Documents of Latin American and Latino Art

This essay proposes that a “Latin American identity” was an idea based on two facts: the influence of the decadent post-war European culture and secondly, the geopolitical circumstances of Latin American governments confronted with North American [...]

Perán Erminy discusses sculpture in relation to what he sees as its origins in Judeo-Christian mythology: the Bible states that man was molded out of earth, which Erminy understands as the first sculptural form. Erminy upholds the historical [...]

According to the author, this exhibition heralds “a magnificent advance” in Julia Codesido’s painting because “a different spirit inspires her latest compositions.” In his opinion, 1931 marks the end of her earlier phase and the beginning [...]

In this short newspaper article, written on the occasion of the Extraordinary International Congress of AICA (International Association of Art Critics) held in Brazil in 1959, the chief advocate of Brazilian Modernism, critic Mário Pedrosa, [...]

The writer Gonzalo Arango Arias interviews Fernando Botero, and includes literary remarks about the painter and the Colombian city of Medellín. He weaves in references to Botero’s experience in Europe, stressing “the poverty he endured and his [...]

This text is Colombian critic Rafael Azula Barrera’s response to Darío Samper’s article on the difference between generations. While Azula Barrera recognizes to a certain extent the legitimacy of Samper’s criticism of earlier generations, he [...]

Journalist Darío Samper criticizes what he calls the “philistinism” and “Manichaeism” of 19th-century Colombian intellectuals overly influenced by foreign models, particularly by French thought whose hold on the country he deems excessive. [...]

In this text, Sérgio Buarque de Holanda analyzes what he sees as a fundamental aspect of the origin of Brazilian society: the effort to import Iberian culture to America. In the text, Holanda reminds us that Iberia was an “uncertain” region [...]

In this text, Leopoldo Zea outlines his vision for the future of Latin American philosophy, explaining how in order to be relevant it must be universally applicable and a product of the specific context of Latin America. Zea begins by arguing that [...]

In this text, Carlos Enríquez 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 question. In [...]

In this article, Narciso Debourg outlines the difficulties he faces as a young artist of Latin American descent the moment he tries to review, assimilate, or subscribe to any of the present trends he yearns to follow specifically within the European [...]

Venezuelan art critic Bélgica Rodríguez suggests that Latin American art is largely homogeneous. She discusses the impact of different international styles and artistic movements on Latin American artists such as Cuban painter Amelia Peláez, who [...]

Antonio Berni writes about the history of art from the nineteenth century on, and Nuevo Realismo [New Realism], which breaks with Argentine art that looks to Europe [...]

Damián Bayón provides a far-reaching reading of Cubism on the basis of an exhibition held at the Musée d’Art Moderne de Paris that ran from February to April 1953. Before delving into specific concerns, he explains the overall perspective of his [...]

 Damián Bayón reviews an article by J. M. Richards that appeared in the magazine Architectural Review in March 1950 that questioned some aspects of modern architecture. Bayón analyzes its development within the discipline and believes it is the [...]

In this article Damián Bayón conducts interviews with two Italian artists: the first with Massimo Campigli and the second with Léon Gischia. Bayón formulates his questions to both interviewees around the problem of explaining the “success” of [...]

In this article Damián Bayón comments on an exhibition of work drawn from museums in Berlin, which was held at the Petit Palais in Paris. Based on his observations of the European public, Bayón states that the way “to recognize the superior [...]

In this text, which is the foreword to the catalogue for the exhibition 22 Contemporary Argentine Painters, Damián Bayón establishes the exclusive relationship with Europe of the visual art culture in Argentina, since there was “no relationship [...]

The Mexican paintings included at the Venice Biennale generated such unanimous excitement among the critics and the European public that a request was immediately submitted to the Venice board of directors and the director of the exhibition to ship [...]

José Bergamín, the writer in exile and critic, compares poetry with painting as in classical times, and uses the language of poetry to discuss the painting of Antonio Rodríguez Luna. Bergamín refers to Rodríguez Luna’s main theme, which [...]

In this interview, Rufino Tamayo insists that his painting is not part of the abstractionist trend; however, the Italian art critic Giambattista Vicari believed that he could see a reliance on abstract motifs in the work of the painter from Oaxaca. [...]

After spending two years in several European countries, Rufino Tamayo returned to Mexico. He said that his European stay had helped him to clarify a few matters. One of them, perhaps the most important, was that—contrary to the opinion of Mexican [...]

David Alfaro Siqueiros critiques the paintings of the 23rd Fine Arts Salon (Buenos Aires) as works imitative of past European painting. The artist defines the event as a colonial art show, with gullible themes and devoid of technique, as well as with [...]

This document analyzes the national repercussions that the Sindicato de Obreros Técnicos, Pintores y Escultores [SOTPE, Union of Technical Workers, Painters and Sculptors] had on an art scene that was then dominated by individualism. Siqueiros [...]

This is a review of an essay by the Mexican architect Carlos Obregón Santacilia titled “El maquinismo, la vida y la arquitectura” [Machine-ism, Life and Architecture], in which Enrique Díez-Canedo— the Spanish poet, critic, and essayist [...]

In spite of the campaign of negative criticism against him, Rufino Tamayo said he was pleased with the way he had been received by the people of Mexico. He also said that a Mexican’s success was always a source of great satisfaction. Tamayo was [...]

The author reflects on a comparison between abstraction and realism, presenting it as a grave problem of the era. For José Renau, the main trend of the “bourgeois” culture is based on the abstract and trivial aspect of intellectual creation. He [...]

From a European perspective, Paul Westheim gives his first impressions on modern art in Mexico. He identifies two of its qualities: first, an originality and independence from European art and, second, a rebirth of folk art that is removed from the [...]