Documents of Latin American and Latino Art

This text by architect Lina Bo Bardi voices a criticism of the resolutions made at the XII Congress of Architecture (Madrid, 1975), targeting the vision of the notion of the collective and “social commitments” as a betrayal of the modern movement [...]

In this article, the architect and visual artist Sérgio Ferro criticizes the state of Brazilian architecture, especially in São Paulo, during the period in the 1960s, known as post-Brasilia. He takes a radical and critical approach by exposing the [...]

In this essay, the architect and visual artist Sérgio Ferro outlines the first part of his theory about the contradiction that exists between an architectural drawing and a jobsite. Approaching the subject from a Marxist perspective, he discusses [...]

In this essay Eduardo Corona sounds a call for action as regards architectural criticism. He points to the importance of art criticism (in all its various forms) and the total lack of any attempt to develop a similar approach in the field of [...]

In this article Sylvio de Vasconcellos discusses the trend among Brazilian critics (from Edgar Graeff to Mário Pedrosa) to see architecture as art, on a par with other forms of artistic expression. This is, in his opinion, due to the fact that [...]

Lúcio Costa discusses Max Bill’s lecture, the text of which was published in Habitat magazine. It was a controversial article that prompted a great deal of discussion at the time. Costa highlights the differences he sees in modern Brazilian [...]

As a complement to the lecture offered by Max Bill (in June 1953 and published shortly thereafter in the magazine HABITAT), Eduardo Coronado offers a defense of Brazilian architecture. He refers to the Swiss architect’s presumption to express a “ [...]

Max Bill here offers his critique of modern Brazilian architecture based on four elements that in his judgment form the basis of a “modern academic concern” in architecture: free and organic form, glass, brise-soleil, and concrete pile [...]

Flávio de Aquino interviewed Swiss artist and architect Max Bill during his visit to Brazil. In the interview, Bill expresses his reservations about the Ministério da Educação e Saúde (MES) building—a watershed in Brazilian modern architecture [...]

The text proposes an axiological re-evaluation of architecture based on spatial values using the theories of Geoffrey Scott. In Mário Pedrosa’s judgment, awareness of space depends on movement, which generates an organic relationship of [...]

In the judgment of the author, Mário Pedrosa, Brasilia is not “a synthesis of the arts,” it is a simple promise. For him, synthesis cannot be achieved through occasional collaborations but rather through a prominent practice that creates a “ [...]

In this text, Francisco Macêdo upholds collaboration between painters and sculptors in architectural projects, even though it is rare. Few resources are allocated to such projects because of real estate speculation or scant public resources. Macêdo [...]

The art critic Mário Barata believes that architecture should be seen as art, rather than being viewed purely in terms of its technical aspect, which would tend to group it with engineering rather than with art and, in fact, condemn it to be taught [...]

In this text, Mário Pedrosa looks to the thinking of Wilhelm Worringer, specifically to his concept of “oasis civilization,” which refers to people who settle in a territory artificially without any cultural reference or connection to the local [...]

In this text, art critic Mário Pedrosa remarks on an article written by architect Oscar Niemeyer for the magazine Módulo in which he describes his process of creation and discusses the question of visual control. Pedrosa sees the text by Niemeyer [...]

According to the author of this text, Mário Pedrosa, at the onset of the modern architecture movement restriction to the strictly functional was necessary in order to combat the aesthetic or visual approach that predominated in others styles and in [...]

The Swiss artist Max Bill highlights the importance of education in the intellectual and moral development of a society. As background, the writer discusses the proposals of John Ruskin and William Morris, the Weimar Seminar on Arts and Trades, and [...]

In this article, Aldo Pellegrini recognizes a link between Surrealist art and Abstract art prone to expression. In this sense, he also considers it possible to establish this same relationship with the Concrete artist. Although the latter rises out [...]

This article reviewed the recent exhibitions held by the Grupo de Artistas Modernos de la Argentina [Modern Argentine Artists Group] at the Museu de Arte Moderna in Río de Janeiro and the Stedelijk Museum in Amsterdam. Both the international impact [...]

The article reflects on the vanguardist rhetoric bound to the polemical manifesto of the group headed by Tomás Maldonado, and recognizes its inability to carry out the proposed reevaluation. It considers, moreover, that the artistic task presupposes [...]

The article shows a certain displacement in Tomás Maldonado’s axis of interest, since it defines architecture as a protagonist, not only of the formal aspect but of the social aspect as well [...]

In this article, Tomás Maldonado advocates a form of creative expression that focuses on the design and production of objects intended for daily use. He maintained this same approach in the editorial slant of nueva vision (“New Vision”), the [...]