Documents of Latin American and Latino Art

This article by C.A.D.A. (Colectivo Acciones de Arte) describes the group’s participation in the IN/OUT exhibition in Washington, DC. Due to the international nature of the exhibition, the text points out differences, provides some context for [...]

This is an introductory essay to accompany the exhibition Salón Experimental, held at the exhibition hall at the Eugenio Mendoza Foundation in Caracas in October of 1960. This was the second in a series of exhibitions meant to promote Informal art [...]

In this brochure essay produced for Artistas de Campinas, the exhibition presented at the Galeria de Arte das Folhas in 1959, Waldemar Cordeiro discusses the non-figurative “trends” and “contents” he detects in the works shown [...]

This flier announces the first Salão Paulista de Arte Moderna, held at the Galeria Prestes Maia. The event was organized by the Secretaria do Governo do Estado de São Paulo during the same year it launched the Bienal de São Paulo [...]

The country was awash in optimism that year, when Brasília was officially declared the new capital city. The tenth edition of the salão paulista de arte moderna was held at the Galería Prestes Maia, organized on this occasion by [...]

The flier’s cover is illustrated with a work of geometric abstraction (with no mention of the painter’s name), but includes no title for the event. The eleventh edition of the salão paulista de arte moderna, organized by the state [...]

In this newspaper article, Manuel Trujillo provides a critical review of the exhibition of works by the young Carlos Cruz-Diez at the Centro Venezolano-Americano de Caracas, which ran from late 1947 to early 1948; this was the artist’s first [...]

This article appeared on the Venezuelan magazine Imagen, focusing on the opening of 1x9, a silkscreen exhibition by the modernist abstract artist Mercedes Pardo, held at the Museo de Bellas Artes in Caracas. After a brief introduction with [...]

This document contains information on an exhibition of the Federación de Estudiantes Plásticos del Uruguay (FEPU) held in 1942. A pro-Soviet text is transcribed and a list of participants in the show appears, among them eminent local artists. The [...]

This is the official flier for the third edition of the Salão Paulista de Arte Moderna, held in 1954 at the Galeria Prestes Maia under the auspices of the Secretaria do Governo do Estado de São Paulo. Mário Zanini was responsible [...]

This is the official flier for the fourth edition of the Salão Paulista de Arte Moderna, organized by the Secretaria do Governo do Estado de São Paulo at the Galeria Prestes Maia in 1955. The organizing committee was headed by two well- [...]

In 1956, what proved to be a critical year in Brazilian art circles, the first Concrete art exhibitions were organized at a national level. But this development had no impact at all in terms of the participants or the type of works presented at the [...]

After President Getúlio Vargas committed suicide in August 1954, Brazil embarked on a program of renewal focused on two basic areas: industrialization and development. The democratically elected government of Juscelino Kubitschek (1956-1960) [...]

This flier, which announces the seventh edition of the Salão Paulista de Arte Moderna, has an excellent minimalist design on the cover. The (ordinal) “ o ” becomes one of the squares in the black and yellow composition, which uses [...]

The flier for the eighth edition of the salão paulista de arte moderna has been redesigned and relies mainly on lowercase letters, double-page spreads, and a simple cover design. Willys de Castro is a member of the jury responsible for the [...]

The ninth edition of the salão paulista de arte moderna (still written in lowercase letters) was held in June 1960 at the usual venue, the Galeria Prestes Maia de São Paulo. The flier carries over many elements from the previous year& [...]

This article, published in the magazine of the Museu de Arte Moderna de São Paulo (MAM), highlights the artist Judith Lauand, the subject of the “anthological exhibition” Judith Lauand: Experiências. It begins with a [...]

This essay by Julia Herzberg overviews Carlos Alfonzo’s artistic trajectory from 1982 to 1991, outlining the biographical details of his life and analyzing multiple artworks included in the exhibition. Working mainly in a Neo-Expressionist [...]

In this introductory essay, “La huelga del color” (The Color Strike), Glória Ferreira includes an article that had appeared in the newspaper Correio da Manhã on May 16, 1954. The article described the third Salão [...]

This document is a review by Alfred Frankenstein of The Fifth Sun: Contemporary/Traditional Chicano and Latino Art exhibition at the University of California, Berkeley Art Museum in 1977. Frankenstein begins by describing the show, detailing the [...]

This exhibition brochure by guest curator Julia P. Herzberg describes several works included in A Town Portrait, with an eponymous installation and two photographic series, When I Am Not Here/Estoy allá (1996) and Abridor de caminos (1997). [...]

In this issue of Revista de avance, the journalist and art critic Martí Casanovas (born in Catalonia) provides a brief commentary on the twelfth exhibition at the Salón de Bellas Artes, which he finds somewhat mediocre. Without being [...]

“Altamirano. Respuestas a un cuestionario” (Altamirano. Answers to a Questionnaire) is a transcript of the conversation in which CAL magazine and gallery interviewed Carlos Altamirano about the exhibition Revisión crítica de [...]

In this theoretical text, the visual artist Carlos Cruz-Diez discusses the origin and objectives of his Laberintos de cromosaturación (Chromosaturation Labyrinths). The fundamental idea behind this work involves the viewer’s chromatic [...]

In this short text, members of C.A.D.A. (Colectivo Acciones de Arte) describe the group’s project, Residuos Americanos [American Residues]. They explain that the installation suggests a connection between “American clothes” ( [...]

