Documents of Latin American and Latino Art

Alicia Haber was the curator of the 1991 exhibition Charrúas y montes criollos, presenting the contemporary work of Uruguayan artist Rimer Cardillo, who had been residing in New York since 1984. According to the curatorial text, the exhibition [...]

The synopsis and annotations in English are coming soon [...]

This short article is a commentary on 1927: Exposición de Arte Nuevo, which opened on May 7 at the “Asociación de Pintores y Escultores.” In announcing and promoting the exhibition, the editors of Revista de avance stated [...]

In this text, Rodrigo Quijano argues that Lima 01—a series of photographs of inverted images of interiors of old abandoned buildings in downtown Lima—addresses questions of forgetting and urban decay. The series makes reference to the design of [...]

Poet César Moro describes the confusion and expectations of the public at the Surrealist art show, while also questioning the judgments pronounced on the show by “those charmers from the base police known as critics of purpose and profit,” whose [...]

This text announces the upcoming opening of the show of Surrealism organized by César Moro at the Academia Alcedo in Lima. The writer, who confesses he has not seen the show, comments that it is the first Surrealist exhibition to take place in the [...]

For Marta Traba, the Fernando de Szyszlo exhibition in Bogotá (Colombia) evidences that “the mistake does not lie in wanting to be American, but in how one is American.” In her opinion, the series of works by the Peruvian painter inspired by the [...]

In his remarks on the series of paintings Apu Inca Atawallpaman inspired by the colonial-era Quechua poem of the same name, Sebastián Salazar Bondy rejects criticism that “sets out to speak FROM painting” and, thus, marginalizes theme. He argues [...]

Juan Acha discusses the exhibition of Fernando de Szyszlo’s series of paintings inspired by the indigenous poem “Apu Inca Atawallpaman,” an event that was organized by the Instituto de Arte Contemporáneo (IAC) in Lima. Acha finds the [...]

In this text, Peruvian art critic Carlos Rodríguez Saavedra comments on a show of the series of painting by Fernando de Szyszlo based on Apu Inca Atawallpaman, a colonial-era Quechua poem translated into Spanish by writer and anthropologist José [...]

Javier Sologuren reviews the abstract oil paintings by Fernando de Szyszlo exhibited at the Instituto de Arte Contemporáneo (IAC) [Institute of Contemporary Art] in Lima. The author praises the quality of the works, whose values express “visual [...]

In this article written for the newspaper Jueves/El Nacional around 1961, Esteban Muro describes a party and performance in Caracas held by the Venezuelan avant-garde group El Techo de la Ballena. He farcically begins the letter as an oficial RSVP to [...]

The synopsis and annotations in English are coming soon [...]

This is an interview by the art critic Rosa Queralt with Yamandú Canosa in regard to his 2003 exhibition held in Spain, named La línea h (iceberg), at the Art Center of Salamanca. It was published in the catalogue Premio Pedro Figari (2007–08 [...]

Luis Camnitzer discusses Joaquín Torres García’s exhibition at the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum in New York and assesses reactions to his work among North American audiences and intellectuals. The Uruguayan artist and critic, who lives in New [...]

This article describes the 1967 exhibition about objective art held in Montevideo at the General Electric Institute that included work by Carlos and Enrique Fernández Broglia, Amalia Polleri, Nelson Ramos, Washington Barcala, and Luis Alberto Solari [...]

In this essay, the art critic Alicia Haber analyzed the 1995 exhibition Bye Bye Yaugurú by Nelbia Romero at the Centro Municipal de Exposiciones, Subte de Montevideo. The exhibition linked the conceptual aspects of the artistic ideas and concerns of [...]

In this article, a New York art critic whose signature is the initials H. R. discusses the first version of Uruguayan artist Luis Camnitzer’s work Leftovers on exhibition in a new gallery in Manhattan. The work consists of a neat arrangement of [...]

In this essay, Nelson DiMaggio reflects on the international changes in Latin America, especially in Brazil, that had taken place up until 1969. The art critic goes through several likely topics, from the severe censure of various artistic works by [...]

This essay is about the article describing the opening of the Primer Salón de Pintura General Electric [The First General Electric Art Exhibition Hall] in October of 1963, highlighting the work of IGE (Instituto General Electric [General Electric [...]

This essay about the interview by Pablo Mañé Garzón with Ángel Kalenberg, the director of the IGE (Instituto General Electric de Montevideo [General Electric Institute of Montevideo), discussing the programs carried out by the institution that [...]

The article describes a cultural event held at the IGE (Instituto General Electric [General Electric Institute]) in Montevideo where the performances by the visual artists and the exhibition on the industrial artistic works were linked through rather [...]

This essay is on the informative publication by the newspaper El Plata on the II Salón de Pintura Moderna [Second Hall of Modern Art], organized in Montevideo by the IGE (Instituto General Electric [General Electric Institute]). It is with regard to [...]

The writer Mario Benedetti, representing the Montevideo weekly Marcha, reviews the seventh edition of the Exposición de La Habana (1968), an event that was organized by the Casa de las Américas, a Cuban institution founded in 1959. The Uruguayan [...]

Artist Nelbia Romero wrote this document on her exhibition project Bye, Bye, Yaugurú, curated by critic Alicia Haber. Written on a loose page, the text explains the aims of an exhibition that set out to reaffirm the need to engage the cultural [...]

Written at a moment of intense sociopolitical conflict in Uruguay, this article explains the grounds for the decision of the Unión de Artistas Plásticos Contemporáneos (UAPC) to boycott any and all government organized art events. Its author, [...]

