Documents of Latin American and Latino Art

This [document is a commentary by] Mercedes Gallagher de Parks on artistic activities in Lima during the summer of 1943, including plays by Louis Jouvet, performances of Coronel de Bassil’s Russian ballet, and concerts by the Sociedad Filarmónica [...]

This militant text, published about a week after the inauguration of the exhibition sharing the title with the journal—1927, justifies the program of the radical artistic renewal that both the show and 1927: revista de avance proposed. The author, [...]

In this essay, Joaquín Torres García attempts to link this sociopolitical doctrine with that of modern art after presenting a succinct historical review starting from “primitive communism” up through the Marxist doctrine. He does so by [...]

In this article, Luis Eduardo Pombo reveals himself as the first Uruguayan art critic to ideologically wrap himself in the aesthetics of David Alfaro Siqueiros. Generally, even the commentaries made by those intellectuals closest to the Mexican [...]

In his famous “Manifiesto 1,” Joaquín Torres García repudiates the article published in the Confederación de Trabajadores Intelectuales del Uruguay’s journal Movimiento. Torres García’s text, in turn, occasioned “Contestando a Torres [...]

This article by Gustavo Valcárcel reports on the award that David Alfaro Siqueiros received at the XXV Biennale di Venezia held in 1950. It was, in the author’s view, only due to “sentimental French chauvinism” that Henri Matisse received [...]

Commentary by Luis Miró Quesada Garland on the Mexican art exhibition organized by La Crónica newspaper. The author begins by recognizing the quality of the exhibition as a holistic view on Mexican painting within the last few years. Nevertheless, [...]

This is the first of two articles by Sebastián Salazar Bondy, published under the pseudonym “Juan Eye,” on the Mexican art exhibition organized in Lima by La Crónica newspaper. The author believes the show is exceptional for its positive [...]

In his weekly column in the El Comercio newspaper, Luis Miró Quesada Garland discusses the relationship between ethics and art as part of the debate prompted by the survey about “classical” painting and “modern” painting that was sponsored [...]

In response to the aesthetic opinions expressed by the architect Luis Miró Quesada Garland, who vehemently denied any influence between society and art, the author states that it is obvious that “the great art movements have had an influence on [...]

After explaining that the exhibition includes recent works as well as others that have been shown on previous occasions, the reviewer states that the artist “captures a clearer and broader view of Peruvian landscapes, people, and customs than other [...]

This document is an essay by Jacinto Quirarte outlining key moments in the history of modern Mexican and Mexican-American art in the United States. It begins with a discussion of the Mexican School, detailing central figures, sociopolitical [...]

This document is an essay by Rupert Garcia that considers the educational and political potential of two distinct but contemporaneous modes of aesthetic practice—easel painting and muralism— championed by the artists of the School of Paris and [...]

This document is a short manifesto written in 1959 by the Argentinean collective, Grupo Espartaco. The writers denote the importance of art as revolutionary and state that their mission is to integrate the visual arts with political action and social [...]

André Salmon introduces Lola Cueto’s work by referring to certain moments that he considers important. He suggests that Edouard Manet’s painting, La Muerte de Maximiliano [The Death of Maximilian], was Mexico’s debut in the visual arts. [...]

On the occasion of an exhibition at the Instituto de Bellas Artes de Medellín that included paintings by Colombian artists such as Paulina Uribe de Escobar and Carlos Correa, the journalist José Mejía y Mejía published an article in which he [...]

In this introduction to her book En busca de lo propio, the art historian and critic Ivonne Pini sets forth her methodological principles and the basic questions that guided her research. First, the author states the need to undertake a study of [...]

In his introduction to the book Luis Alberto Acuña: estudio biográfico y crítico, the Ukrainian art historian, critic, and nationalized Colombian, Juan Friede, sets out to clarify his own view of the meaning of art criticism. He believes that the [...]

In this extensive article, Spanish sculptor Jorge de Oteiza examines the connections between art from the Americas and art from Europe, urging American artists not to fall into a fanatical independence and eschew the essential influence of European [...]

The article “El expresionismo como síntoma de pereza e inhabilidad en el arte” [Expressionism as a Symptom of Laziness and Inability in Art] expresses the opinion held in traditional political circles in Colombia concerning avant-garde modern [...]

In this article, the Colombian writer and critic Luis Vidales evaluates aesthetic methods based on spiritual causality, as distinct from positivist doctrines that seek causality in external phenomena. He suggests that style—that is, the technical [...]

This document is a handwritten entry from the journal of Carlos Almaraz that begins with a discussion of his uneasiness about the idea of Conceptual art and disconnection from the everyday life of most people. He also recounts doubts regarding his [...]

In this document, Margarita Nieto details the influence of the School of Mexican Painting on the artistic production in the United States during the twenty-year period preceding World War II. She argues that contact between the two countries during [...]

This document is a 1977 calendar produced by the Movimiento Artístico Chicano (MARCH), which includes biographies and reproductions of works by twelve Chicago-area Chicano artists, one for each month. Significant dates in Chicano history are also [...]

In this text, Shifra Goldman examines the problematic homogenization of the idea of “Hispanic” art and culture that was promoted by the exhibition Hispanic Art in the United States: Thirty Contemporary Painters and Sculptors organized by The [...]

