Documents of Latin American and Latino Art

In “Notas sobre lo americano” Luis Oyarzún shares his thoughts about Latin American culture, art, and literature, which he contrasts with his Eurocentric views. He groups his ideas into six points, in which he critiques what he [...]

Pedro Prado writes about Juan Francisco González after he had passed away, referring to him as “his teacher,” the teacher who taught him how to see as a painter, to find the beauty in his surroundings. Prado describes Gonzá [...]

This essay includes a compilation of statements made by members of the Tribu No, a group devoted to experimental poetry and art that was active in Chile in the late 1960s and early 1970s; it also includes statements by other individuals who were [...]

Cecilia Vicuña writes about her relationship with Juan (“Xuan”) Luis Martínez. Her memories date back to before they met, to times when they were at the same place at the same time. Vicuña mentions an occasion when [...]

Roberto Matta criticizes the conditions in Chile that have been created by the military dictatorship, using a poetic code based on the faculty of vision. He alludes to the political situation being endured by the Mapuche indigenous peoples and refers [...]

Gaspar Galaz writes about the Grupo de Los Diez, describing how the group began and providing some historical context. He gives a broad explanation about how the group operated and goes on to discuss the painters in the group and their works. He [...]

Enrique Lihn imagines a dialogue between Pedro Luna’s work and what both Victor Carvacho and Antonio Romera have written about it. According to Lihn, Luna’s painting is inspired by a natural, instinctive feeling that is focused on form [...]

Luis Oyarzún writes about the body of work that the painter Carlos Pedraza produced over the course of his three-decade career. According to Oyarzún, Pedraza attained a measure of skill in the areas he explored and, like Pablo Burchard [...]

Francisco Brugnoli reviews the work of Matilde Pérez in terms of persistence and discontinuity. In his essay, he theorizes about art’s role as a means of communication and provides a historical perspective on the evolution of a kind of [...]

Alberto Pérez was a member of the Grupo Signo and writes about the group in this text. He discusses what originally led to a form of art whose exponents sought to explore the global sociopolitical situation. He classifies the group’s [...]

In this essay Antonio Romera discusses the collection of works by Chilean artists that was sent to the Primera Bienal Americana de Arte in Argentina. He states that the roots of current Chilean painting in the 1960s can be traced back to three [...]

Enrique Lihn introduces an exhibition of Chilean painting that includes modern works. He discusses what it means for a viewer to relate to figurative or non-figurative (abstract) works. He claims that, when faced with a work of art that “ [...]

Pedro Prado describes an architectural project undertaken by the group known as Los Diez. He is referring to “La Torre de Los Diez,” which they planned to build in a remote, quiet, free location with no great requirements as far as its [...]

In this essay, Antonio Romera discusses Hernán Gazmuri’s art career. Despite its merits, Gazmuri’s work has been ignored or forgotten. Romera mentions the artist’s referents, his teachers in Chile, and André Lhote& [...]

Dámaso Ogaz writes about a retrospective exhibition of works by Hernán Gazmuri, focusing on the man and his work. He refers to Gazmuri as “one of the most complete contemporary Chilean artists,” and describes his work as an [...]

Jean Emar and José Perotti cowrote a dialogue in which they delivered a scathing commentary on Nathanael Yáñez Silva’s critique of the Grupo Montparnasse’s first exhibition. The barbs in their published text made it [...]

In this brief article, “Con Vicente Huidobro,” Jean Emar discusses art and records the thoughts that the avant-garde Chilean poet Vicente Huidobro shared with him in conversations. They discussed matters related to Huidobro’s theory [...]

In this essay, Jean Emar writes about the Grupo Montparnasse’s first exhibition and its origins. He discusses the group’s name, which, for its five members, was neither a painting trend nor an objective; it was simply a referent. He [...]

This document includes excerpts from the personal travel log of the Chilean experimental photographer Julio Bertrand Vidal, who died at an early age. The texts range from 1907 to 1911, and the log tracks his travels in Europe, noting the places he [...]

The text, “Arte Suramericano” [South American Art], by Jean Emar, is one of his “Notas de arte” [Art Notes] written in the daily newspaper, La Nación between 1923 and 1925. In this text, Emar, in his capacity as an art [...]

In this essay Ricardo Richon Brunet reviews the evolution of Chilean art since the arrival of Raymond Monvoisin in the mid-nineteenth century. He describes the kind of work that was produced by the early artists, especially those who trained at the [...]

This text written by the Chilean architect, Carlos Feuereisen, is a folkloric meditation on the need to introduce the visual culture of the pre-Hispanic peoples into the design of decorative art and architecture made in Chile in the early 1930s. In [...]