This is the text of the lecture given by Aracy Amaral at the symposium presented on the occasion of the Art of the Fantastic: Latin America, 1920?1987 exhibition, in which she discusses the meaning of the term “fantastic,” particularly in the sense of an imagery created by the collective unconscious mind and by fantasy itself. She then attempts to determine whether this particular kind of artistic production might be discounted in some circles because it is considered somehow inferior since it is not a product of the intellect. Amaral criticizes what she considers to be the basic premise of the exhibition, which she sees as a distorted, partial, and prejudiced view of Latin American art, and suggests that it could give the exhibit’s international audience the wrong impression. Amaral mentions the recurrence of constructive and kinetic art trends, which at that time were enjoying considerable popularity, and notes the emergence of an international urban sort of art in large Latin American cities.

Aracy Amaral is an art critic and historian. Since 1975 she has taken a very keen interest in Latin American art, participating in the Austin Symposium in Texas, and cultivating relationships with regional critics such as Damián Bayón, Juan Acha, and Marta Traba. This lecture was given on the occasion of the Art of the Fantastic: Latin America, 1920?1987 exhibition presented at the Indianapolis Museum of Art. The text also mentions Les magiciens de la terre [The Magicians of the Earth], an exhibition held in Paris in 1989 that presented exotic works from Asian countries. 

Amaral critiques certain curatorial tours de force, such as the one involved in the “Arte da América Latina: questionamentos sobre a discriminação” at the Indianapolis Museum [doc. no. 776879], pointing out the (ab)use of terms such as “the fantastic.”

Volume One of the ICAA’s Critical Documents (assembled by Héctor Olea, Mari Carmen Ramírez, and Tomás Ybarra-Frausto, Resisting Categories: Latin American And/Or Latino? (Houston: MFAH-ICAA, 2012) devoted a special chapter to the question of “Destabilizing Categorizations” (V.1, “Exhibiting Entrenched Representations”) which referred to the case that arose from the X Pan American Games at Indianapolis (1987). For additional information, see the prologue and introduction to “Art of the Fantastic” in [docs. no. 1065311 and 1065330].