Documents of Latin American and Latino Art

In this chapter of the book Hacia el indio y su mundo, by the Venezuelan indigenous scholar Gilberto Antolínez, the author presents the ideas that inform his anthropological research, as well as his critique of the Venezuelan American tradition. In [...]

In its third and final installment, the review written by Enrique Planchart on the Exposición del Paisaje Venezolano, the author contemplates the works of some artists that he identifies with the following phrases: “extensive work” (Marcos [...]

In the second part of his extensive review of the Exposición del Paisaje Venezolano, which took place in 1942 at the Museo de Bellas Artes of Caracas, Enrique Planchart analyzes some of the twentieth-century painters of his country, each of which he [...]

This article by Julián Padrón on countryman Venezuelan artist Francisco Narváez is a biographical sketch in which he relates the artist’s trajectory starting with his time at the Academia de Bellas Artes in Caracas through his return from Paris [...]

In this letter, art critic Alfredo Boulton voices some dismay to his artist friend, Alejandro Otero. After having written generalizations on traditional western art and on the irruption of the abstract art movement, the critic adds a long postscript [...]

This letter by Alejandro Otero is in response to the letter (March 31, 1950) sent by his friend, the art critic Alfredo Boulton, where he complained about the group of artists calling themselves Los Disidentes. Specifically, Boulton was opposed to [...]

In this letter, art critic Alfredo Boulton reveals to his friend, the artist Alejandro Otero, then in Paris, about his reservations with the new extra-pictorial [habitually not used] materials he had begun using after the Coloritmos series created by [...]

This letter by Venezuelan artist Alejandro Otero to his friend, the art critic Alfredo Boulton, is quite revealing. Written in Paris in 1948, in the letter the artist makes reference to his day-to-day activities as a scholarship student, and as a [...]

Luis Beltrán Guerrero, in his re-reading of the famous book from 1900 by José Enrique Rodó, Ariel, diminishes the importance of its criticism of “yanqui” (Yankee) culture, given that in his judgment, the Uruguayan philosopher could not [...]

In this article the writer Mariano Picón Salas provides a concise summary of what he believes to be the most distinctive aspects of Latin America in the first half of the twentieth century as viewed, in particular, from the perspective of a cultural [...]

The well-known member of the avant-garde, Arturo Uslar Pietri, tracks the evolution of the portrayal of the Indian since the idyllic vision proposed by Columbus and Father Bartolomé de las Casas (both of whom were inspired by the myth of the Noble [...]

In this chapter, Laureano Vallenilla Lanz exemplifies how from a sociological point of view Simón Bolívar’s idea—first articulated in the Constitution he gave Bolivia in 1825—had been applied by the leaders of several Latin American countries [...]

From a social scientific perspective, Julio César Salas rejects deterministic explanations regarding the alleged failure of Latin American countries, either due to their Torrid Zone locations or for their mixture of races. The author opposes such [...]

In the first part of his extensive review of the Exposición del Paisaje Venezolano, which took place in 1942 at the Museo de Bellas Artes of Caracas, Enrique Planchart establishes a chronological framework that distinguishes the pioneers (he calls [...]

This article by Leoncio Martínez—identified here by one of his pseudonyms: “Santiago León”—is a critical review of a joint exhibition of works by two young painters, Antonio Alcántara and Ernesto Stelling, both of whom are involved in the [...]

In light of the Spanish-American War (1896), with which the United States put an end to Spain’s colonial presence in Cuba, Puerto Rico, and the Philippines, César Zumeta issues a warning about the weakness of tropical Central American countries, [...]

The article, written by Italian architect Gio Ponti, is a testament on the visit he made to “El Castillete,” the home and workshop built by the Venezuelan artist Armando Reverón in Macuto (on the Caribbean coastline). Ponti, who visited the [...]

In the opening speech for the Círculo de Bellas Artes (founded in Caracas in August 1912), critic Jesús Semprum describes the ideals of beauty, truth, and goodness that should guide this group of young artists. He argues above all against haste for [...]

In this article, written in a journalistic style rather than the academic tone of his lecture (Visiones de Caracas y otros temas, Caracas, 1969), Jesús Semprum describes the establishment of the Círculo de Bellas Artes, in Caracas, founded by “ [...]

In this essay the historian Augusto Mijares criticizes the positivist theory that blames the caudillismo [leadership of ‘caudillos’ or local strongmen] trend spawned by the wars of independence on the particular idiosyncrasy of our Latin American [...]