Documents of Latin American and Latino Art

In this theoretical essay written for the magazine Revista Pan, the Colombian photographer Luis B. Ramos rates “Beauty” as the only goal worth pursuing in life. In his opinion, that pursuit should be unfettered by any particular technique, though [...]

This document includes the expert appraisal report of the eleven murals that artist Pedro Nel Gómez painted from 1935 to 1937 at the new Medellín City Hall. The Medellín City Council had commissioned Colombian writers Efe Gómez and Antonio J. [...]

This document reproduces the introduction to Colombian painter Ignacio Gómez Jaramillo written by poet and critic Gilberto Owen on the occasion of Gómez Jaramillo’s first solo exhibition in Bogotá (1934). Owen’s text mentions the revelatory [...]

This is the text of the lecture given in October 1934 by the writer Jorge Zalamea at the Teatro Colón in Bogotá on the occasion of the exhibition of works by the painter Ignacio Gómez Jaramillo. The essay begins with a general discussion on the [...]

A journalist who signs “Dr. Equis” (Dr. X) interviews Colombian painter Pedro Nel Gómez on the occasion of his solo exhibition in Bogotá. Nel Gómez voices his complete lack of interest in nationalism of any sort, and asserts that the idea of [...]

The article “El expresionismo como síntoma de pereza e inhabilidad en el arte” [Expressionism as a Symptom of Laziness and Inability in Art] expresses the opinion held in traditional political circles in Colombia concerning avant-garde modern [...]

In 1934, conservative leader Miguel Jiménez López delivered a speech to the Colombian Senate that is reproduced in this article from Revista Colombiana (1933–43). In it, the politician proposes “a fierce turn to the right.” He levels harsh [...]

In his column “Marginario fugaz” [Fleeting Notes from the Margin], the young Colombian writer, Darío Achury Valenzuela, reports on the formation of the group, Los Bachués. This document is an invitation to young adults in their thirties to work [...]

The Colombian art critic Rafael Duque Uribe discusses his impressions of the exhibition of works by the mural painter Pedro Nel Gómez at the central salon of the National Capitol in Bogotá. The artist’s style reminds this critic of the art [...]

The critic Luis Vidales Jaramillo reviews the fresco La liberación de los esclavos [The Freeing of the Slaves] by Ignacio Gómez Jaramillo at the National Capitol of Colombia. Vidales Jaramillo considers it a successful work because it expresses “ [...]

In his capacity as President-elect of Colombia, Alfonso López Pumarejo traveled to Mexico in July 1934—when Lázaro Cárdenas was making a run for the presidency—to learn more about recent Mexican social and political innovations. Enthused by [...]

This anonymous article published in the Colombian newspaper El Tiempo reports the decision of the Bogotá City Council to “condemn” the frescos by Ignacio Gómez Jaramillo in the Colombian Capitol. The column asserts that, while the controversial [...]

Pan magazine (1935–40) published a Spanish translation of a text written by Werner Suhr, who was the director of Gebrauchsgraphik, which introduced the Colombian photographer Luis B. Ramos to the German public. Suhr describes the Colombian [...]

Painter and photographer Luis B. Ramos’s obituary in the newspaper El Tiempo evidences the great esteem felt for the most beloved photographer in Colombia during the mid-1950s. The text recounts that when Ramos returned from Paris he asserted the [...]

In January 1938 the German magazine Gebrauchsgraphik published eight photographs of the Colombian painter and photographer Luis Benito Ramos with a brief introductory article, an exceptional achievement for a local artist. This prompted the publisher [...]

In this essay written for Revista Colombiana, the art critic Javier Arango Ferrer declares himself to be in favor of nationalism. He carefully and shrewdly reviews the works of the sculptors Rómulo Rozo and Marco Tobón Mejía, and the painter Marco [...]

This document outlines the reasons that the Bogotá City Council approved sending a request to the federal government asking that the murals by Colombian painter Ignacio Gómez Jaramillo at the Capitol be “taken down or replaced.” Gómez [...]

This document is an excellent example of the sort of work produced by Colombian photographer Luis B. Ramos, author of many works of photojournalism. The article includes five photographs of peasants from the Department of Boyacá, Colombia, and a [...]