This document includes a summary of the proposals presented by the participants at the Primer Encuentro Iberoamericano de Críticos de Arte y Artistas Plásticos who were sitting together at work table number three. Referring to the subject “The social context of Latin American art,” the participants’ preliminary ideas stress the need for an organizational structure that would allow them to be involved in the issues affecting the visual arts in Latin American countries which, in their opinion, are produced in an environment of cultural dependency that threatens the freedom of critics and artists. The participants at this table made several suggestions, including the following: the creation of visual artists’ associations in different countries that would interact and develop relationships with other art associations in order to undertake voluntary projects that would encourage popular creativity and thus lead to a dialogue and an exchange of ideas; the involvement of large segments of society in the process of exposing works of art; the encouragement of popular art criticism; and the application of new options in the producer/viewer dynamic that are radically removed from elitist models.

The main proposals in this document, suggested by the members of work table #3 at the Primer Encuentro Iberoamericano de Críticos de Arte y Artistas Plásticos, held in Venezuela, consist of general appeals (largely of an ideological and ethical nature) for a transformation of the various factors in the creative process and in the society in which the factors play a part. It should be noted that all the proposals originate from a single sociocultural environment which, ideally, is common to and relevant in all Latin American countries. 

The Primer Encuentro Iberoamericano de Críticos de Arte y Artistas Plásticos was held in 1978 at the Museo de Bellas Artes in Caracas. In addition to the coordinator Marta Arjona, other important figures in the fields of art criticism and art itself were at the event, including Jorge Alberto Manrique, Marta Traba (see “La tradición de lo nacional” [doc. no. 815744]), Juan Acha (“La actual división técnica del trabajo artístico en América Latina” [doc. no. 815489]), Carlos Areán (“Iberoamérica y su identidad artística y cultural” [doc. no. 815730]), Julio Le Parc (“Interrogantes” [doc. no. 815575]), Carlos Rodríguez Saavedra, Jacqueline Barnitz, Berta Taracena (“Elementos constantes en el arte iberoamericano” [doc. no. 815558]), Ida Rodríguez Prampolini (“Dadá y América Latina” [doc. no. 815758]), Antonio Berni (“No puedo dejar de destacar la importancia de este encuentro” [doc. no. 815659]), Roberto Montero Castro (“Arte e identidad: métodos institucionales en el desarrollo cultural venezolano” [doc. no. 815631]), Marco Miliani, Alirio Rodríguez, Jorge Glusberg (“Aproximación metodológica para una comprensión de la retórica del arte latinoamericano” [doc. no. 815475]), Élida Román (“El rol del crítico” [doc. no. 815617]), Adelaida de Juan (“Cuba: revolución y plástica” [doc. no. 815544]), Galaor Carbonell (“Hacia la eventual incidencia de la revista de arte latinoamericano en nuestra identificación” [doc. no. 815603]), Roberto Pontual, and Aracy A. Amaral.

The “Austin Symposium” was an important forerunner to this event. The Symposium was organized by Damián C. Bayón and held at the University of Texas at Austin in late October 1975. Many of the participants at the 1978 Encuentro had attended the Austin Symposium, which led to much discussion about the shared experience. Bayón later published a book about the Austin Symposium: El artista latinoamericano y su identidad (Caracas: Monte Ávila Editores, Colección Estudios, 1977; 150 pp. illustrated in black & white).

It is important to note that the lectures delivered at the Museo de Bellas Artes in 1978 had not been published at that point, though some were subsequently included in monographs or anthologies. They therefore possess great documentary value as primary source material.