Documents of Latin American and Latino Art

This unsigned article reviews the works of the Colectivo Acciones de Arte (CADA), the art action group that took the name used as the title of the article in question: Para no morir de hambre en el arte (To Avoid Dying of Hunger [or Starving to [...]

The text, “¿Arte joven?” [Young Art?] by art critic Eduardo Serrano Rueda introduces the exhibition Nombres nuevos en el arte de Colombia [New Names in Colombian Art] held at the Museo de Arte Moderno [Museum of Modern Art] in Bogotá in March [...]

In this article, journalist Rodolfo Gerschman responds to the questions raised in a press release against an award given to altarpiece maker Joaquín López Antay issued by the Asociación Profesional de Artistas Plásticos (ASPAP) that upholds a [...]

In this text, Alfonso Castrillón argues that the conflict between “high art” and “folk art” is a reflection of class division, where the dominant class sets limits for low art by means of notions such as “individual creation” and “ [...]

The author of this article, Francisco Abril de Vivero, claims that the decision to send arts and crafts instead of “fine arts” to represent Peru at the 1977 Bienal de São Paulo was an act of “infra-Marxist populism.” In his opinion it was a [...]

This article by army general and historian Felipe de la Barra tries to describe the true appearance of José Gabriel Condorcanqui [Túpac Amaru II]. The article justifies the depiction of the forefather of Peruvian independence in a hat—the image [...]

Argentine critic Marta Traba considers Puerto Rican artist Julio Rosado del Valle a key figure in Puerto Rican art because he was among those who paved the way for innovative approaches and experimentation in painting. She asserts that in the work of [...]

This article expresses the official point of view on the controversy that was sparked by the decision to award no prizes at the XXIII Salón de Artistas Nacionales [XXIII National Artists’ Salon] (1972). The article is written by Germán Rubiano, [...]

In this lecture, Puerto Rican artist Lorenzo Homar asserts that the ideological content of art is determined by its stance on society since “art for art’s sake” is devoid of ideological content. For Homar, “socialist art” is a question of [...]

The article “¿Feliza Krugman or Irene Bursztyn?” is the transcription of two texts read by Álvaro Medina on the program Orientación Plástica aired on Radio Nacional de Colombia on April 27 and May 3 (both Fridays), 1974. Medina accuses [...]

In this chapter from América Latina en sus artes Jorge Alberto Manrique begins by describing the artistic movements of the 1920s and comparing this period to a giant hinge that moved backward to the nineteenth century and forward to the twentieth [...]

In this editorial article, the Czech–Peruvian poet and critic Mirko Lauer reviews Peruvian culture on the seventh anniversary of the military coup led by General Juan Velasco Alvarado, who installed the self-styled Gobierno Revolucionario de las [...]

Cultural activist Manuel Rodríguez Cárdenas calls the attention of the public authorities of Venezuela to the visible deterioration of the monument created by Alejandro Colina in homage to María Lionza, the protector goddess of the forest, water, [...]

With this text, Colombian poet and essayist Juan Gustavo Cobo Borda introduces the exhibition of works by painter Manolo Vellojín held at Galería Garcés Velásquez in Bogotá in 1978. In Cobo Borda’s view, Holy Week (a Spanish religious [...]

Alfonso Castrillón defends the decision to recognize López Antay by granting him the Premio Nacional de Cultura [award], asserting that his work “is more authentic than the work of many so-called high artists, who have spent their whole lives [...]

Carlos Zílio, Carlos Vergara, Rubens Gerchman, and Waltercio Caldas, cofounders of Malasartes magazine, co-wrote this article in which they discuss the magazine’s genesis and the goals it set out to accomplish as a monitor of Brazilian art in the [...]

In this newspaper article Juan Gargurevich criticizes the negative opinions expressed by the painter Juan Manuel Ugarte Eléspuru, who opposed the decision to award the 1975 National Culture Prize for art to the Andean altarpiece artist Joaquín Ló [...]

