Documents of Latin American and Latino Art

In this text, Icleia Borsa Cattani establishes the concepts that form the basis of her analysis of the work of contemporary artists, such as Iberê Camargo, Maria Tomaselli Cirne Lima, Carlos Carrion de Britto Velho, Loíde Schwambach, Geraldo [...]

In Sheila Leirner’s opinion, “reductive art” is an important factor in the moral compass of contemporary international artwork. In order to have its effect, the reductive approach would have to bring about a radical change in Brazilian art and [...]

In this article, the critic Sheila Leirner seeks to differentiate between marginal art, marginalized art, and art that is understood as marginalized by the artist who created it. In her opinion, there is a tendency to regard marginal art and artists [...]

Sheila Leirner discusses feminine and feminist art in Europe, the United States and Brazil. In her opinion, movements of this kind proliferated in 1980s art, which also served as a vehicle for reporting on the situation of the woman in the [...]

The Brazilian art critic Sheila Leirner considers the scope of the exhibition by Mary Dritschel, the U.S. artist with a show at the Luisa Strina gallery in São Paulo: Da Caixa à Flor. The artist’s work was a contemporary example of “ [...]

Icleia Borsa Cattani discusses in this document the possibility of egalitarian, respectful cultural exchanges in Latin America, especially in the current context of social inequality aggravated by globalization. In her opinion, events that take place [...]

This text is an interview by art critic Lisette Lagnado with Sheila Leirner, the curator of the XVIII and XIX São Paulo Biennials. Leirner asserts that she believes that the tasks of art criticism and curating are of equal importance. Her education [...]

The author of this anonymous article on the sculptural work of Brazilian artist Maria Martins places emphasis on its innovative nature and asserts that that is why it is acclaimed abroad but largely ignored in Brazil. Like Tarsila do Amaral in the [...]

This anonymous article bemoans the failure of Assis Chateaubriand’s initiative to build regional museums in Brazil. The author does not blame Chateaubriand, a businessman based in São Paulo, for the failure, but instead focuses on the [...]

In this article, artist Raúl Hausmann proposes a revision of the work of Ukrainian painter and musician Jefim Golyscheff within Dadaism, a movement he had participated in. In Hausmann’s opinion, he was a born Dadaist who created an unprecedented [...]

Aracy Amaral scrutinizes Tarsila do Amaral’s body of work in search of traces of Surrealism; she also explains that the artist’s thematic and formal universe was conditioned by spending her childhood at her family’s coffee plantation in the [...]

This is an article about an exhibition of contemporary artists from Pernambuco to be held at the Museu de Arte Contemporânea da Universidade de São Paulo (MAC-USP), directed by the professor Walter Zanini. Zanini had visited Pernambuco to select [...]

In this interview, architect Flavio de Aquino explains the model for the Escola Superior de Desenho Industrial (ESDI) in Rio de Janeiro. In his view, it was initially based on “American patterns” and then reoriented in keeping with the pedagogy [...]

This article discusses the initiative to open regional art museums in key Brazilian cities other than the hegemonic centers of São Paulo and Rio de Janeiro. The force behind the project was newspaper magnate Assis Chateaubriand who had [...]

In this article, the art critic Lourival Gomes Machado elaborates on the work by Francisco Rebolo and Clóvis Graciano. It is significant, in his opinion, that both artists would start their artistic careers ten years after the Semana de 1922,thus [...]

Here, art critic Lourival Gomes Machado discusses Brazilian painting from the point of view of a critical debate that he sees making the rounds in Brazil. A number of art critics judge Brazilian painting based on their belief in the opposition [...]

In this newspaper article, Lourival Gomes Machado observes that art criticism in Brazil has finally started considering Concrete art as an important form of expression in Brazilian art. In his opinion, the idea of “rupture” with the art world— [...]

This critique is on the book Evolução Social da Pintura (1942), written by Luiz Martins,a book written on the conferences he held at the Biblioteca Municipal de São Paulo. Lourival Gomes Machado states that the author, Luiz Martins, understands [...]

In this book the critic Lourival Gomes Machado discusses the origins and consequences in Brazil of the modernist movement, basing his arguments on the famous Semana de Arte Moderna of 1922 and the works of modernist artists. His goal is to ascertain [...]