On the occasion of a retrospective exhibition of works by Uruguayan draftsman who were active in the 1960s (a movement that was known as the Dibujazo), Gabriel Peluffo’s essay seeks to place the movement in the relevant socio-political context, [...]

Pedro Figari wrote this letter to José Cúneo, who had recently shown his paintings at a joint exhibition with Bernabé Michelena in Montevideo (1918). The letter, published in the newspaper La Mañana, was Figari’s public recognition of the young [...]

In 1930, Wladimir Raykis (director of Galerie Zak in Paris) sent this letter inviting Uruguayan artists José Cúneo and Bernabé Michelena to exhibit at his exhibition venue which promoted Latin American art between the wars. The dialogue and [...]

This brief, anonymous article, published on January 25, 1959, in the Brazilian newspaper Folha de São Paulo, notes that the Galeria de Arte das Folhas closed out 1958 with a group exhibition of Concrete art. The article names the six [...]

“Lygia Clark at Signals London, 27th May to 3rd July” is a special edition of Newsbulletin of Signals London devoted to Lygia Clark (1920−1988) on the occasion of the Brazilian artist’s first solo exhibition in England, which [...]

These documents are the invitation to and the program of the Third Exhibition of the Atelier-Abstração, held in São Paulo in June 1956. The Atelier-Abstração was a studio set up by the Brazilian artist Samson Flexor [...]

In this text, Jorge Páez Vilaró analyzes the pictorial work of Juan Carlos Figari Castro, son of painter Pedro Figari, pointing out his talent as a draftsman and the overall merit of his art. Páez Vilaró, himself a painter, understands that the [...]

This essay is on the work of Victor Varsarely that in 1958 was exhibited for the first time in Montevideo, giving rise to glowing journalistic commentaries. A commentary was also written on the TTG (Taller Torres García [Torres Garcia Workshop]) [...]

In 1943, an exhibition consisting of twenty-two Argentinean artists organized by the Argentinean art critic Jorge Romero Brest and sponsored by the Comisión Nacional de Bellas Artes de la Argentina [National Commission of Fine Arts of Argentina] [...]

In 1943, an exhibition of one hundred and seven Argentinean artists, consisting of late 19th- century and early 20th-century painters and sculptors, was held in Montevideo under the auspices of the National Commission of Fine Arts of Montevideo and [...]

Alejandro Romualdo Valle critiques the III Salón de Pintura Manual Moncloa which, in his judgment, posits “abstract art as a complete substitute for art,” arguing that abstraction divides man from art, thus debilitating the latter. [He states] [...]

Fernando de Szyszlo was interviewed following his success at the III Salón Moncloa. After presenting a brief biographical sketch of the artist, the anonymous interviewer records his opinions on the subject of contemporary art: “the fruit of a [...]

This essay by Guido Castillo, a student of Joaquin Torres Garcia, and partner in ideology, was written for the magazine ASIR on the exhibition on the works by Joaquín Torres García organized in Montevideo in 1951, two years after his death. The [...]

This essay expresses the dissatisfaction felt by the group of AIAPE intellectuals (represented in this case by Leónidas Spatakis) over the approach taken by most of the participating artists at the VI Salón Nacional. In the author’s opinion, the [...]

In this insightful review of the V Salón Municipal de Bellas Artes, the critic Cipriano Vitureira takes for granted that the worldwide political and social events of the early 1940s demand a renewal in both artistic and thematic terms, particularly [...]

Written in the form of a letter, this article discusses the composition of the Comisión Nacional de Bellas Artes, the agency charged with organizing and operating the first Salón Nacional de Artes Plásticas, which includes selecting jurors to [...]

José María Podestá, the writer, art critic, and movie buff, reviews the artists who were part of the Primer Salón Independiente de Artes Plásticas that took place in August 1937 at the Ateneo de Montevideo. This event was, in fact, represented [...]

Cipriano Vitureira was one of the main intellectuals who feted Candido Portinari during his visit to Uruguay in 1947. On the whole, the Brazilian painter was well liked by members of the PCU (Partido Comunista Uruguayo) and artists working in the [...]

This exhibition was organized by a group of independent artists associated with the AIAPE (Agrupación de Artistas, Intelectuales, Periodistas y Escritores) working with a recently created State agency, the Comisión Municipal de Cultura. All parties [...]

The painter Carmelo de Arzadun wrote this critical review of the exhibitions held in Uruguay from 1936 to 1939, a period that was defined by effervescent creativity and a lively calendar of artistic events. The exhibition of works by French artists, [...]

This article reveals the bonds that existed between the two AIAPE organizations in the Río de la Plata region (in Montevideo and Buenos Aires). This relationship helped to foster gatherings and exhibitions of works by artists with similar aesthetic [...]

This anonymous article mentions three important events in the Uruguayan visual arts calendar in 1940: the exhibition of French painting, the Salón Municipal de Artes Plásticas, and the critiques of the Salón Nacional de Artes Plásticas. These [...]

On the occasion of Bernabé Michelena’s exhibition at the Subte de Montevideo (1939), Emilio Oribe, the writer and co-founder of the AIAPE (Agrupación de Intelectuales, Artistas, Periodistas y Escritores), conducted a lecture in which he discussed [...]

This catalogue accompanied the 1959 exhibition of twelve oil paintings by Elsa Gramcko, an abstract artist from Venezuela, at the Pan American Union of the Organization of American States in Washington, D.C. This exhibition marked Gramcko’s [...]