Documents of Latin American and Latino Art

Martí Casanovas, a Catalan journalist who resided in Cuba, relates the resurgence of Indianism in Mexico with a modification in economic and social structures. Despite the opposition it faced in the late twenties, the Mexican Revolution progressed; [...]

In this text, Martí Casanovas responds to a letter by Franz Tamayo considering the question of what direction the development of Indio-American culture should take. Distinguishing his philosophy from Tamayo’s, Casanovas explains that he believes [...]

The article written by the researcher Pilar García de Germenos presents the cultural biography of Alfredo Ramos Martínez from 1910 to 1920, to help our understanding of the changes he implemented at the Escuela Nacional de Bellas Artes. During [...]

This essay, written by Francisco Díaz de León, director of the Escuela de Pintura al Aire Libre [Open-Air Schools of Painting] in Tlalpan, explains that the Schools favor an aesthetic education and individual expression over technical education. He [...]

This article, written by Rafael Vera de Córdoba, director of the Escuela al Aire Libre [Open-Air School] in Xochimilco, provides a detailed description of the School’s teaching method. He refers to the students as children with no prior experience [...]

This text by writer and chronicler, Salvador Novo, provides a brief history of the Escuelas de Pintura al Aire Libre [Open-Air Schools of Painting], beginning with their origins in 1913 and continuing through to the time of the writing of this text. [...]

This text underscores the originality, expression and strength of the works created at the Escuelas de Pintura al Aire Libre [Open-Air Schools of Painting], arguing that these qualities are the product of racial purity and that as mestizaje [racial [...]

This text presents the Escuelas de Pintura al Aire Libre [Open-Air Schools of Painting] and its creative production as evidence that Mexican children have a natural artistic disposition. It also associates this disposition with their indigenous blood [...]

The writer Alardo Prats is pleased about the recent mural executed by José A. Monroy at the new Ciudad Universitaria in Guadalajara: “In these times—hypocritical and sanctimonious as they are—this stance is an act of indisputable personal [...]

This article reviews the second exhibition of paintings by children at the Escuelas al Aire Libre [Open Air Schools] run by the Secretaría de Educación Pública [SEP, Ministry of Public Education]. The exhibition was held at the Palacio de Minería [...]

This article in the Excélsior newspaper reports on the visit Frances Flynn Paine, the American promoter of Mexican art, made to Mexico. She covered all the official institutions in the city in order to collect material for two shows on Mexican art [...]

To strengthen the idea of a modern art museum in Mexico, Carlos Román proposes that the modern and contemporary material accumulated in the warehouses of the Academia de San Carlos be added to the collection. He also suggests allocating public funds [...]

The poster “Protesta: De los Artistas Revolucionarios de México” [Mexican Revolutionary Artists: A Protest] shows the obviousness of the dispute between the students at the Escuela Nacional de Bellas Artes (ENBA) and the teachers [...]

Carlos Mérida states that he will base his commentary on the exhibition of the Escuelas Libres de Pintura [Open-Air Schools of Painting], taking place at the Palacio de Minería, on the writings of Dr. Atl (Gerardo Murillo), which he feels could [...]

In early 1929, García Moroto left Spain for New York, and later embarked for Cuba. Once in Cuba, he gave a lecture at the Spanish Embassy in Havana on November 6, 1929, on the occasion of the fifth exhibition of Cuba’s Escuelas de Acción Artí [...]

The old Guatemalan Estridentista, Arqueles Vela, muses on how the revolution influenced Mexican art. He does not believe that cubism or the poetry of the proletariat were the first fields to be affected; instead, he points to the corridos, the [...]

In the second treinta-treintista manifesto, the group declares the reason for its dispute. It states that the struggle between independent painters and the academics intensified when the presidency changed hands, since certain conservative teachers [...]

In this article, the author Margarita Nelken recalls her meeting in Madrid with the Mexican painter Alfredo Ramos Martínez who had at the time organized an exhibition of works produced by the Escuelas de Pintura al Aire Libre [Open-Air Painting [...]

