This is a collection of sarcastic, occasionally humorous “definitions” of terms that help to understand Latin American art. Some are taken from research conducted into methods used in art production in the region (such as “cannibalism,” “metaphor,” “mannerism,” and “constructivism”). Others refer to the sources and references used by artists, as well as their materials and the problems they attempt to address (“color,” “nature,” “mythology,” “gold,” “banana,” and “watermelon”). The list also includes terms that allude to prejudicial attitudes to this kind of art (“eroticism,” “marvelous,” “primitivism”), and definitions used to describe historical, social, or political contexts (“dictatorship,” “Communist Party,” “national,” “messianism”), and so on.      

The glossary of Latin American art terminology written by the curator and art critic Paulo Herkenhoff (b. 1949) can be used as a “complementary linguistic chart” to assist in the reading and interpretation of the works presented at the Cartographies exhibition in 1993, curated by Ivo Mesquita at the Winnipeg Art Gallery, in Winnipeg, Canada. The glossary is also an archeological record of the rampant prejudices and misunderstandings in the History of Art concerning artistic production in Latin America. In spite of its encyclopedic nature, the glossary is closely associated with Ivo Mesquita’s curatorial proposal that seeks to avoid the kind of prejudices and reductive concepts concerning the art of the region that might result from a random search for criteria that could be applied to that type of artistic production.

By describing his list as “incomplete,” Herkenhoff underscores the idea that such criteria must be found through “direct contact” with those works of art, and not formulated in advance. As regards the curatorial strategy for this exhibition presented in Canada, see “Cartographies” [doc. no. 807646]. For further information on this subject, that was widely discussed at the time, see essays by Brazilian critics as follows: by Annateresa Fabris, “Duas cartografias da América Latina: Joaquín Torres García e Anna Bella Geiger,” in América Latina: territorialidades e práticas artísticas (Porto Alegre: Ed. UFRGS, 2002) [doc. no. 808407]; and by María Angélica Melendi, “Da adversidade vivemos ou uma cartografia em construção,” Revista do Instituto Arte das Américas, Belo Horizonte, Year 2, Volume I, 2004 [doc. no. 808351].