Documents of Latin American and Latino Art

In this article, Felipe González Espinosa discusses Judith Márquez’s activities as an artist and an intellectual agent in the public arena and in political and professional circles from 1954 to 1960. The article reviews the complex sociopolitical [...]

This text, written by Marco Ospina, was included in the catalog for the Exposición de pinturas de Armando Villegas en la Galería El Callejón (Bogotá, 1955). Along with the text is a list of the paintings that made up that show. In his article, [...]

The artist, agent, and art critic Leonel Estrada discusses a series of paintings by Armando Villegas that were exhibited at the Chamber of Commerce in Medellín. These works, in Estrada’s opinion, reveal a departure from the artist’s earlier [...]

In this interview by Kitty de Preminger with the German painter Guillermo Wiedemann, the artist gives his perspective on the influences that came with his training at the Academy of Fine Arts, Munich. With respect to his training, among the aspects [...]

Visual artist and researcher Juan Fernando Herrán, and the Italian art historian Luca Zordán, were curators of the exhibition Wiedemann por Colombia: la mirada del artista. In this text, they state their main curatorial objectives and their [...]

Uruguayan critic Aristides Meneghetti praises the work of Colombian painter Luis Fernando Robles as “the authentic result of [the artist’s] own experience and vital attitude.” He explains that Robles’s work reflects his “straightforward [...]

Walter Engel, an Austrian art critic and historian who lived in Colombia, introduces Guillermo Wiedemann, an artist exiled from the repressive environment of Nazi Germany who found the freedom required to develop his personal style in Colombia’s [...]

In this article, Marta Traba maintains that the German artists Guillermo Wiedemann and Leopoldo Richter achieved an understanding of, and transmitted the essence and spirit of “the black race and the Indian race, and the ambience characteristic of [...]

In this article, writer and poet Andrés Holguín discusses the series of watercolors that Guillermo Wiedemann exhibited at El Callejón gallery in Bogotá in 1957. Holguín appreciates Wiedemann’s consistent effort in the works he produced in [...]

In this text, the Austrian art critic based in Colombia, Walter Engel, discusses the exhibition by the painter, Cecilia Porras, at the gallery El Callejón in Bogotá (July 1955). Engel begins by remembering 1948 as an important year in terms of [...]

In this article, Marta Traba reviews the solo exhibition that Cecilia Porras presented at the El Callejón gallery in Bogota in November 1956. Traba is pleased to see progress and major improvements compared to the work the artist exhibited the [...]

This is a first-person narrative in which Lucy Tejada discusses recollections and biographical details that she thinks had an impact on her work. She takes up the story in her childhood and mentions her memories of cities and spaces where she lived. [...]

In this book, Marta Traba asserts that Colombian artist Beatriz González is “the ‘key figure’ to understanding a specifically Colombian strain of art.” Traba argues that on the basis of critical positions on culture in general and on popular [...]

In the introduction to the catalogue of the exhibition Pintura abstracta de Colombia (Biblioteca Luís Ángel Arango, Bogotá, June 11-25, 1958), Marta Traba points out two problems related to the reception and production of abstract art in Colombia [...]

In this article, the critic Casimiro Eiger reviews Lucy Tejada’s paintings at her first solo exhibition, and discusses the purely formal aspects of her work. In Eiger’s opinion, these elements are closely involved with the artist’s narrative [...]

In the unsigned introduction to this catalogue, the writer describes the Salón Nacional de Arte Moderno (Museo Nacional de Colombia, in Bogotá, 1949). The Salón is a grouping of recent works by artists who were the leaders of the cultural vanguard [...]

In the opinion of the Uruguayan critic Aristides Meneghetti, the individual exhibition of [work by] Lucy Tejada at the Biblioteca Luis Ángel Arango (October 1958) caused confusion and disappointment for the visitors. The general perception was that [...]

The Colombian artist Judith Márquez Montoya explains the rationale behind the publication of the magazine Plástica and its intended goals. She begins by outlining two basic objectives: “On a modest but dignified scale, the purpose of the magazine [...]

In this article, Marta Traba once again addresses the harsh and unsympathetic attitude of the Latin American public toward modern art. She explains that a lack of knowledge and a disinclination to learn, coupled with a presumption of connoisseurship [...]

On the occasion of the Ier. Salón de Arte Femenino [First Salon of Feminine Art] in June 1951, the critic Casimiro Eiger begins this essay (written for a radio address) by wondering about the legitimacy and significance of an exhibition focused on [...]

This article mentions the Colombian artists Judith Márquez, Cecilia Porras, and Lucy Tejada who showed their work at Three Women Painters of Colombia, the exhibition held at the Pan-American Union in Washington, DC, May 5–25, 1960. They were [...]

As the editorial to the first issue of the magazine Prisma, this text by Marta Traba introduces the magazine of art criticism, which was committed to publishing research and “objective” studies of local and international art. The members of the [...]

In this text written on the occasion of the Primer Salón de Pintoras Colombianas o Residentes en Colombia [First Salon of Colombian or Residents of Colombia Women Painters] (held at the Compañía Colombiana de Seguros in September 1957), Marta [...]

This article discusses the exhibition Three Women Painters of Colombia held at the Pan American Union in Washington, D.C., from May 5 to May 25, 1960. The exhibition featured the work of Judith Márquez, Cecilia Porras, and Lucy Tejada; José Gómez [...]

Argentine critic Marta Traba begins this article by stating that a country must confront its “artistic mythology” by revising and overcoming established concepts and values in order to “lay the basis for solid and worthy art” and to educate [...]

In this article, the art critic Marta Traba sought to define the quality of “genius” in art in terms of the concept of “anti-servile genius” suggested by the French novelist André Malraux. According to Traba, one of the main features of “ [...]

In the book Pintoras colombianas contemporáneas, Austrian critic Walter Engel presents a group of [women] artists that actively participated in the country’s art scene during the forties and fifties. Engel explains that the selection is not based [...]

In this text, Marta Traba argues that the understanding, enjoyment, and appreciation of art are hindered by the common idea that it is comparable to reality. She defends the notion that art must be understood as an autonomous reality, which due to [...]

In this article, Marta Traba maintains that an artist should use a repertoire of forms from nature, without trying to copy its objective appearance. The elements taken from reality should be used as aesthetic tools that offer an artist a chance to [...]

In this article, Marta Traba warns about the conditions she finds in Latin American criticism: its tendency to use flattery because its art world is small and its lack of aesthetic sense. In addition, she raises the issue that the Latin American [...]