Documents of Latin American and Latino Art

In his introductory essay, Frederico Morais identifies the basic criteria underpinning the three retrospective exhibitions that were presented as part of the Ciclo de exposições sobre arte no Rio de Janeiro (1984). He briefly discusses [...]

Luiza Interlenghi, in her role as curator, interviews the artist Ubi Bava, asking him about his involvement in what came to be known as the Salão Preto e Branco (Black-and-White Salon) in Rio de Janeiro in 1954. He explains that, with so few [...]

In this statement, Iberê Camargo recalls how the third Salão Nacional de Arte Moderna, also known as the Salão Preto e Branco (Black-and-White Salon), was planned as a protest against the Brazilian Finance Minister Osvaldo Aranha& [...]

In his testimony the critic Ferreira Gullar describes his involvement in the third Salão Nacional de Arte Moderna, also called the Salón Blanco y Negro (Black-and-White Salon), in 1954. At that point in time he was not a professional [...]

In this introductory essay, “La huelga del color” (The Color Strike), Glória Ferreira includes an article that had appeared in the newspaper Correio da Manhã on May 16, 1954. The article described the third Salão [...]

In his introductory essay, Paulo Herkenhoff describes the 1954 Salão Nacional de Arte Moderna —also known as the Black-and-White Salon—as a political statement that was expressed in an official exhibition space. In protest against [...]

In this brief review, Bill Caro discusses his own career, ranging from his 1972 exhibition (focused on Lima shantytowns) to his interest in light that became one of the key facets of his work in the 1980s. Caro states that “photographing is as [...]

[This article is] a debate between the German Marxist intellectual Iring Fetscher and the writer Mirko Lauer for the Peruvian magazine U-tópicos Entornoalovisual, moderated by Gustavo Buntinx, the editor of the magazine. This issue of the magazine [...]

This editorial was published in number 4/5 (1984) of U-tópicos. Entornoalovisual, the Peruvian magazine. In the text, Gustavo Buntinx states that, while the Marxist proposal has yet to be carried out, Marxism itself tends to be distorted and reduced [...]

This editorial appeared in number 2/3 (1983) of the magazine U-tópicos: Entornoalovisual (Lima). The text refers to the ongoing failures of the Peruvian government’s cultural organizations over the course of two decades, including the “ [...]

On the back cover of number 4/5 of the magazine U-tópicos: Entornoalovisual (Lima, 1984), a brief anonymous article discusses the iconographic scenes painted on truck mudguards. The writer points out that, despite being ignored “by [...]

To provide context for non-object art in Peru, researcher Hugo Salazar del Alcázar briefly cites theorist Juan Acha. Salazar del Alcázar is critical, however, in his description of a scene that in no way partakes of the avant-garde enthusiasm Acha [...]

In this review for the journal Imagen (Number 34, Caracas, October 1-15, 1968) the Venezuelan poet, painter and art critic Juan Calzadilla discusses the work of Chilean mail artist Dámaso Ogaz. Calzadilla reviews Ogaz’s volume of poetry Imaginary [...]

This is an example of the Mail Art correspondence delivered by Octaedro, a group that emerged in late 1978 in Montevideo. In this case,  Juan Carlos Iglesias, one of the members of the Uruguayan group, is the author. It consists  [...]

Fernando Álvarez Cozzi, a member of the Octaedro group, created this text as a piece of mail art. In the text, the Uruguayan artist reflects on artistic freedom and the challenges involved in exercising it at difficult time in Uruguayan history [...]

This essay is on the second exhibition presented by the Octaedro group in Montevideo in the Cultural Alliance of Uruguay and the United States. The exhibition and its catalogue were considered defiant of the political circumstances the people of [...]

The curator Iris Peruga discusses the structure and content of the collection of works at the Museo de Bellas Artes de Caracas. She names artists and works, and links them to various key moments in the museum’s history. In her essay she talks about [...]

Los Otros was a group active in Uruguay from 1979 to 1982, at the end of the military dictatorship (1973–84). It formulated innovative and ephemeral projects for alternative spaces. This text, written by the group, levels harsh and ironic criticism [...]

The catalogue for the 1981 exhibition held at the Galería del Notariado by the group Axioma, expresses concerns about the critical view of the new artistic trends and their connection to the local environment. The group chose, by way of [...]

This essay is about a document that pertains to the exhibition and catalogue on the group Axioma that was held at the Galería del Notariado in 1982; it mentions the members of the group without a description or analysis of their exhibition concept. [...]

This is an essay on the exhibition presented by Nelbia Romero in conjunction with collaborators belonging to different artistic disciplines. This short 1983 publication relates an historical event that occurred in Uruguay in the nineteenth century of [...]

This document is a presentation and description of the performance organized by Mercedes Sayagués Areco, along with Eduardo Kepekian and Hugo Cardozo, on the esplanade of the Museo Nacional de Artes Plásticas in Montevideo on September 12, 1982. [...]

In this essay, the journalist Mercedes Sayagués analyzed the feasibility of new artistic ideas being formulated during the last dictatorial years in Uruguay. The projects being considered tried to abolish the traditional boundaries established [...]

Clever Lara’s work is reviewed by the critic Ángel Kalenberg, who was also in charge of Uruguay’s contribution to the XLII Venice Biennial (1986). In Kalenberg’s opinion, Lara’s work is representative of the kind of painting that was [...]

