Documents of Latin American and Latino Art

The researcher Irma Arestizábal comments on the placement of Argentinean avant-garde art, (always at the margin) in relationship to the hegemonic art centers. She writes based on a selection of works of Argentinean artists that appear in [...]

This article is a review of the Premio Torcuato Di Tella 1966 [The Torcuato Di Tella Prize of 1966]; it describes the panorama and points out that on this occasion the Pop artists have rediscovered the attitude of creation; within it the personal is [...]

Tomás Maldonado reflects on the role of the artist in society, given that it is the career-like class that enjoys success and acclaim. Maldonado fully identifies with the concept of rebellion, and says that he is prone to subvert the taste of the [...]

Federico Peralta-Ramos, in eight quite simple verses, defines what art is; primarily from the art-life nexus which is implicit [...]

Juan Carlos Paz defines New Music and that which contributes efficacious elements and solutions and points out the importance of the rise of dodecaphony for these new proposals. He stresses that dodecaphony is responsible for the experimentation [...]

The article discusses the constant attacks that the newspaper Martín Fierro receives and all the conflicts and difficulties that result from these attacks. It also explains the attitude that will be assumed with regard to the situation created by [...]

This introductory text for Guilio Carlo Argan’s exhibition analyzes the relationship between ideology and technique in order to inquire into the position and destiny of art within that context of ideas. Keeping in mind the self-directed nature and [...]

The article points out the importance of the activity brought forth by Filippo Tommaso Marinetti in “our milieu” as a “very valuable collaboration to the renovation movement,” started—long ago—by the group involved in the publication Mart [...]

This short news item was prepared as sketchy materials for press release  shortly after the inauguration of the Tucumán Arde [Tucumán Is Burning] exhibition at the CGT (Confederación General del Trabajo) in Rosario. The circumstances of the [...]

The author reveals a certain openness when he suggests that the experience created by the avant-garde of Rosario, Argentina, that led to Tucumán Arde [Tucumán is Burning] could be a potential bridge to what he considers the only valid “ [...]

León Ferrari writes a detailed evaluation of Tucumán Arde [Tucumán is Burning], framing it within the previous events (Itinerario del ’68) [Timetable for 1968]. In it he points out that “its purpose was to make art into a revolutionary tool, [...]

Antonio Berni introduces Rodrigo Bonome’s exhibition of landscape paintings at the Galería Velázquez in Buenos Aires (1961) with a formal discussion on order in composition, and on color [...]

Julio Marsagot—the nom de plume used by Julio Porter—describes and reviews the work presented by Liliana Porter at the Liliana Porter exhibition at the Galería Colibrí, in San Juan (January 12–31, 1974). The writer discusses how Porter plays [...]

Néstor García Canclini, the anthropologist, professor, and cultural studies theoretician, interprets León Ferrari’s blue-printed and photocopied works, using the “aura” concept that was proposed by Walter Benjamin. He also underscores the [...]

This foreword by Aldo Pellegrini indicates the changes of direction produced in the period of five years separating the first Arte Nuevo [New Art] exhibition and this sixth show, which he characterizes as a passage from the intellectual to the vital [...]

This exhibition catalog, Chicago Latino, was part of an intercultural dialogue initiated by two “socially-minded arts groups,” the 369 Gallery of Edinburgh, Scotland, and the Near Northwest Arts Council of Chicago, Illinois. The exhibition [...]

In this prologue to the catalog on the Argentine artists who participated in the VII Biennial of São Paulo, Julio Llinás points out the profusion of abstract or informal works that are found alongside more current international trends. He believes [...]

The text reports on the context surrounding the publication of Zancadillas [Missteps] by Alvaro Yunque (1926) within the editorial plan of La Campana de Palo [The Wooden Bell]. It also reports on forthcoming publications as well as the reasons and [...]

Jorge Romero Brest, the art critic and director of the Centro de Artes Visuales [Center for the Visual Arts], writes about the style and attitude he sees in Antonio Berni’s work, discussing the changes that can be observed in the artist’s [...]

Writing the prologue for the catalogue of the Premio Ver y Estimar [To See and Ponder Magazine Prize] held in 1963 in Buenos Aires, the author claims to observe the distinctive feature of this competition in this statement: “it voluntarily [...]

Cayetano Córdova-Iturburu presents Carlos Cañás’s exhibition (Galería Rubbers, Buenos Aires, October, 1966), emphasizing that both the will for balance and the order set by his painting stresses this artist’s classic position, despite the [...]

[Literary critic and intellectual] Nicolás Rosa presented this text for discussion at the Primer Encuentro Nacional del Arte de Vanguardia [First National Encounter of Avant-garde Art] (Rosario, Argentina, 1968). It appeals to the communications [...]

The text clarifies that upon agreeing to the organization of a Contrabienal, as a protest against the 1971 São Paulo Biennial, the MICLA [Latin American Cultural Independence Movement] is not replacing one exhibition for another. Instead, it is [...]

This text reports that the students at the Bellas Artes schools, both the Prilidiano Pueyrredón and the Manuel Belgrano (Buenos Aires, Argentina), were detained and accused of usurpation; they had been meeting to guarantee the continuance of the [...]

In this document, Gregorio Vardanega discusses the importance of space in his work. He tried to address this question in a variety of ways, such as his plaster hemispheres, called complejos espaciales [spatial complexes] and his spiraling dots in [...]

