Documents of Latin American and Latino Art

The poet Iván Silén writes about what Puerto Rican painting is and aspires to be. He believes that painting in Puerto Rico has become “insulated” and has been seriously harmed by foreign “isms.” He mentions that certain artists are the [...]

This exhibition catalog, Chicago Latino, was part of an intercultural dialogue initiated by two “socially-minded arts groups,” the 369 Gallery of Edinburgh, Scotland, and the Near Northwest Arts Council of Chicago, Illinois. The exhibition [...]

Painter Bertha Husband takes it for granted that Puerto Rican artist Elizam Escobar analyzes the ideas and images to be developed in his work in advance. However, it is pointless to give explanations or make judgments on the works [based on those [...]

An American feminist critic, Lucy R. Lippard, writes an analysis of the works of Puerto Rican artist Elizam Escobar. In so doing, she makes use of the aesthetic and political positions of the artist, who has dedicated his life both to art and to the [...]

This is an interview by Puerto Rican journalist Larissa Vázquez Zapata of Elizam Escobar, an artist and political prisoner, released after 19 years in U.S. federal prison. In the interview, he reflects on how for him, art turned into an “act of [...]

In this interview of Elizam Escobar by Puerto Rican poet Ché Meléndez, five years after the artist was set free, Escobar comments on the psychological weight of what turned out to be 20 years in prison. As Meléndez questions him, Escobar responds [...]

In this interview of Puerto Rican artist Elizam Escobar by journalist Leticia Cortez, the subjects discussed include politics and an overview of Escobar’s concepts as an artist and thinker. The interview also focuses on his time as a prisoner in a [...]

This document is a proposal for The Puerto Rican Equation, an exhibition to commemorate the 1898 invasion of Puerto Rico by the United States, and which would feature Puerto Rican artists who were born and lived in either Puerto Rico or the United [...]

In this essay [written in 1996], Puerto Rican artist and critic José A. Torres Martinó, talks about the work of Elizam Escobar, who was chosen to illustrate a publication called Periolibros. The writer believes the exposure and dissemination that [...]

“The Artists Respond: Art, Culture, Politics” is a transcript of artists’ responses to questions posed by Juan Sánchez, curator of the exhibition The Puerto Rican Equation: Puerto Rican Artists Ponder 100 Years Since the 1898 Invasion. Among [...]

Curator and artist Juan Sánchez compares colonialism to an epidemic that causes physical and mental harm. He maintains that the will of the Puerto Rican people to survive colonial oppression is manifested in their culture. Quoting from the writings [...]