This is an interview with Joaquín López Antay, the Andean altarpiece artist who was awarded the Peruvian National Culture Prize in 1975. He describes certain aspects of his life and work, and responds to the criticism prompted by the recognition of [...]

The eleventh issue of Nervo Óptico shows the sequential photographic record of a performance presented by Flávio Pons, Cláudio Goulart and Vera Chaves Barcellos in Amsterdam in February 1978. Entitled On Ice, the event consisted of a gradual [...]

This tenth issue of Nervo Óptico, still on an atypical bimonthly schedule, is double the usual size (32cm x 45cm) and folded in the middle. Its cover has the title “Urban Stories: Sociedade Anónima”. In addition, it bears this notice: “Any [...]

Mathias Goeritz describes two projects proposed to the then-president of the organizing committee of the 19th Olympic Games, architect Pedro Ramírez Vázquez: the International Meeting of Sculptors and The Route of Friendship. The artist describes [...]

This 1978 interview with Enrique Grau by artists Álvaro Herazo and Delfina Bernal provides insight into how Grau viewed the art world. In it, Grau discusses his aesthetic concerns and beliefs as a painter, as well as his inclinations and points of [...]

León Ferrari writes a detailed evaluation of Tucumán Arde [Tucumán is Burning], framing it within the previous events (Itinerario del ’68) [Timetable for 1968]. In it he points out that “its purpose was to make art into a revolutionary tool, [...]

According to Frederico Morais, the emergence of audiovisual work in several exhibition halls was linked to the introduction of the “object” category that freed up other more traditional categories. In his opinion, “the object” implied a [...]

Julio Marsagot—the nom de plume used by Julio Porter—describes and reviews the work presented by Liliana Porter at the Liliana Porter exhibition at the Galería Colibrí, in San Juan (January 12–31, 1974). The writer discusses how Porter plays [...]

The artist Rubens Gerchman discusses Pare, the exhibition he jointly presented with Roberto Magalhães, Antonio Dias, Carlos Vergara, and Pedro Escosteguy at the G-4 gallery in Rio de Janeiro in April 1966. Gerchman explains that the exhibition [...]

This is the fourth issue of the publication Nervo Óptico. This issue publishes “fake news” signed by the artist Carlos Pasquetti. Looking like news in a community newspaper, a photograph covers the entire editorial space, with the headline: “ [...]

The signatories of this manifesto—a statement of solidarity with the struggle of the Brazilian people defending freedom of expression in all areas—are opposed to the dictatorship’s practice of using art as a symbol of prestige for the military [...]

This text was written to explain that—due to the rising cost of paper, printing, and stamps—the Centro de Arte y Comunicación [Art and Communication Center] would no longer be mailing the (free) newsletters that kept recipients informed about [...]

With this letter, Peruvian painter Milner Cajahuaringa rejects the honorable mention granted his work at the Concurso Nacional de Pintura [National Painting Contest] organized by the so-called Gobierno Revolucionario de las Fuerzas Armadas in 1970, [...]

In this text, Victor Alejandro Sorell writes that Chicago State University observed the 66th anniversary of the Mexican Revolution with a dedication of an eight-panel portable mural by Raymond Patlan entitled El Grito de la Raza Cósmica, [The Cry of [...]

The image of a mask was used as a prop in the happening called La Cultura de la Felicidad [The Culture of Happiness], which was staged as part of the Arte de Sistemas [Systems Art] exhibition (Buenos Aires: Museo de Arte Moderno, July 1971). The [...]

A collection of images from the happening called “Cementerio” [Cemetery], which was staged as part of the Arte de Sistemas [Systems Art] exhibition (Buenos Aires: Museo de Arte Moderno, July 1971). The work consisted of a cluster of crosses, each [...]