From a Uruguayan perspective, visual artist and performer Clemente Padín discusses the importance of Mail Art in Latin America, as well as the problems it faces. In this article, he explains the origins of Mail Art as a movement for international [...]

This document is an interview with Peruvian critic and theorist Juan Acha, who lived in Mexico. It sheds light on the uncertainties and concerns facing “art in Latin America” from the perspective of Uruguay and the countries of the Southern Cone [...]

This unsigned interview with Argentinean critic Jorge Romero Brest published in the weekly Jaque is somewhat alarmist. The main topics addressed—the decline of easel painting in the world over, the avant-garde experience at the Instituto Di Tella [...]

This is the Brazilian art critic and curator Walter Zanini’s official invitation to Clemente Padín, asking him to take part in the XVI Bienal Internacional de São Paulo, in 1981. The document created a “diplomatic” incident that was solved [...]

Clemente Padín describes and discusses his vision as a creator and promoter of Mail Art in the 1970s in Uruguay. He approaches the subject from the broad perspective of the movement’s worldwide activities, providing a comparative analysis that [...]

In this essay the critic Gabriel Peluffo discusses the artistic and cultural policies that were introduced during the Gabriel Terra dictatorship (the so-called period of political terrismo, 1933–1938), and the institutional map that was proposed [...]

In this essay published in 1985, educator and literary critic Roberto de Espada describes the situation of the visual arts in Uruguay in the sixties. He analyzes how informalism was assimilated and internalized by important artists in the country and [...]

In this letter dated June 20, 1988, the English critic and curator Guy Brett expresses his gratitude to the Brazilian collector Adolpho Leirner and his wife, Fulvia Leirner, for the time they spent together in São Paolo. Brett is especially [...]

Mail Art was started in the United States in the 1960s and quickly caught on in the rest of the world. Clemente Padín—the author of this article and one of the artists who worked in this style among many others (he was a performer, poet, and was [...]

This is a report on how artists at the CGM (Club de Grabado de Montevideo) dealt with new techniques designed for the reproduction of images. The report reviews new printing systems, such as offset, and mentions the increasing popularity of silk [...]

This is a review of the financial situation at the CGM (Club de Grabado de Montevideo, founded in 1953) in early 1983, at a time when, after ten years of civilian-military dictatorship, Uruguay appeared to be easing its way toward a democratic future [...]

The April/May 1983 issue (Nº 16) of the Club de Grabado de Montevideo’s newsletter begins with an open invitation to the Mini Grabado Internacional de Cadaqués (on the Costa Brava in Spain, in August 1983). There is a reference to the CGM members [...]

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 [...]

This informative and didactic article, published by the CGM (Club de Grabado de Montevideo), describes and explains a range of art styles that emerged and were developed in the United States and Europe after the Second World War. Referring to the [...]

This essay discusses the function of art criticism. The objective is to present a theoretical comparison between what criticism “should be” and the actual situation in Uruguay, especially during the period of authoritarian rule when the essay was [...]

The artist Luis Mazzey, a member of the Club de Grabado de Montevideo, where he was also an instructor, was interviewed a few days after his 86th birthday. He provides an overview of his career and his ideas concerning the artistic nature of [...]

This is the second part of the interview with the artist Óscar Ferrando, the Secretary General of the Club de Grabado de Montevideo. The main subject of the interview is the trip that Ferrando took to several cities in the United States as a guest [...]

This is the first part of an interview in which Óscar Ferrando, the Secretary General of the Club de Grabado de Montevideo, discusses his trip to the United States (to Washington, Chicago, and New York) as a guest instructor from the Instituto [...]

In this document, the art critic and historian Olga Larnaudie discusses the art that Uruguayan artists were making in the early 1980s. The author looks at long term processes, basing her views on the writings of the Argentinean writer and critic Aldo [...]

The crisis and feelings of “remorse” (that, in this case, connotes political impotence) of the 1980s were the result of more than ten years of military dictatorship that had effectively dismantled the network of cultural organizations that had [...]

Drawing on the perspective gained from her association with the CGM (Club de Grabado de Montevideo), Olga Larnaudie describes the general dissatisfaction and sense of crisis she sees in the visual arts community in Uruguay. She was writing in the [...]

The article titled “Opiniones I” in the Boletín N° 12 (1982) published by the CGM (Club de Grabado de Montevideo) provides the Uruguayan reader with an appraisal of the current state of contemporary art, which the author claims is facing a [...]

In this 1981 transcript of an interview with Chicana muralist Judy Baca, artist Diane Neumaier discusses Baca’s artistic and political process as she reveals the steps involved in the implementation of a citywide mural project in Los [...]

In this opinion piece, Ana Tiscornia addresses the second Bienal de La Habana. Rather than describe specific works or artists, she assesses the objective of the event in relation to the political framework of the eighties. The notion of the “Third [...]

In this essay, numerous questions are raised relating to national and continental identity in Latin America, after eleven years (1973–84) under military dictatorship. There is a manifest recognition of both the reality of underdevelopment, as well [...]

When news reached Montevideo that the artist Carlos Fossatti had died in France, the Boletín del Club de Grabado de Montevideo published a review of his life and work. Fossatti was the CGM’s ideological guide in the mid-1960s, and one of the top [...]