Documents of Latin American and Latino Art

In this lecture, Gustavo Buntinx looks to convince his listeners that the current idea of “Latin American art” is an imperialist construct, and argues that the only solution is for them to reinvent it in its entirety. He begins by declaring that [...]

Gerardo Mosquera considers the usefulness of the idea of Latin American art, ultimately taking a firm position against it as it has been understood up to now. He begins by describing Latin American culture’s “neurosis of identity” as the [...]

In this text, Charles Merewether argues that an overwhelmingly homogeneous concept of Latin American culture has been promoted by both state and market interests. He argues that Latin America can no longer be understood as any kind of fixed entity, [...]

In this text, Gerardo Mosquera introduces the exhibition Ante América [Facing the Americas] with an essay describing the common social, political and economic framework that has fostered the art of what he calls “el Sur” or “Nuestra América [...]

Lucy Lippard recounts a history of art in the United States during the 1970s and ‘80s centered on cultural mixing. She begins by attesting to the failure of the idea of the “melting pot” in the United States. Instead, she argues that Western [...]

Mari Carmen Ramírez argues that exhibitions of Latin American and Latino art in the United States during the 1980s have promoted false, colonial representations of these cultures by championing the paradigm of this art as the “fantastic other.” [...]

In this text, Shifra Goldman argues that the “boom” in interest in Latin American art that occurred in the United States during the 1980s was largely motivated by political and economic interests. According to her, events and phenomena that [...]

Waldo Rasmussen introduces the exhibition, Latin American Artists of the Twentieth Century, with the history of participation by The Museum of Modern Art (MoMA) in the promotion of Latin American art. Rasmussen refers to the important role played by [...]

In this introduction, Holliday T. Day and Hollister Sturges explain how the theme of “the fantastic” underlies the art of the twenty-nine artists included in the exhibition The Art of the Fantastic: Latin America, 1920-1987. In explaining their [...]

In this prologue, Holliday T. Day and Hollister Sturges explain how the theme of “the fantastic” underlies the art of the twenty-nine artists included in the exhibition The Art of the Fantastic: Latin America, 1920-1987. They explain how this [...]

In this introduction, Luis Cancel explains the logic behind how he and his colleagues organized the exhibition The Latin American Spirit: Art and Artists in the United States, 1920-1970. He also explains, at length, the curatorial team’s larger [...]

Peter Marzio reflects on the experience of organizing and presenting the exhibition Hispanic Art in the United States: Thirty Contemporary Painters from his perspective as the director of the organizing museum. Marzio tells us he wants to make “ [...]

Jane Livingston and John Beardsley reflect on the process of organizing the exhibition Hispanic Art in the United States: Thirty Contemporary Painters and Sculptors, and they respond to the criticism generated in response to it. They begin by [...]

In this text, Shifra Goldman examines the problematic homogenization of the idea of “Hispanic” art and culture that was promoted by the exhibition Hispanic Art in the United States: Thirty Contemporary Painters and Sculptors organized by The [...]

In this preface and acknowledgements, John Beardsley and Jane Livingston explain what motivated them to prepare Hispanic Art in the United States: Thirty Contemporary Painters and Sculptors, the process by which the exhibition was formulated, and [...]

In this text, Octavio Paz contemplates the characteristics of “Hispanic” art in the United States. In a section entitled “Names and Constitutions,” he begins by describing what he argues is an archetype of all societies: the [...]

In this text, María Luisa Torrens responds to Aracy Amaral’s article arguing that the installation entitled Etsedrón, which appeared at the 1975 (XIII) São Paulo Biennial, constituted a promising new direction for Latin American art. Torrens [...]

In this text, Juan Acha responds to Aracy A. Amaral’s article arguing that the installation entitled Etsedrón, which appeared at the 1975 (XIII) São Paulo Biennial (October 17-December 14), constituted a promising new direction for Latin [...]

In this text, Aracy Amaral considers the strong negative responses provoked by a work entitled Etsedrón in the 1975 (XIII) São Paulo Biennial. She argues that this work provoked such responses because of its visceral power and because it is [...]

Stanton Loomis Catlin and Terence Grieder introduce their exhibition Art of Latin America since Independence. They begin by arguing that U.S. audiences should naturally find this art of interest because it was produced by fellow “Americans,” and [...]

In this text, Thomas Messer explains the logic behind how he selected the works for his exhibition The Emergent Decade: Latin American Painters and Painting in the 1960s. He also considers the questions that the exhibition raises about how [...]

In this text, Jorge Romero Brest responds to an article by Damián Bayón about what qualities make art produced by Latin American artists Latin American, and to four related questions about the nature of Latin American art which were sent to him by [...]

In this text, Damián Bayón considers the question: What qualities make art produced by Latin American artists Latin American? He begins by declaring that the art of Latin America becomes Latin American when an artist—because of his or her [...]

In her essay, Marta Traba launches an argument in five parts against nationalism in recent Latin American painting. In the first part, she identifies nationalism as the main problem with regard to contemporary painting. Although it poses as a path to [...]

In this essay, Octavio Ignacio Romano argues that three main philosophical orientations shape contemporary Mexican American identity, and that their formation occurred in Mexico during the era of the Mexican Revolution. Romano identifies these [...]