This exhibition essay charts Ana Mendieta’s artistic trajectory between 1970 and 1980, including her tenure at the University of Iowa (where she completed two master’s degrees: one in painting and one in intermedia), her time in Mexico, [...]

In this brochure produced for the exhibition of works by prizewinners at the 1960 Prêmio Leirner de Arte Contemporânea, Gerardo Ferraz discusses how Anatol Wladyslaw’s work transitioned from the “mathematics and geometry&rdquo [...]

This exhibition essay by Julia P. Herzberg reviews the artistic trajectory of Venezuelan artist Nela Ochoa (b. 1953), whose current work is inspired by the medical sciences. Since the 1990s, she has mainly focused on the body, genetics, and [...]

Raquel Tibol wrote this statement introducing the exhibition Artistas Mexico Americanos de San Francisco, California [Mexican American Artists from San Francisco, California] held in Mexico in 1987. It begins by suggesting the existence of [...]

In this article, Raquel Tibol reviews the exhibition Artistas Mexico Americanos de San Francisco, California held at Loteria Nacional in Mexico City’s in 1987 and featuring the works of 29 Mexican-American artists, including Ray Patlan, Carmen [...]

This exhibition essay overviews the trajectory of Arturo Cuenca’s photographic practice from his time spent in Cuba in the 1980s until his arrival in New York in the early 1990s. In the late 1970s, he transitioned from making Photorealist/Pop [...]

In her introductory essay for As Bienais e a Abstração. A Década de ’50 (1978), the exhibition organized by the Museu Lasar Segall in 1978, Lisbeth Gonçalves explains that the goal of the event was to review [...]

In this historical review, prompted by the exhibition of contemporary Chilean art in Berlin, the artist and teacher Francisco Brugnoli reflects on the “impertinence” of (ethnic-geographical and artistic) otherness as seen from the [...]

Journalist Alfonso Bonilla Aragón writes a review of a solo exhibition of the artist Beatriz González, which took place at the Museo La Tertulia in Cali, Colombia, in 1965. The show encompassed three bodies of work: nine oil paintings [...]

In this catalogue exhibition essay for the GAN (Galería de Arte Nacional) in Caracas, Humberto Mata discusses the work of the Venezuelan modernist Mercedes Pardo. The writer personifies his text describing his brief encounters with the painter [...]

Written by art historian Tomás Ybarra-Frausto, this document represents a chronology of important social and cultural developments in Chicano art. Beginning in 1959 with an exhibition organized around the MAPA (Mexican American Political Association [...]

This is the catalogue published to accompany Camargo, the exhibition organized by the Gimpel Fils gallery in London. The Brazilian artist Sérgio Camargo’s works were exhibited there from November 17 through December 5, 1970. The [...]

The writer of this article fluctuates between his feelings for traditional forms of painting and his admiration for contemporary trends. Rafael Cordero says that being a devotee of painting is not a virtue but in fact is almost a sin, given the [...]

This short, anonymous newspaper article informs its readers about the solo exhibition of works by Carlos Cruz-Diez scheduled to open on November 17, 1971, at the New York premises of the Denise René Gallery. It states that the artist will show [...]

Alberto Junyent reviews the fourth exhibition of La Nouvelle Tendance at the Musée des Arts Décoratifs, in Paris, an event in which Carlos Cruz-Diez participated. The reviewer informs his readers that, in the twentieth century, “ [...]

In this article, Gaspar Galaz reviews the works by the Chilean painter Mario Carreño on display at the exhibition Retrospectiva 1945–1988. In the art historian’s opinion, the exhibition does not attempt to present “a grand [...]

This document is a short essay by Art Hernandez describing what Chicano art is. It begins with a history of the early derogatory uses of the term “Chicano” and several descriptions of Chicano art that incorporate individual styles, art school [...]

In this essay Antonio Romera discusses the collection of works by Chilean artists that was sent to the Primera Bienal Americana de Arte in Argentina. He states that the roots of current Chilean painting in the 1960s can be traced back to three [...]

This is a review of the work that Carlos Cruz-Diez presented at Art dans la rue (Art in the Street), the event organized by Frank Popper for the Centre National d’Art Contemporain (December 1969). The Venezuelan artist showed his Labyrinthe de [...]

This article, published in the Caracas newspaper El Nacional, announces the upcoming opening of the exhibition 1x9, serigrafia del color by the Venezuelan abstract painter Mercedes Pardo, held at the Museo de Bellas Artes in the capital city. The [...]

In this essay, Ferreira Gullar critiques the exhibition of works by São Paulo Concrete artists at the MAM-RJ (Museu de Arte Moderna de Rio de Janeiro, 1957). He also critiques Waldemar Cordeiro’s introductory essay and its assertion that [...]

In this interview with Iván Navarro, Julia P. Herzberg poses questions about process and materials, the use of electricity, and art historical influences on his work from the 1990s to the 2000s. Navarro’s Blade Runner series (2004), [...]

The critic Roberto Guevara discusses the exhibition presented at the Galería Conkright in Caracas, paying particular attention to the room devoted to Carlos Cruz-Diez and his Colores aditivos (Additive Colors). The article concentrates mainly [...]

This newspaper article is about an interview with the director of the Museo de Arte Moderno de México, Fernando Gamboa, on the subject of the exhibition that Carlos Cruz-Diez opened in Mexico City as part of a cultural exchange between Mexico [...]

This is art critic and journalist Ratto-Ciarlo’s review of the latest Cruz-Diez exhibition that also mentions the trip to Europe the artist will be taking in 1955 after the close of his show. Their conversation focuses on the creation of a [...]