Documents of Latin American and Latino Art

The article by Amalia Polleri analyzes the process of integrating the happenings of Uruguay within an artistic context and referencing the interventions by another Uruguayan artist, Teresa Vila. Polleri points to the trend of Latin American [...]

This article analyzes the varied impact generated by the happenings in Europe and the United States and the repercussions on those taking place in Latin America, highlighting the ethical and political particularities of the latter. In this case, it [...]

In an artistic “manifesto” published on a flier to be handed out to the audience, Teresa Vila explains the aims of her “action art,” also called “actions with theme,” which had political and media impact in Uruguay in the sixties. Her [...]

In this text, Joaquín Aroztegui reflects on new tendencies in Uruguayan art, whether in the form of writings or exhibitions, such as happenings, concretism, Op Art, and kinetic art. Those new tendencies are described as new languages born of [...]

These are comments by Edgardo Pérez Luna on the first “happenings” staged in Lima. He thinks these “strident visual art procedures that these days are staged as part of exhibitions” have been given their “baptismal party” in Lima. He is [...]

This document is the postcard produced to publicize the call for submissions organized by the Helena Producciones collective for the seventh edition of the Festival de Performance of Cali. It was released to the public on May 23, 2008 at an event [...]

This is a report on the closing of Rex Gallery & Sons in 1967, a sad event due to the importance of that venue for Brazilian art from the sixties; the gallery played an important role in the struggle against a form of abstraction that no longer [...]

Mário Schenberg praised the organization of the Ninth São Paulo Biennial [1967] for understanding “this moment of extraordinary activity and profound renewal in Brazilian art.” His praise was based on the priority given to innovative works, [...]

The magazine Arte Hoje published a dossier of brief texts by Brazilian critics Aline Figueiredo, Aracy Amaral, Radha Abramo, Frederico Morais, Olívio Tavares Araújo, and Roberto Pontual; and by artists José Resende, Loio Persio, [...]

This volume from the ABC – Arte Brasileira Contemporânea collection published by the Fundação Nacional das Artes (FUNARTE) addresses artist Wesley Duke Lee. In it, art critic Cacilda Teixeira da Costa provides an overview of Duke Lee’s [...]

This account of the disbandment of the Grupo Rex asserts that the primordial aim of the São Paulo-based group was to say things that had never been said before, to criticize attitudes beset with bad faith, and to encourage the work of young [...]

In this essay Sangirardi Jr. writes about Flávio de Carvalho. The author mentions eccentric aspects of the artist’s career, such as his controversial utopian expeditions and his bizarre ideas. Contrary to what most people think, all these very [...]

This is a report on the seizure of flags and banners presented by artists Nelson Leirner and Flavio Motta at the corner of Avenida Brasil and Rua Augusta (December 1967); the repressive action was ordered by the city’s district attorneys. According [...]

Flávio Motta discusses the connections between the landscape and urban living conditions in large cities, which he believes affect human relationships. Cities that grow haphazardly with no urban planning are a reflection of a disorganized society. [...]

The artist Rubens Gerchman discusses Pare, the exhibition he jointly presented with Roberto Magalhães, Antonio Dias, Carlos Vergara, and Pedro Escosteguy at the G-4 gallery in Rio de Janeiro in April 1966. Gerchman explains that the exhibition [...]

The Brazilian critic Frederico Morais presents a copy of Nelson Leirner’s letter to the O Estado de S. Paulo newspaper in which the latter discusses the works he submitted to the IV Salão de Arte Moderna in Brasília (1967), one of which consisted [...]

Geraldo Ferraz alludes to the proverbial isolation of Brasilia, always waiting for its news (not political) to reach Rio de Janeiro or São Paulo so that it may finally become fact. In his article he comments on the taxidermy of a pig, a work [...]

In this text, Mário Pedrosa discusses the change in critical values in relation to the rapid transformation in artistic production in the late 20th century. He points out that critics often act as advocates of a given movement rather than heeding [...]

The Brazilian art critic Frederico Morais comments on the works sent by the São Paulo artist Nelson Leirner to the Salão de Brasília, and discusses the latter’s reaction to the jury’s decisions. In his reply to Leirner, Morais suggests that [...]

This article by the Colombian critic and curator Eduardo Serrano is divided into three parts. In the first part, Serrano provides a historical account of the events and artists that, from 1972 through 1982, helped to introduce performance art to [...]

In his essay “Siete eventos para una lógica del arte venezolano,” the critic Juan Calzadilla describes the 1981 event Acciones frente a la Plaza, which involved non-objective works of art produced by seven artists in different parts of the city [...]

Assis Chateaubriand, the businessman and owner of the newspaper chain Diários Associados, devotes the first section of his article to what he refers to as two “great deeds” performed by the visual artist and engineer Flávio de Carvalho. One of [...]

This text is a transcription of a conversation between Carlos Squirru, Dalila Puzzovio, Count Jaime Mora y Aragón, and Jean Cartier that took place during an informal meeting. One may perceive the doubts then being awakened by Pop Art through the [...]

This text summarizes the concepts presented by Jorge Romero Brest in relation to both the sociology and ontology of the new art. In order to pose the sociological question it appeals to David Riesman’s book titled La muchedumbre solitaria [The [...]

This text summarizes the concepts raised by Jorge Romero Brest in relation to the debates provoked by the Premio Torcuato Di Tella [Torcuato Di Tella Prize]. It establishes rules to be followed for the analysis of those who paint or sculpt images, [...]

This article is an interview with artist Pablo Suárez in which he is questioned regarding his actions within the Argentinean artistic scene of the 1960s. Among the diverse events he relates, he mentions the realization of the happening called [...]

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 [...]

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 [...]

The text describes the environments presented in La Menesunda [Hodgepodge]. It emphasizes its scandalous nature, judging it to be an art fraud committed against the public. It refers to a survey conducted by the journalist on the attending [...]

This article reports on the round table organized by the Museo de Arte Moderno of Buenos Aires regarding the new attitude of artists; it also offers some of the opinions proposed [during the event]. The debate was coordinated by the director of the [...]

In this apocryphal newspaper article, the author relies on a number of the standard stereotypes that were used in the Argentine press at that time to refer to experimental art: snobbishness, frivolousness, madness, partying, irrationality, [...]

Written in a mocking, ironic tone, this article describes the details of a supposed happening that never actually happenedincluding where it took place, who was there, what they were doing, etc. A strange item is mentioned: the happening was supposed [...]

Stemming from the idea (very advanced at that time) that the media invents events, those who are writing this decide to inform—by way of social news snippets, altered photos, and apocryphal testimonies—about a happening that never took [...]

León Ferrari writes to Leopoldo Maler about Palabras ajenas [Other People’s Words], telling him where he has sent the book and mentioning that Inda Ledesma might produce a stage version in Buenos Aires. Ferrari comments on the repression of [...]

Oscar Masotta wrote to Luis Felipe Noé a letter of apology for his mala fe [bad faith] and pedantería [piece of pretentiousness], and made a promise to respond, by carefully reflecting on the letter sent by Noé at the end of 1967 from New York, [...]

This document is a letter discussing the book Happenings, written by Oscar Masotta in 1967: his need to break with painting, that is not concerned with the specifics of a work, but with coming to an understanding with the natural environment through [...]