Author Dorothy Chaplik provides an overview of the life and art of Alejandro Romero, a recognized Chicago-based Mexican painter and muralist. She traces his artistic career from his childhood in Tabasco and youth and Mexico City, when he first [...]

In this brief consideration of Alejandro Romero’s œuvre, author Victor A. Sorell discusses the impact of Chicago, Romero’s adopted home, on his works. Romero invokes the industrial ambience and architectural totems of this city in his pieces, [...]

In this text, Victor A. Sorell considers the works of the three Chicago-based, Mexican muralists Aurelio Díaz Alfaro, Marcos Raya, and Vicente Mendoza through the prism of what he characterizes as three language types—“private,” “public,” [...]

Art historian Shifra M. Goldman writes with great acuity and depth about the traveling exhibition, Art of the Fantastic: Latin America, 1920–1987, which opened at the Indianapolis Museum of Art in 1987, and subsequently went to the Queens [...]

In this text, Damián Bayón introduces a collection of essays on Latin American art with a broad overview of what he argues are the most critical issues when considering the historical and contemporary art of the region as a whole. He begins by [...]

In this essay, art historian Shifra M. Goldman addresses Chicano mural art in the United States, which began as an independent movement around 1970. Goldman discusses the influences of Mexican muralism, especially that of Los Tres Grandes, Diego [...]

In this essay, Ricardo Romo discusses the vibrant tradition of Chicano muralism, proposing as his goals both an examination of the historical evolution of murals painted in borderland states across the United States (California, Arizona, New Mexico, [...]

In this article, the Chicano artist and poet Koyokuikatl (Carlos Cortez) considers the revolutionary spirit of Diego Rivera’s art on the occasion of an exhibition at the Detroit Institute of Art celebrating the centennial of Rivera’s birth (1886- [...]

In this catalogue essay, Victor Alejandro Sorell considers the 36-year career (spanning 1964–2000) of the Chicano artist Carlos Cortez, praising him as the “quintessential artist-reporter,” and emphasizing his virtuosity as a master printmaker [...]

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 text, Alfred H. Barr, Jr. introduces the catalog of the collection of Latin American art of the Museum of Modern Art with remarks reviewing the history of the museum’s involvement with Latin American art and recent efforts to expand its [...]

In this text, Mariano Picón-Salas praises the greatness of Diego Rivera’s art and recounts the outsized presence of his persona in public life. He begins by recounting how, like the great masters of the Italian Renaissance, the figure of Rivera [...]

In this text, Saúl Yurkievich examines how Latin American art has been affected by its context, arguing that even as art becomes increasingly autonomous it is still a means of communication and as such must be considered in relationship to the [...]

In this text, Eduardo Avilés Ramírez responds to the question that the editors of revista de avance posed to their readers: “What should American art be?” He specifically addresses each of the four sub-questions grouped under this larger [...]

In this lecture, Martí Casanovas distinguishes the activities of the group of artists in the exhibition 1927 from those of other contemporary progressives by arguing that their art seeks to convey humanistic and collective meanings to a broad and [...]

According to Ceferino Palencia, the Spanish art critic living in exile in Mexico, Frida Kahlo’s pictorial art was an eloquent example of will in service to sensitivity. Palencia speaks of Frida’s lifelong rebellion against her mother’s violent [...]

Arguing that art history must always account for precedents and influences, art historian Jacinto Quirarte’s essay traces the way in which Mexican muralists influenced American artists during the 1930s. The author suggests that, in this case, [...]

In his introduction to Método de Dibujo [Drafting Method], José Juan Tablada identifies it as a weapon in the struggle to establish harmony and democracy amid the chaos and authoritarianism in the artistic milieu. He states that the process at work [...]

According to Arnold Belkin, “the Canadian son of Mexican mural painting,” the imperialist policy of the United States of America toward Latin America, as well as the prevailing climate of repression there, prompted many Latin American artists to [...]

The article is a review of the Exposición de arte mexicano [Exhibition of Mexican Art] that was held at the Hospital Juárez. It included paintings, sculpture, and engravings by Mexican artists such as Diego Rivera, Roberto Montenegro, Carlos Orozco [...]

In the prologue to the catalogue of the 1935 exhibition of contemporary Mexican art, Mexican artist Jorge Juan Crespo de la Serna provides a brief overview of Mexican art from the time of the Mayans until the present. He asserts that Mexican art, [...]

This document contains a composition for piano and chorus from the original score of Llamadas. Sinfonía proletaria [The Call. Proletariat Symphony], composed by Carlos Chávez and edited by the cultural officials of Mexico. It includes 17 [...]

Given the circumstances of the time, David Alfaro Siqueiros advocated that art should be transparent and dedicated to the struggle; it should be a tool for propaganda that was also open to technical innovation. In his opinion, pure art should wait [...]

Leobardo Reynoso, the representative for the Partido Revolucionario Mexicano (PRM) [Mexican Revolutionary Party], questions the president concerning any Communist influence in the government. President Lázaro Cárdenas replies that there is not and [...]

In 1948, many years after their relationship ended, Graciela Amador relates events from her life with David Alfaro Siqueiros in four articles. This fourth and last article tells how the governor of Jalisco, José Guadalupe Zuno invited Siqueiros to [...]