Documents of Latin American and Latino Art

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 newspaper article is about the first Festival Americano de Pintura, organized by the IAC (Instituto de Arte Contemporáneo) and the Asociación Cultural Jueves as part of the Festivales de Lima. The article quotes the Argentinean critic and [...]

The renowned art critic Jorge Romero Brest, formed part of the jury of the first Festival Americano de Pintura together with the Venezuelan art critic and collector Inocente Palacios and the Peruvian architect Luis Miró Quesada Garland. In this [...]

Argentine critic Jorge Romero Brest remarks that he was not invited to participate in the symposium “El artista latinoamericano y su identidad” [The Latin American Artist and His Identity] held at the University of Texas en Austin in October 1975 [...]

Martita Romero Brest, the wife of Argentine critic Jorge Romero Brest, discusses the construction of their houses, in City Bell and Punta Indio (Argentina), which were designed by the self-taught artist Edgardo Giménez [...]

This brief but thorough review by the Argentine critic Damián Bayón explores the development of Argentine art from the eighteenth century to the present day. He mentions artists, architects, and sculptors who have helped to define the concept of [...]

In this essay, Aracy Amaral discusses the career of the historian and art critic Damián Carlos Bayón, stressing the important role that he and Marta Traba played throughout the Americas by fostering a deeper understanding of Latin American art. [...]

Making use of anecdotes, Córdova Iturburu wrote of his understanding of Alberto Greco and his work Mi Madrid querido [My Beloved Madrid]. Relying on Jorge Romero Brest’s comments, he recounted how he familiarized himself with “pintura espectá [...]

The critic wrote on the recovery of different figurative approaches, with a predominance of Expressionist tendencies; operating in dialectical synthesis was a combination of realistic and abstract elements. González Tuñón associated the pintores [...]

The text by Horacio Safons critically analyzes the national prize. Although he agrees, with certain reservations, with the distinction awarded to Marta Minujín, he expresses his complete disagreement with the works of Emilio Renart. Safons [...]

Regulations stating both which are the invited artists and the value of the prizes and norms that will be ruling the presentation of the artworks; this includes the materials to be attached and the deadlines [...]

This document transcribes a poster that appeared in the window of a commercial gallery near the Instituto Torcuato Di Tella [Torcuato Di Tella Institute] in Buenos Aires. The text, dated 10 p.m. on September 30, 1966, mentions the idea of [...]

This document is a letter written by Roberto Cortés Conde, who succeeded engineer Enrique Oteiza as Director of the Instituto Torcuato di Tella [Torcuato Di Tella Institute]. (Buenos Aires); it is addressed to Samuel Paz and, in accordance with the [...]

This report details developments since May 14, the opening day of the Experiencias 1968 [1968 Practices]. It reports on the presence of the police and the municipal authorities due to a complaint regarding a happening presented at the Instituto [...]

Eduardo Felipe Nero, the editor of the news agency Servicio Informativo Continental (Argentina), reports on the incidents caused by Roberto Plate’s work Baño [Bathroom]. The article comments on the reports by some media sources regarding the [...]

In his position as the vice-president of the Sociedad Argentina de Artistas Plásticos (SAAP), the artist Ignacio Colombres sent a letter to the director de Artes Plásticas del Instituto Torcuato Di Tella; in it he condems the closure of one of the [...]

This entire issue of the magazine Ovum 10 is dedicated to a report on Tucumán Arde [Tucumán is Burning]. The brief introduction, which precedes the documentary anthology, presents the work as “one of the most important and explosive actions [...]

This report includes an extensive unsigned article as well as a number of important documents and photos. It begins by presenting the placement and positions of “the boldest artists of their country…and one of the most brilliant teams of the [...]

This United States academic journal disseminates the translation of the Cronología [Chronology] prepared by the artists reporting on the events that occurred throughout 1968, as well as other documents of their timetable, although with modified [...]

This article describes the characteristics of the works included in the exhibition Sexteto [Sextet] (Buenos Aires: Galería Lirolay, 1964) and reprints the artists’ opinions regarding the show’s classification as Pop art, a term [...]

Act setting the regulations for the second call to participate in the Torcuato Di Tella Institute Prize. According to the second paragraph of the text, the contest will take place among painters, who—if invited—will show five works each. It also [...]

This text introduces the conferences organized by Eduardo González Lanuza at Galería PROAR. His intention is not to speak from an aesthetic point of view on La Menesunda [Hodgepodge] but rather of Jorge Romero Brest’s [...]

In his function as the Secretary General of the Instituto Torcuato Di Tella [Torcuato Di Tella Institute], Mario T. Marzana, communicates to the aforementioned institution’s personnel the proceedings that led to the closure of Roberto Plate’s [...]

Samuel Paz wrote this letter to Jorge Romero Brest while the former was in Paris. It refers to the details of the negotiations with different galleries to secure the works for the Premio Torcuato Di Tella 1967 [1967 Torcuato Di Tella Prize]. Paz [...]

