1968 Practices], young artists tried to raise the problem of creation in terms that were almost extreme, presenting crucial situations that depart from traditional “artwork” only by a [...]