Documents of Latin American and Latino Art

In this essay—a historical reflection on the Cuban landscape over the centuries—Cuban critic and historian Adelaida de Juan asserts that, starting in the second half of the nineteenth century, Cuban painters began to envision the natural [...]

Puerto Rican historian and curator Flavia Marichal Lugo offers an overview of the history of the woodcut in Puerto Rico. She explains that the medium took hold on the island in 1950 and its influence continually grew from then on thanks to the [...]

Norma Rosso, a Puerto Rican critic who resided in London, discusses the history of the silkscreen around the world, as well as its advent and later development on the island of Puerto Rico. In her view, silkscreen became the favored medium for a [...]

This essay by Puerto Rican historian Teresa Tío discusses the historical development of graphic portfolios in Puerto Rico between the 1950s and the 1990s. The essayist’s thesis is based on the fact that Puerto Rico has a long tradition of creating [...]

Argentine art critic Rafael Squirru describes the connection between the Puerto Rican artist Francisco Rodón, and his work, and the way that Rodón “immerses himself in the canvas.” Squirru places Rodón within the Romantic tradition due to his [...]

The Argentine critic Marta Traba, who was based in Puerto Rico at the time of this article, evaluates the works presented on the occasion of the Primera Bienal de San Juan del Grabado Latinoamericano [1st San Juan Biennial of Latin American Graphic [...]

Juan Antonio Gaya Nuño, a Spanish historian who lived in Puerto Rico, explains the difference between the poster and other art forms. He claims that whereas in other countries the poster is used mostly in the spheres of politics, and sales, in [...]

Argentine poet and critic Rafael Squirru gives an overview of the events at the II Bienal de San Juan del Grabado Latinoamericano [2nd San Juan Biennial of Latin American Graphic Art] (1972), the prizes awarded by the jury, the participating artists [...]

The Argentine critic Damián Bayón writes about two El Greco exhibitions in Spain: El Greco de Toledo [El Greco of Toledo] at the Museo del Prado (Madrid), and El Toledo de El Greco [The Toledo of El Greco] in the city of Tajo (Ronda, Málaga). He [...]

 The Colombian poet Juan Gustavo Cobo Borda talks about the Argentine critic Damián Bayón and his passion for Latin American art. He mentions some of Bayón’s books, such as: Aventura plástica de Hispanoamérica [Hispanic America’s Visual [...]

Argentine critic Rafael Squirru writes a critical review of an exhibition of posters held at the Taller de Gráfica [Graphic Art Workshop] of the Instituto de Cultura Puertorriqueña (ICP) [Institute of Puerto Rican Culture]. This workshop was led by [...]

Puerto Rican critic Ernesto Ruiz de la Mata comments that after the II Bienal de San Juan del Grabado Latinoamericano [2nd San Juan Biennial of Latin American Graphic Art] was inaugurated, many people forgot about the marginal activities that made [...]

This essay by Argentine critic Marta Traba discusses Salmos[Psalms], the folderof verses by Nicaraguan poet Ernesto Cardenal with woodcuts by Puerto Rican artist Antonio Martorell. Traba praises this work, which she believes voices protest in a [...]

Puerto Rican historian Margarita Fernández Zavala interviews Myrna Báez on the occasion of the retrospective exhibition of Báez’s work from 1971 to 1981 organized by the Museo del Barrio (New York, NY). The show was also exhibited at the Museum [...]

In this article, Cuban Antonio Núñez Jiménez provides interesting information on the life of Cuban artist Wifredo Lam after he returned to Havana from Europe in 1941 as a refugee of World War II. The article contains direct quotes from Lam on his [...]

Puerto Rican historian Margarita Fernández Zavala gives a short history of the beginnings of the Hermandad de Artistas Gráficos de Puerto Rico [Puerto Rican Brotherhood of Graphic Artists] in 1981. She writes this article in response to the refusal [...]

The Argentine critic Damián Bayón reviews modern architecture in Argentina, Bolivia, Paraguay, and Peru. He believes there is a great deal of talent among young artists in Buenos Aires. Projects are impressive in spite of the bleak economic [...]

This essay by North American historian Shifra M. Goldman examines the artistic production of Chicanos. She considers that production part of the nationalist strategy of a people that determines its own destiny by means of its declarations, be they [...]

Puerto Rican historian and critic Teresa Tió reviews the development of the Bienal de San Juan del Grabado Latinoamericano y del Caribe [San Juan Biennial of Latin American and Caribbean Graphic Art] from its beginnings in 1970 through 1987. She [...]

Puerto Rican historian Margarita Fernández Zavala summarizes the details of the VII Bienal de San Juan del Grabado Latinoamericano y del Caribe [7th San Juan Biennial of Latin American and Caribbean Graphic Art] (1986). The VII Bienal honored the [...]

The Puerto Rican artist José Antonio Torres Martinó explains that Puerto Rican printmaking in the 1950s was an artistic response to the political situation; it was the artists’s way of creating an awareness of Puerto Rico. Thirty-five years later [...]

In this essay, Marianne de Tolentino, the French critic and historian based in the Dominican Republic, tells about the Puerto Rican honoree at the VII Bienal de San Juan del Grabado Latinoamericano y del Caribe [7th San Juan Biennial of Latin [...]

The Mexican writer and art critic Raquel Tibol questions the validity of international biennials. However, she believes they are important for stimulating changes and innovations. She talks about the change from the rule that provided for each judge [...]

Uruguayan critic Ángel Kalenberg praises the woodcuts of Uruguayan artist Carlos González. He asserts that González is to South America what José Guadalupe Posada was to Mexico, mainly, a pioneer in the realm of art. His pivotal series of prints [...]