In this document, the Inter-American Office at the National Gallery of Art in Washington, D.C., has compiled a listing of all of the exhibitions of Latin American art available for loan to museums and institutions in the United States. The foreword [...]

In this text, José Enrique Rodó outlines his vision for a future Latin American civilization based on the pursuit of idealism. He stages this description as a lecture being delivered by an elderly teacher named Prospero to his young students. Rod [...]

In this speech, Luis Muñoz Marín calls on his audience of the Association of Teachers to take on the promotion of Puerto Rican culture as their chief responsibility. He begins by explaining that by Puerto Rican culture he does not mean specialized [...]

In this 1823 speech, President James Monroe announces a new agreement that forbids European nations from invading countries in the Western Hemisphere. He begins by recounting that the agreement has been negotiated through the Russian government, and [...]

Alfonso Reyes wrote this letter to Waldo Frank in New York with the purpose of sending him a clipping (or perhaps a transcription) of a text Reyes had published in an Argentine newspaper about his friendship with Frank on the occasion of Frank’s [...]

In this speech, Waldo Frank explains how he envisions a future in which the United States and Latin America become a spiritually and aesthetically unified America. Frank begins by declaring his intention to speak the truth about his country (the U.S [...]

In these three texts, Torres-Caicedo considers how Latin American states should organize themselves into some kind of larger, governing body. In the first, he argues in favor of a Confederation of Latin American states as opposed to a Federation. He [...]

In this letter, Simón Bolívar considers a number of issues about the wars of independence in Latin America with the purpose of providing information to Henry Cullen, a gentleman settled in the island of Jamaica. Bolívar begins by explaining how [...]

In this text, Jean Casimir considers what unifies Latin American countries, ultimately arguing that they should seek a sense of unified purpose in resistance to the dominance of the United States. He begins by asking if the countries south of the “ [...]

In this text, Frederic Jameson introduces the English translation of a collection of Roberto Fernández Retamar’s essays published under the title Caliban. Jameson, in his discussion of Retamar’s work, addresses three main themes. First he [...]

In this letter, José Martí considers a recent exhibition of watercolors he saw in New York and what it means regarding the state of art in the United States. He begins by recalling how disappointing he found an exhibition of painting he had seen in [...]

In this text, Martí Casanovas responds to a letter by Franz Tamayo considering the question of what direction the development of Indio-American culture should take. Distinguishing his philosophy from Tamayo’s, Casanovas explains that he believes [...]

In this selection from Michel Chevalier’s text Le Mexique Ancien et Moderne (1863), the author argues that France’s occupation of Spain, Mexico, and other Latin countries is in the best interest of all Catholic nations. Describing France as both [...]

In this text, Thomas More narrates an episode from his own life in which he met and conversed with Raphael Hythloday, a Portuguese sailor who had traveled on four of Amerigo Vespucio’s voyages across the Atlantic and on the fourth one was left [...]

In this text, Marta Traba argues that there is not really a unified [Latin] American aesthetic in the visual arts and calls for an honest investigation of the question of such an aesthetic approach, even at the risk of affirming that no common spirit [...]

In these three extracts from the first chapter of his book Última Tule, Alfonso Reyes considers the history of conquest and how it has fostered mythic notions of the Americas. In the text “Colón y Américo Vespucio,” he corrects the historical [...]

In this text, Robert C. Smith compares the great developments in Latin American painting since the 1920s with the mediocrity of Latin American art during the colonial period and nineteenth-century. In the first third of his text, Smith criticized [...]

In this text, Alfred H. Barr, Jr. introduces the catalog of the collection of Latin American art of the Museum of Modern Art with remarks reviewing the history of the museum’s involvement with Latin American art and recent efforts to expand its [...]

This text documents the proceedings of the first meeting of the Continuation Committee of the Conference on Inter-American Relations in the Field of Art and is comprised of three sections: a summary of the proceedings; minutes of the two days of [...]

This text documents the proceedings of the first Conference on Inter-American Relations in the Field of Art, which was held in three sections: an analysis of the conference proceedings; the minutes from two days of sessions; and finally the [...]

In this text, Mariano Picón-Salas weighs the benefits of the dominance of ritual in Mexican society versus that of economics in the United States. He begins by arguing that the protestant emphasis on the individual has shaped a modern society North [...]

In this text, Damián Bayón considers what kinds of “characteristic forms” are visible in American art across historical periods encompassing pre-Columbian, colonial, and modern art and architecture. He conducts his inquiry [...]

In this text, Alfred H. Barr, Jr. considers how scholars could expand the interest in Latin American art in the United States, prompted by the politics of World War II. Barr begins by acknowledging that the “necessity of establishing closer [...]

In this text, Grace L. McCann Morley reviews recent developments in Latin American art, and makes a number of suggestions about how the appreciation of Latin American art can be furthered in the United States. McCann Morley begins by reminding us of [...]

In this book, Marta Traba examines how the growing influence of art of the United States has shaped the art of Latin America during the 1950s and ‘60s, and how Latin American artists have both succumbed and resisted the effects of this influence. [...]