The text analyzes the happenings that took place at the Instituto Torcuato Di Tella [The Torcuato De Tella Institute] as an “exhibitionist neurosis.” It likewise makes reference to similar activities held during the same period at [...]

This document is a letter from Samuel Paz to Jorge Romero Brest, who was visiting New York at that time. It reports the latest news regarding the Centro de Artes Visuales del ITDT [Art Center at the Torcuato Di Tella Institute] linked to the [...]

This document is a letter from Samuel Paz to Jorge Romero Brest, who was visiting the United States at that time. It reports the steps taken to attain the participation of artists Kenneth Noland, Morris Louis, Pol Bury and Mark Brusse for the Premio [...]

This negative critical commentary by Daniel Alberto Dessein points out that, although the exhibition costs of La Menesunda [Hodgepodge] were well-known, its content proved so surprising to the public that it became reminiscent of the millions [...]

This is a letter Samuel Paz wrote in New York to Jorge Romero Brest, in which he provides the details regarding the negotiations with different galleries undertaken to obtain works that would participate in the Premio Torcuato Di Tella 1967. [The [...]

[This document is] is a letter sent by the Director of the Stedelijk Museum [City Museum] of Amsterdam, Dr. E. de Wilde to Jorge Romero Brest, in relation to the invitation extended to him to act as a jury member for the Premio Internacional Di Tella [...]

Regulations announcing both the artists invited to participate at the Torcuato Di Tella Institute Prize (1963) and the amount of the award as well as the norms ruling the presentation of the artworks. Materials to be attached and deadlines are also [...]

Lawrence Oliver expresses his opinion here on Jorge Romero Brest’s methods at the Premio Torcuato Di Tella [Torcuato Di Tella Prize], specifically in terms of the support provided to the most talented artists that enabled them to present works they [...]

Pablo Suarez’s letter is defined as a work of art. It is, at the same time, a quit of his participation in the exhibition, which he handed out to the attending public at the Experiencias 1968 [The 1968 Visual Practices]. The author starts by [...]

Argentinean art critic Rafael Squirru, then general director of cultural relations at the Foireign Office of Argentina responds to the survey sent by Jorge Romero Brest regarding both the means for and the actual selection of the artists for the 1962 [...]

The Argentinean art critic Cayetano Córdova Iturburu responds to the survey sent by Jorge Romero Brest in regards to both to the means for and the actual selection of the artists for the 1962 Torcuato Di Tella Institute Prize. The critic proposes to [...]

After being invited to participate in the Torcuato Di Tella National Prize (Buenos Aires), the artist Claudio Girola sends this letter from Chile to Jorge Romero Brest thanking him for his inclusion but declining the invitation for personal reasons [...]

After receiving a telegram about the exhibition in the Torcuato Di Tella Institute, Alicia Penalba communicates her agreement to the terms therein to Jorge Romero Brest, although she believes that precautions must be taken due to the political [...]

Act by means of which the Di Tella Institute Prize is instituted. Yearly, it will be conferred to painters, sculptors, engravers-printers, ceramists, and other artists, to be decided. Likewise, in this document it is also established that the [...]

This is one of the key documents bringing to the fore the increasingly political radicalization of the late 1960s Argentinean avant-garde artists, as was demonstrated dramatically by a number of groups in a crucial year: 1968. The document is written [...]

Eduardo Ruano’s leaflet denounces the “cultural machine,” identifies a number of recent acts of censorship at different official art institutions (the Museo Nacional de Bellas Artes, the Museo de Arte Moderno de Buenos Aires), and denounces the [...]

This article reports on Eduardo Ruano’s budding artistic career, which was interrupted by his violent political actions at the museum. It also shows that the authorities were mistaken in believing that Ruano’s work was actually the panel that had [...]

Rafael Alberti comments on León Ferrari’s work, on photographs he sent him regarding the Vietnam War. He transcribes his poem “Vietnam.” Ironic comments about León Ferrari’s political work’s possible exhibition at Instituto Torcuato Di [...]

León Ferrari discusses certain aspects of the press coverage of his book, Palabras ajenas [Other People’s Words]. He writes about the artistic milieu and the controversy stirred up by artists in response to the Torcuato Di Tella Institute’s [...]

This is an open letter written to Jorge Romero Brest, director of the magazine Ver y estimar [See and Ponder], in which Margherita Sarfatti expresses her opinions on Abstract art. Based on the epigraph that introduces the letter, this debate [...]

In this show of the Argentinean group Otra Figuración [Another Figuration] at Galería Bonino in Rio de Janeiro, the Brazilian writer and art critic Geraldo Ferraz points out the definition by Jorge Romero-Brest made at the exhibition of the New [...]

The critic Ernesto Schóo points out the significant texts on Informal Art up to that time. Schóo undercores the contradictions between the authors’ concepts, for which art is defined by formal will, spurring Schóo to criticize the term “ [...]