Waldo Rasmussen introduces the exhibition, Latin American Artists of the Twentieth Century, with the history of participation by The Museum of Modern Art (MoMA) in the promotion of Latin American art. Rasmussen refers to the important role played by Latin American art during the museum’s early years in the 1930s and 1940s. He points out the museum’s close ties to policies related to using art for promoting strong bonds between the countries of the Americas as World War II loomed on the horizon. He even speaks of the museum directors’ support of the exhibition and the collection of Latin American art during that period. Among the directors, the figures that stand out are those of Abby Aldrich Rockefeller, Nelson Rockefeller, and René d’Harnoncourt. Rasmussen also tells the story of establishing an international board and its participation in organizing the São Paulo Biennial in the early 1950s. He goes on to describe the museum’s traveling exhibitions of American art, which wended their way through Latin America in the 1960s. In some way, the writer ends up interweaving the history of the board in with his own. Finally, Rasmussen emphasizes the weakening of the museum’s commitment to Latin American art during the 1970s and 1980s. He reviews the objective in carrying out this exhibition: not just to reactivate MoMA’s interest in Latin American art, but more generally, to generate greater recognition of this artwork in the heart of mainstream art.

Waldo N. Rasmussen (1903–2010) wrote this introduction to the catalog published for the exhibition, Latin American Artists of the Twentieth Century, which he organized as director of the International Program of The Museum of Modern Art (MoMA) in New York in 1993. This text would appear to outline the history of the museum’s relationship with Latin American art. In addition to creating a record of its background, Rasmussen defends the participation of Latin American artists in the modern and contemporary international art [scene], and considers their work fundamental. He relates how in the 1940s, he was impressed by the unquestionable quality of Diego Rivera’s murals as modernist works. He also describes the privilege he had—during his trips through Latin America as director of MoMA’s International Program—to see first hand, geometric abstraction and Conceptual art in Brazil, Venezuela, and Argentina. The writer goes on to recall the traveling exhibitions that were part of the International Program agenda. By promoting Abstract Expressionism as presented in Latin American and European painting (during the 1950s and 1960s), these exhibitions achieved international recognition for the United States. Rasmussen states his desire to do the same for Latin American art, at the same time, emphasizing his admiration for exhibition programs directed by Latin American figures with an international orientation, such as Marta Traba (1923–1983) in Bogotá, and Jorge Romero Brest (1905–1989) in Buenos Aires. He does give a nod to the warning by the critic, Bruce Ferguson, that all exhibitions are “highly coded events.” However, Rasmussen repeats that, by the same token, his goal for this exhibition is to present modern and contemporary Latin American art in the most flexible and open “international perspective” possible. With this objective in mind, he presents the works chronologically, avoiding thematic and nationalist groupings.