The article comments that the honeymoon of the painter Alfredo Ramos Martínez as director of the Escuela Nacional de Bellas Artes has been eclipsed by the students in the Academy shouting for his resignation. At the same time, the students in the [...]

This short article reports on some painters’ comments on possible changes in the curriculum at the Escuela Nacional de Bellas Artes and the Escuelas de Pintura al Aire Libre [Open-Air Schools of Painting]. Details of the changes were kept [...]

The author, Jorge Useta, reports that a group of students at the Escuela Nacional de Bellas Artes has called for the resignation of the director, Alfredo Ramos Martínez, because of his favoritism toward the Escuelas de Pintura al Aire Libre [Open- [...]

The reporter tells of his visit to the Centro Popular San Antonio Abad, whose director is the painter Gabriel Fernández Ledesma. He mentions that there are about 20 students who attend this outdoor art school to work on creating art in complete [...]

This article sets up a comparative analysis between the pedagogical principles applied at the academy and at the Open-Air Schools. For this author, what constitutes the aesthetic justification of academic painting is the manner in which things are [...]

Augustín Yáñez shares his opinion of the show La Internacional infantil [The International Children’s Exhibition] held at the Universidad de Guadalajara and comprised of national and international children’s works. He defends their work: “ [...]

José Guadalupe Zuno reviews a show by child painters in Guadalajara and broaches questions of pedagogy. He recognizes “the early abilities” of the children as well as the cinematographic effect of “the child’s imagination.” The author also [...]

In his article, Dr. Atl, does a broad study and recognition of the art movement in progress. Historically speaking, he says that there have been three ways to create art; one, which is that of folk art that has always been created; another is the [...]

The writer of this article claims that there has never been a more anarchic art scene than the one he is currently witnessing. It is the most improvised of all the current movements and, therefore, the one most likely to be fruitful and to prosper. [...]

Alfredo Ramos Martínez, director of the Escuela Nacional de Bellas Artes [National School of Fine Arts], discusses the new trend at the Escuela al Aire Libre [Open-Air School] in Coyoacán and the free workshops at the Academia. With freedom to [...]

In this article, Honduran writer Rafael Heliodoro Valle provides a panorama of the most important moments in the history of Mexican painting. Valle claims that Mexico’s artistic production is preeminent and widely praised by international critics. [...]

In this article, journalist Guillermo Castillo criticizes the directors of the Mexican Academia de Bellas Artes, portraying the institution as outdated. Castillo targets proposed limitations on the curriculum of the open-air painting schools, which [...]

Carlos Mérida reviews the 1926 Exhibition of the Academia Nacional de Bellas Artes. He comments that what stands out for its pictorial values, is the group of works presented by the Escuelas de Pintura al Aires Libre [Open-Air Painting Schools], but [...]

What is relevant in this article is that it presents a synopsis of five exhibitions that were held in the Galería de Arte Moderno—which depends on the Dirección de Acción Cívica del Departamento del Distrito Federal [an entity of civic action [...]

La exposición de la joven pintura mexicana [The Exhibition: The New Generation of Mexican Painting] was presented at three cities: Paris, Berlin and Madrid. The Spanish art critic Gabriel García Maroto gave a lecture in December 1926 when the show [...]

From Renato Molina Enríquez’s insight, Mexico is imbued with visual invention. Despite the collapse of the native cultures, the landowners of the colonial era did not succeed in eliminating the people’s artistic potential; nevertheless, academic [...]

In 1945 Diego Rivera wrote an article in which he looked back approvingly at the Open-Air Schools that were founded in the 1920s. He disagrees with David Alfaro Siqueiros (who attended one of them), and José Clemente Orozco, who spoke disdainfully [...]

In this article Carlos Mérida reviews the annual exhibition at the Academia Nacional de Bellas Artes. He emphasizes the show’s disorder, the lack of information to guide the public, and the unevenness of both quantity and quality among the [...]