Rafael Squirru presents the exhibition by artists Eduardo Mac Entyre and Miguel Angel Vidal, identifying it as a sample of “generative art,” as it has been called by Ignacio Pirovano, in tandem with the writings of Georges Vantongerloo. In this [...]

Lawrence Oliver expresses his opinion here on Jorge Romero Brest’s methods at the Premio Torcuato Di Tella [Torcuato Di Tella Prize], specifically in terms of the support provided to the most talented artists that enabled them to present works they [...]

The jury for the 1966 Premio Internacional Instituto Torcuato Di Tella [Instituto Torcuato Di Tella International Prize], composed of Lawrence Alloway, Otto Hahn and Jorge Romero Brest, awarded the first prize to Susana Salgado, second prize to [...]

In his double function as director of the Museo Nacional de Bellas Artes [National Museum of Fine Arts] and art consultant of the Fundación Torcuato Di Tella in Buenos Aires, Jorge Romero-Brest wrote the prologue for the Argentinean Painters Prize [...]

This text presents each of the artists who represented Argentina in the VII Biennial of São Paulo (1963). It briefly describes the characteristics of their work and identifies the variety of visual arts languages and the subtlety that “califica a [...]

The artist wrote on the history of his studio, noting that his teaching objective was the concept of freedom of expression and setting aside the local attitude in favor of a Universalist idea. In this way, Grela demonstrated each of the exhibitor’s [...]

This declaration presents a series of definitions upon which the Tucumán Arde [Tucumán Is Burning] exhibition was founded. It defines it as “a collective work that, as it employs new channels of communication and expression, empowers the creation [...]

The foreword to this catalogue was written by Hugo Parpagnoli—the director of the Museo de Arte Moderno in Buenos Aires, at that time—highlights the important role played by Dr. Isidoro Slullitel, the private art collector. He was a rare [...]

This is the introduction to the 1st Latin American Art Biennial delivered by James F. McCloud, the President of the Biennial, at the opening of the event on June 26, 1962, at the Museo Provincial de Bellas Artes “Emilio A. Caraffa” in Córdoba, [...]

In this essay, Liliana Porter discusses the work she presented at the Museo de Bellas Artes [Museum of Fine Arts] in Caracas in January 1969, at the exhibition The New York Graphic Workshop. She includes some biographical information and a list of [...]

The art critic Samuel Paz wrote that art produced around 1959 was a pursuit rich with collective experiences, yet poor in individual outcome. In his opinion, rebellion today is mastering the path to “extroverted creation.” Although, contrary to [...]

In his presentation, Samuel Oliver discusses the new order involved in building form with its own defining formal attributes. He supports his proposal with simple volumes and takes advantage of pure, highly visible colors. The forms are built into [...]

This introductory text for the exhibition Forum: grupo de fotógrafos contemporáneos [Forum: a contemporary photographers’ group] places emphasis on the artist-photographer who, through the developing process, manipulates lights in its subtle [...]

Libero Badii explains that his transition from sculpting to painting demonstrated that he was an artist in his prime. According to him, painting could express the communicative meaning of his work. He mentions the "sinister" sense of his artistic [...]

This article is an introduction to the exhibition, Grupo de Artistas Modernos de la Argentina. Pinturas, esculturas, dibujos [Modern Art Group of Argentina. Paintings, Sculptures, Drawings]. The Concrete artists included in the exhibition were [...]

Samuel Paz presents Juan Carlos Badaracco, mentioning that because this is his first show, this exhibition (Galería Rubbers, Buenos Aires, April–May, 1960) points out a phase in which the artist put aside his monologue  in order to offer himself [...]

Rafael Squirru introduces Narcisa Hirsch’s exhibition (Galería Lirolay, August–September, n/d), and he acknowledges the dramatic quality of an artist’s first solo show. Squirru stresses that Hirsch’s education and professional attitude are [...]

In this text, Aldo Pellegrini introduces the Luis R. Tomasello exhibition held at Galería Denise René in Paris (November 1962). He emphasizes that the works presented make use of spatial volumes that are subordinated to the plane in which they move [...]

Aldo Paparella discusses the role of the artist in the consumer society, based on his essentialist ideas about art. He defines his concept of the true artist as an aware, responsible interpreter, fully independent of the reality that he or she [...]

Antonio Berni writes about Nuevo Realismo [New Realism], which he defines as an aesthetic identity that, in Latin America, vacillates between form and content [...]

This text outlines Blaszko’s opinion concerning the artist’s mission; it explains the artist’s method, which includes the use of rhythm and the interplay of conflicting forces while ensuring that the resulting forms are always governed by the [...]

Jorge Romero Brest describes Leopoldo Torres Agüero’s work by saying that it is clearly by someone who understands that contemporary creative output does not represent individual expression as much as a manifestation of reality. The critic also [...]

This note expresses support for the occupation of the Argentinean Building of the University Boarding Complex of Paris. The intellectuals that signed this note expresses their solidarity with and fraternal support of the protesting residents and [...]

This is a letter Samuel Paz wrote in New York to Jorge Romero Brest, in which he provides the details regarding the negotiations with different galleries undertaken to obtain works that would participate in the Premio Torcuato Di Tella 1967. [The [...]

This study signed by Juan Carlos Distéfano,Francisco Kröpfl, Fernando von Reichenbach and Humberto Rivas sets forth objectives and a structural schematic. It likewise makes projections on budgets as well as the infrastructure necessary for the [...]