Documents of Latin American and Latino Art

In her review of Diagonales, an exhibition of work by Venezuelan painter and sculptor Narciso Debourg held at the Galería Altamira in Caracas, journalist Moraima Guanipa describes the artist’s visual ideology and artistic trajectory. She also [...]

Writer Lucía Quintero Yanes comments on the exhibition at the Círculo Pez Dorado gallery (Caracas) by the Venezuelan artist Gladys Meneses. Pointing out that the work exhibited is by “a young student who conducts herself with professional [...]

In this article, Juan Liscano delivers a positive critique of the painter Oswaldo Vigas’ “reiteration” of subjects with Latin American and Venezuelan roots in the face of the rising importance of “technological art.” In the same vein, [...]

This article announces the exhibition of Venezuelan artist Luis Chacón at the Galería El Pez Dorado (Caracas). The show was mounted within the context of the transition that the Círculo Pez Dorado had passed through, whose leadership was now in [...]

This article, which is signed with the initials “F. F.,” reviews the exhibition of work by Enrique Kleiser, the Swiss-Peruvian artist, at the Galería de Lima. This was the first time that abstract—“better said, nonfigurative painting had [...]

Gustavo Buntinx interviews Claudia Polar, the director of the Galería Forum in Lima. They talk about the development of a market for young Peruvian art, which the gallery has been supporting since 1974. They discuss the changes in the local [...]

This newspaper article is about Fernando de Szyszlo’s exhibition at the Galería de Arte Moncloa Editores (April 1967). The anonymous columnist mentions the controversy that raged over abstract painting and provides comments from those who define [...]

This artistic critique was written by gallery owner and art critic Carlos Rodríguez Saavedra, on several exhibitions happening in November of 1965 in Lima. He calls attention to the exhibition Yllomomo presented by Gloria Gómez Sánchez—whom he [...]

This introductory essay for the retrospective exhibition 25 años de obra gráfica: Bracamonte was written by the critic Alfonso Castrillón. The event—held at the Galería de Arte de Petróleos del Perú in May 1975—showcased the career of Jos [...]

In this text, writer Juan Ríos remarks on the Surrealist exhibition held at the Galería de Lima in July 1954. In his view, Surrealism is outdated. Initially an iconoclastic movement, it has, over the course of several decades that witnessed a [...]

In this text, Luis Miró Quesada Garland offers theoretical observations on the Surrealist exhibition held at the Galería de Lima in July 1954. On the basis of specific quotes, the author disputes the arguments put forth by writer Sebastián Salazar [...]

In this text, Luis Miró Quesada Garland enumerates the main formal virtues of the works in the exhibition of Surrealism held at the Galería de Lima in July 1954. In his view, the show reflects none of the movement’s initial aggressiveness in [...]

In this text, Peruvian writer Sebastián Salazar Bondy comments on the exhibition of Surrealist painting held at the Galería de Lima in July 1954. In Salazar Bondy’s view, Surrealism played a fundamental role in forming the language of modern art [...]

In this essay Francisco Miró Quesada Cantuarias discusses La gran Pietà—the painting by Lajos d’Ebneth, the Hungarian artist who lived in Peru—that was shown at the exhibition at the Galería de Lima in August 1950. The author explains the [...]

In this sarcastic review, Alberto Jochamowitz reports on the Arte Madí exhibition at the Colette Allende gallery in Paris, that included works by the Peruvian visual artist and poet Jorge Eduardo Eielson. Jochamowitz mocks the avant-garde [...]

In this article, Sebastián Salazar Bondy discusses the work of Chilean painter Roberto Matta. In Salazar Bondy’s view, true art does not copy the appearance of “everyday vulgarity,” but questions conventions. That is why the run-of-the-mill [...]

The author highlights here the intensity of activities on the arts scene of the Peruvian capital in 1954, both for the number and the importance of exhibitions, a fact which, in his judgment, demonstrates the ever-increasing affirmation of the visual [...]

This article, which is illustrated by three photographs, describes the contributions that Cecilia Ospina de Gómez made to the Bogotá art scene as an organizer of exhibitions and advocate of art from 1949 to 1957. The text contains three parts [...]

This is a flyer invitation to a “Fabulous Halloween Party at LACE” at the Los Angeles Contemporary Exhibitions (LACE) Gallery at 240 S. Broadway Street organized by artists Gronk and Patssi Valdez of the Asco Collective on October 31, 1978. The [...]

This is an interview with Julio Plaza where he revealed his personal views about art, stating that he considered it a cultural product, as he did not believe it had the capability to universally please all audiences and social groups. He commented on [...]

This document is excerpted from the catalogue for Los que son [Those Who Are], the exhibition organized by Marta Traba at the Galería Marta Traba in Bogotá (May 3–16, 1968). The catalogue includes ten brief critical and biographical reviews of [...]

In this article, Walter Engel, an Austrian critic who lived in Colombia, reviews the group exhibition held on the occasion of the opening of “El Caballito” gallery in Bogotá in 1956. Engel asserts that the opening of the gallery represents a [...]

In this article, published by the daily newspaper, El Tiempo, on May 24, 1991, the arts journalist and editor, José Hernández, announced the opening of Gaula. This gallery was a new exhibition space for contemporary art, located in the Macarena [...]

This text by the poet and journalist, María Mercedes Carranza, presents the work, Sueños con Marcel Duchamp (1980) [Dreams about Marcel Duchamp] by the Colombian artist, Álvaro Barrios, through an analysis of historic context and the artist’s [...]

Roberto Pizano records the artistic events that took place in 1922 in a monthly description of activities, exhibitions, and other forms of artistic expression. The artist and critic mentions gallery openings and their collections, and includes very [...]