In 1973, Andrew Stasik, director of the Pratt Graphic Center, assembled a collection of Puerto Rican prints later acquired by the Exxon Corporation, which also sponsored an exhibition of the collection that traveled to major cities in the United [...]

Argentine critic Marta Traba, who lived in Puerto Rico in the early 1970s, comments on the figurative paintings and landscapes by Puerto Rican artist Myrna Báez. Traba asserts that Báez has become a significant artist due to “the variety and [...]

The editorial board of the magazine Plástica reproduced part of an article on art criticism—a topic of great interest to the Puerto Rican art milieu—that had previously been published in the Mexican magazine ARTE-noticias. To expand on the [...]

In this article, Nelson Rivera, the Puerto Rican critic and historian, comments on the selection process and prizes awarded at the 1988 VIII Bienal de San Juan del Grabado Latinoamericano y del Caribe [8th San Juan Biennial of Latin American and [...]

The Puerto Rican critic and historian Marimar Benítez explains that the Puerto Rican artist Myrna Báez was among those honored at the VIII Bienal de San Juan del Grabado Latinoamericano y del Caribe [8th San Juan Biennial of Latin American and [...]

Marianne de Tolentino, the French critic and historian based in the Dominican Republic, considers graphic art biennials a necessity. Although they are controversial, the biennials provide connections among countries, artists, and media. The purposes [...]

According to the Spanish art critic Manuel Pérez Lizano, who lives in Puerto Rico, there are two movements in contemporary Puerto Rican sculpture: a Neo-Constructivist trend and an Informalist trend. He says that Manuel de J. Feliciano, Melquiades [...]

The American critic and historian Shifra M. Goldman considers the influence that the art of the New Deal (the program introduced by President Franklin D. Roosevelt in the United States that existed from 1933 to 1938) and Mexican Social Realist art [...]

The French critic and historian based in the Dominican Republic, Marianne de Tolentino, wrote a critical review of the IV Bienal de San Juan del Grabado Latinoamericano [4th San Juan Biennial of Latin American Graphic Arts] (1979) organized by the [...]

The Venezuelan art historian Bélgica Rodríguez takes a look at the art produced in her country. According to her, twentieth-century Venezuelan art began with the landscape painters who were active in the early part of the century. She [...]

The French curator Hélène Lassalle reviews Penetrables by the Venezuelan artist Jesús Rafael Soto (1923–2005), and discusses her perceptions on a tactile level, after observing how viewers react when faced with such works. Lassalle outlines a [...]

Jorge Glusberg, founder of the Centro de Arte y Comunicación [Center for Art and Communication] (CAyC in Buenos Aires), says that “there is no such thing as a Latin American art but there is a common set of challenges that creates an identity.” [...]

Martita Romero Brest, the wife of Argentine critic Jorge Romero Brest, discusses the construction of their houses, in City Bell and Punta Indio (Argentina), which were designed by the self-taught artist Edgardo Giménez [...]

The Puerto Rican critic Ernesto Ruiz de la Mata interviews the maestro Lorenzo Homar on the occasion of the publication of Primera Colección de Grabados Editada en el Taller de Artes Graficas del Museo de Arte Moderno La Tertulia [First Collection [...]

This manifesto was written by the French critic Pierre Restany in 1978 in which he claims that nature represents mankind’s conscience and sensibility. Total naturalism recognizes only the purifying, cathartic power of fantasy in the service of [...]

The French critic Pierre Restany suggests that art criticism springs from the rebirth of an art based on modern technology, the expressive freedom of the artist, and the use of a new language that increasingly encourages a simplification of forms, [...]

The Brazilian critic and historian Walter Zanini sees a need for an artistic exchange between the entire Latin American continent—not just Brazil—and other countries, a process he views as an important step toward understanding contemporary art [...]

The Brazilian critic Frederico Morais suggests that the discovery of artistic production emerging from peripheral locales in nations on both sides of the Atlantic is leading to a process of cultural decentralization. This outward movement from the [...]

The Argentine critic Damián Bayón briefly summarizes the state of Latin American art in Europe. Many artists are there for just a short time, they come and then leave; most are men and the majority live in Paris. Most are painters, although there [...]

The Argentine critic Silvia de Ambrosini claims that there have always been “opponents” in the art field. In her opinion, these “opponents” are what revitalizes the creative atmosphere. She says that in Latin American art & [...]

Inocente Palacios, who was the first director of the Escuela de Artes de la Universidad Central [Central University Art School] of Venezuela, suggests that in the twentieth century, and particularly after the Second World War, Latin American art was [...]

The Argentine critic Jorge Romero Brest states that he generally agrees with the lecture that Juan Acha gave at the XVII Congreso Extraordinario de la AICA [17th Extraordinary Conference of the AICA], held in Caracas in 1983. However, Romero Brest [...]

Juan Acha, the Peruvian critic and historian who has lived in Mexico long time ago, claims that it is a mistake to see art criticism as an appendix to artistic expression. According to Acha, art criticism “should examine artistic reality and [...]

Seventeen years after writing the article, “The Question of Latin American Art: Does It Exist?” (see doc no. 805617) in the 1960s, Jacqueline Barnitz wonders again about the question of the identity of Latin American art. She suggests that it [...]

Jacqueline Barnitz, who spent many years as a professor of Latin American art at the University of Texas at Austin, wonders if there really is “Latin American art.” This question was addressed at a symposium at the New School of Social Research. [...]

Dore Ashton, the distinguished American art critic, believes that Latin American artists should be free to express themselves as they please. A national art should not consist entirely of images of indigenous or local subjects. Ashton points out that [...]