Venezuelan art critic Bélgica Rodríguez suggests that Latin American art is largely homogeneous. She discusses the impact of different international styles and artistic movements on Latin American artists such as Cuban painter Amelia Peláez, who was influenced by Cubism, abstraction, and other European avant-garde movements. Despite these influences, though, Peláez was able to develop her own distinct style and vocabulary. Furthermore, nationalist concerns, Rodríguez comments, were also important to artists in the 1920s.

Amelia Peláez (Yaguajay, Cuba, 1896–1968) is considered one of the most prolific Cuban artists of the twentieth century. Born in a town on the northern coast of the island, Peláez and her family moved to Havana in 1915. One year after the demise of her father, Dr. Manuel Peláez, Amelia enrolled in the Academia de San Alejandro. In the late 1020s, she traveled to Paris where she studied at the Académie des Beaux-Arts of the Musée du Louvre and then in the studio of French artist Fernand Léger. It was at Léger’s studio that she met Russian Constructivist Alexandra Exter, who influenced her greatly by introducing her to Cubism and abstract forms. Seven years later, in 1934, Amelia returned to Havana where she joined the group of artists known as “the Cuban avant-garde movement,” which was active in the 1920s, 1930s, and 1940s. Painters Carlos Enríquez, Víctor Manuel, Marcelo Pogolotti, and René Portocarrero were among the other artists to take part in that movement.   Plástica magazine, where this review was published, was an art publication that appeared fairly regularly in Puerto Rico. It began modestly enough in 1968, as the newsletter of the Liga de arte de San Juan [San Juan Art League], but changed its name in 1978 to Plástica revista de la Liga de estudiantes de San Juan [San Juan Student League Visual Arts Magazine]. Its very specific title notwithstanding, the twenty-one issues of the magazine explored a wide range of subjects within the broad parameters of Puerto Rican and Latin American art, filling its pages with retrospective coverage of subjects, such as the V Bienal de San Juan del grabado latinoamericano y del Caribe [5th San Juan Biennial of Latin American and Caribbean Prints] (1981), Puerto Rican architecture, and Latin American visual arts. The first editorial board of the magazine included Hélène Saldaña, Delta Picó, Cordelia Buitrago, and J.M. García Segovia. In addition to the many essays written by top Puerto Rican thinkers, the magazine published contributions from some of the leading Latin American artists and critics, such as Luis Camnitzer, Damián Bayón, Jacqueline Barnitz, Samuel Cherson, Joseph Alsop, Omar Rayo, and Ricardo Pau Llosa, among many others.