In his weekly newspaper article, Cuban writer and musicologist Alejo Carpentier—who lived in Caracas for a time—upholds the value of abstract art in the context of an exhibition of work by painter Mateo Manaure held at Cuatro Muros gallery. [...]

In this article the Austrian critic Walter Engel reviews the exhibition of works by the painter Andrés de Santa María held at the Galerías de Arte in Bogotá. Engel begins his article by mentioning that the Colombian artist died in Brussels, [...]

In this article, the critic Casimiro Eiger reviews Lucy Tejada’s paintings at her first solo exhibition, and discusses the purely formal aspects of her work. In Eiger’s opinion, these elements are closely involved with the artist’s narrative [...]

The Colombian arts editor for the weekly popular magazine Cromos, Jairo Dueñas, reviewed the second individual exhibition of Fernando Uhía, under the title Pinturas. The exhibition was held in 1991 in the Galería Gaula, which was an independent [...]

The art critic José Hernán Aguilar reviews the exhibition Adulterado [Adulterated] by Danilo Dueñas at the Gaula, mentioning the different steps the Colombian artist takes to create his works. He points out that Dueñas constantly includes [...]

In this document, Amalia Mesa-Bains details the development of the Galería de la Raza [Gallery of the People], an important San Francisco cultural institution established in 1970 in the midst of the Chicano Movement. Mesa-Bains describes the ways in [...]

In this text, Robert Weitz introduces an exhibition of Chicano work on view in the gallery of Chicago State University by explaining the motivations behind the show and the parameters of the works included in the exhibition. He begins by emphasizing [...]

This document is a pamphlet promoting an event organized by the MSA (Manifestación Sintetista Actualizada) group. The stamp with the logo of the Café de Vicente suggests that the event would take place at that venue. The pamphlet includes the names [...]

This document is a press release announcing the first exhibition of the MSA (Manifestación Sintetista Actualizada) group, which operated out of a two-floor space (fourth and fifth floors) on San Francisco Street in Old San Juan, Puerto Rico. In [...]

This advertising flyer includes a list of the artists who participated in the Galería M.S.A. (Manifestación Sintetista Actualizada) [Manifestation of Synthetism Today] during the exhibition called the M.I.S.A. (Manifestación Internacional [...]

Under the title of “Manifiesto Sintetista Actualizado” [Manifesto of Synthetism Today], this document is an invitation to Puerto Rican critics to get acquainted with the space used by the M.S.A. (Manifestación Sintetista Actualizada) [ [...]

Manuel Pérez Lizano, a Spanish critic who lived in Puerto Rico for awhile, explains that the title of his article, “Fusión sincrónica” [Simultaneous Fusion], is based on his view of all the works exhibited at the Galería M.S.A. (Manifestació [...]

This is an article written by journalist Lorelei Albanese, in which she reviews the exhibition, Amor Sex Anarquía [Love Sex Anarchy] (1986), held at the Galería M.S.A. (Manifiesto Sintetista Actualizado) [Manifesto of Synthetism Today], and [...]

In the book 11 tipos. Arte en Venezuela en los años setenta, the researcher Juan Carlos Palenzuela makes an exhaustive study of Venezuelan art in the1970s, a time when conceptual art was unquestionably being produced in that country. The author [...]

Samuel Cherson, the Cuban critic living in exile in Puerto Rico, discusses the Puerto Rican artist, Antonio Navia, and his interest in mathematics, physics, and scientific contributions to modern technology that he then applies to his art. Cherson [...]

In this essay Eugenio Espinoza names nine artists (himself included) who, in his opinion, have distinguished themselves in the field of contemporary art as being creators of a body of work that “is neither art nor anti-art, but something in between [...]

In this essay the writer Oscar Marcano discusses El Laberinto (Caracas: Sala RG, 1990), the exhibition of works by the Venezuelan artist Rolando Peña. The author notes the prescient nature of Peña’s work in a preamble in which he talks about the [...]

By way of a brief interview, this text announces the opening of Bernardo Salcedo’s exhibition, Un mes de desahogos pasionales, at UD gallery in Parque de la Independencia in Bogotá. It explains that once the show is over, the works in it will [...]

In a conversation with Puerto Rican art critic Ernesto Ruiz de la Mata, Italian art dealer Luigi Marrozzini recounts his early days as the director of Galería Colibrí in Old San Juan. Marrozzini explains why he has chosen to set up a private office [...]

In this article, Luis Miró Quesada notes that Lima art critics were unanimously agreed on the importance of Jean Dewasne’s exhibition of paintings, despite the local art world’s animosity toward abstract art. Quesada rejects claims that this [...]

According to the author, the works by Jean Dewasne shown at the Galería de Lima are representative of a kind of formalist art that is impressive because of its clarity and precision, over and above arguments that deceitfully attempt to place it [...]

In this review Luis Miró Quesada Garland discusses the exhibition of works by Jean Dewasne at the Galería de Lima. The reviewer suggests that the French painter’s works might be a little too radical for local tastes. They are examples of a form [...]

This essay is by Peruvian art critic and poet Alejandro Lora Risco regarding the French artist Jean Dewasne and the incomprehension demonstrated by his colleagues relating to Dewasne’s exhibition at the Galería de Lima. Lora Risco relies on Andr [...]

In Alejandro Lora Risco’s opinion the exhibition of contemporary Italian paintings deserves to be discussed in extremely positive terms because it provides the residents of Lima with an opportunity to get to know—and therefore promote—non- [...]

The editors of La voz del ratón [The Mouse’s Voice], a journal published by the Fundación Galería Latinoamericana, asked nine Puerto Rican artists what each one thought about art criticism on the island. The Puerto Rican artist, Marta Pérez, [...]