This timeline tracks the life of Puerto Rican artist Rafael Tufiño, who lived in New York and in Mexico City. Puerto Rican intellectuals Manuel Cárdenas Ruiz and Eugenio Fernández Méndez review the graphic work produced by Tufiño between the [...]

This interview features Luís Otávio Pimentel and Flammarion, the organizers of and participants in Orgramurbana, the happening at the Aterro do Flamengo beach in Rio de Janeiro in 1970. Both of them say that Orgramurbana was a “post concept” [...]

In this brief prologue to the catalogue of his exhibition Nedo: Reversámbitos held at the Museo de Bellas Artes in Caracas in 1973, Italian-born Venezuelan designer and artist Nedo [Mion Ferrario] describes his experience of space in terms of [...]

In his essay in the catalogue for the exhibition titled Antonio Berni: oleos y collages [Antonio Berni: Oil Paintings and Collages] (Buenos Aires, Imagen Galería de Arte, 1974), Berni writes about the Surrealist influence in his work, and about his [...]

Researcher and historian Bélgica Rodríguez analyzes the work of Hugo Baptista in a biographical text with quotations made by the painter; beginning with the artist’s move to Caracas in 1951 so that he could enroll in Vicente Emilio Sojo’s [...]

As President of the Artistic Solidarity Committee with Chile, Mário Pedrosa addresses then President Salvador Allende Gossens during the reception ceremony for the works that would make up the collection of the Museo de la Solidaridad in Santiago. [...]

Aracy A. Amaral asserts that there is no such thing as a unified expression of Latin American art, but instead a desire for cultural integration that has not yet been resolved. She understands that the countries of the Americas share common problems [...]

In this document, the critic Francisco Da Antonio develops a chronological essay on the life and work of Domenico Casasanta, starting in 1958, when the artist arrived in Venezuela. After almost a decade in which he produced no work, in 1968, the [...]

Luis Mario Schneider carried out the first documented study on Etridentismo; he interviewed the members of the group and thoroughly examined the archives of this 1920s avant-garde movement. Although the group left some accounts to history, this was [...]

This text presents the exhibition Dibujantes y grabadores colombianos held at theMuseo de Arte at the Universidad Nacional de Colombia in May 1975. Historian Álvaro Medina asserts that the exhibition brings together figurative artists representative [...]

The text, ¡Al Fin Pintura! (1976) [Painting, at Last!] was an introduction to the exhibition with the same name at the Galería Belarca in Bogotá, organized by Eduardo Serrano. This art critic emphasizes the acceptance of the drawing and the print [...]

The text clarifies that upon agreeing to the organization of a Contrabienal, as a protest against the 1971 São Paulo Biennial, the MICLA [Latin American Cultural Independence Movement] is not replacing one exhibition for another. Instead, it is [...]

This text reports that the students at the Bellas Artes schools, both the Prilidiano Pueyrredón and the Manuel Belgrano (Buenos Aires, Argentina), were detained and accused of usurpation; they had been meeting to guarantee the continuance of the [...]

In the introduction to the exhibition Solidaridad held at the Museo de Arte Moderno of Bogota, Colombia, in 1976, Argentine critic Marta Traba—who lived in Puerto Rico for many years—explains that the Museo de la Solidaridad Salvador Allende was [...]

This text provides a brief description of the aims of the New York Graphic Workshop (NYGW) from the time of its founding in 1964. It states that the works exhibited in the show, The New Graphic Workshop (Caracas: Instituto Nacional de Cultura y [...]

Darío Ruiz Gómez introduces the exhibition Darío Jiménez: Obras 1942-1979 [Darío Jiménez: Works 1942-1979] at the Galería Belarca in Bogotá. In this essay Ruiz Gómez states that Colombian art lives off “institutionalized aesthetic truths [...]

In the catalogue for the first edition of the Salón Atenas exhibitions, Eduardo Serrano Rueda explains the project’s goal of supporting local emerging artists and promoting their work. After stating the rules that were developed to ensure the open [...]