Documents of Latin American and Latino Art

The book Conferencias sobre perspectiva y otros asuntos de dibujo, dictadas en el Colegio de San Bartolomé was published in 1881 by the artist and arts promoter Alberto Urdaneta. The publication begins with a quotation from Leonardo Da Vinci on [...]

The book Guía de la primera exposición anual organizada bajo la dirección del rector de dicha escuela, General Alberto Urdaneta (1886) features a collection of the works assembled for the 1886 exhibition. These works were gathered by Urdaneta, [...]

This brief obituary was written by the historian Daniel Arias Argáez following the death of the artist Ricardo Moros Urbina. It includes a short but detailed biographical profile that mentions Moros Urbina’s art studies at the Escuela de Bellas [...]

This brief essay, written by the artist Ricardo Moros Urbina, the priest Juan Crisóstomo García, and the historian Enrique Otero D’Costa, discusses the architectural and historical value of the building that houses the Convent of the Dominican [...]

“Las vanguardias son impuestas desde arriba” is the title of an article published in Sobre arte, a transcript of a magazine interview with the Colombian artist Leonel Góngora in August 1977. The brief introduction to the interview criticizes the [...]

In this brief article, the historian Luis Augusto Cuervo produced one of the first known biographical sketches of the recently deceased Colombian artist Jesús María Zamora. Cuervo wrote about Zamora’s social circle, touched on certain unknown or [...]

In his article “El XXVII Salón Nacional de Artes Visuales: reflexiones y argumentos” [The 27th National Salon for the Visual Arts: Reflections and Arguments], Eduardo Márceles Daconte challenges the unfavorable views of the Salón Nacional de [...]

In this article, the artist and cultural promoter Roberto Pizano writes about the solo exhibition of work by the Colombian artist Coriolano Leudo Obando in Bogotá. This was the first show in which Leudo had shown his painting. Pizano writes about [...]

The book Artistas colombianos: Epifanio Garay, which was written by Colombian artist Coriolano Leudo Obando at an unknown date, is divided into two parts: a brief introductory essay on the life of academic artist Epifanio Garay Caicedo and twenty-one [...]

This one-page article addresses the recent death of Colombian artist Francisco Antonio Cano. Although it is an obituary, the text presents keys to understanding Cano’s final years and how the myth surrounding his figure as an academic artist was [...]

This review, written by the Colombian artist and historian Luis Alberto Acuña, refers to an exhibition of works by Miguel Díaz Vargas at the Sociedad Colombiana de Ingenieros [Colombian Society of Engineers] in 1934. Acuña begins by praising the [...]

The poet Víctor Amaya González interviewed Roberto Pizano in 1925, when the latter was named director of the Escuela de Bellas Artes [School of Fine Arts] in Bogotá. The interview was then included in Roberto Pizano, the book published by [...]

In this brief overview of the life of Spanish painter José Gutiérrez Solana, Colombian artist Ignacio Gómez Jaramillo criticizes the overly academic Spanish art scene of the first decade of the 20th century and describes its social context. Solana [...]

Writer Gustavo Santos Montejo begins his essay on the now closed Museo de Bellas Artes (also known as the Museo de la Escuela de Bellas Artes) with a tribute to artist and cultural advocate Roberto Pizano Restrepo, who—in the late twenties—was [...]

Writer Alfonso Dávila divides this text on the work of Colombian artist Francisco Antonio Cano into three parts: (i) “El estudio,” (ii) “Lo místico,” and (iii) “Pintor objetivo.” The first section briefly describes Cano’s studio. The [...]

“El Salón Nacional de Pintura: En el país de los ciegos, el tuerto es rey” is an interview-conversation between the editorial staff of the magazine Alternativa and four important figures in Colombian art of the seventies: Colombian-Cuban art [...]

The book by Beatriz Gonzálezentitled Roberto Páramo: Pintor de la Sabana, published in 1987, contains four brief texts: (i) “Roberto Páramo y la pintura de paisaje en Colombia”, (ii) “Roberto Páramo y la Sabana de Bogotá”, (iii) “ [...]

The book Las artes plásticas en la América Latina: del trance a lo transitorio [The Visual Arts in Latin America: From Trance to Transitory], written by the Brazilian art critic Frederico Morais, is essentially divided into two parts: (i) “ [...]

“Homosexualismo en el arte” [Homosexuality in Art], written by Pedro Restrepo Peláez, is one chapter in the book, El homosexualismo en el arte actual [Homosexuality in Art Today] (1969). The book is a collection of 18 essays by the same writer [...]

In this essay, the Colombian historian Eugenio Barney Cabrera refers to the ‘feminine presence’ at the Exposición Nacional de Bellas Artes [National Exhibition of Fine Arts] in 1899 by mentioning that Margarita Holguín y Caro was among the [...]

Marta Traba begins the fourth chapter of her book Historia abierta del arte colombiano [Open History of Colombian Art] (1970) with a quote from the Colombian art historian Eugenio Barney Cabrera, from which she extrapolates the three points around [...]

This essay, by the art historian Eugenio Barney Cabrera, discusses the work of the painter Andrés de Santa María in five distinct categories, as follows: (I) his social background; (II) his long absence from Colombia; (III) his connection to Europe [...]

The brochure for the “Exposición Nacional de Bellas Artes” [National Exhibition of Fine Arts], written by Carlos Miguel Pizarro on October 15, 1899 criticizes the procedures that were followed for awarding prizes at that year’s National [...]

Published in Historia del arte colombiano [History of Colombian Art] (Bogotá: Editorial Salvat, 1975), “Aproximación a la crítica del arte en Colombia” [An Approach to Art Criticism in Colombia] by art historian Germán Rubiano Caballero is [...]

Colombian writer Daniel Samper Ortega starts this essay discussing the situation facing the artistic professions in Colombia during the first quarter of the twentieth century. He asserts that the position of writers and visual artists is particularly [...]

By way of an introduction, Lázaro María Girón dedicates the first part of this text to discussing the risk that the private collection of Colombian painter, draftsman, and journalist Alberto Urdaneta [will] be dispersed. He recalls the neutral [...]

Elementos de geometría aplicados al dibujo [Elements of Geometry Applied to Drawing] (1859) by the Colombian artist Manuel Doroteo Carvajal is possibly the first drawing manual ever published in Colombia. This document refers to the eighth and final [...]

The Cartilla de dibujo [Drawing Handbook], published in Bogotá in 1935 by the artist Miguel Díaz Vargas, was essentially created for teaching drawing in elementary school. The book’s structure is clearly pedagogical. It has a brief introduction [...]

“El americanismo de los años 40 y la nueva vanguardia colombiana” [The Americanism of the 1940s and the New Colombian Avant-Garde], an essay by the historian Álvaro Medina, published in 1978, discusses the artistic languages inspired by the [...]

The art historian Germán Rubiano Caballero wrote this essay in 1971, on the occasion of the retrospective exhibition of works by Andrés de Santa María at the Museo de Arte Moderno [Museum of Modern Art] in Bogotá. This exhibition included for the [...]

In this article the Austrian critic Walter Engel reviews the exhibition of works by the painter Andrés de Santa María held at the Galerías de Arte in Bogotá. Engel begins his article by mentioning that the Colombian artist died in Brussels, [...]

The artist Marco Ospina begins by criticizing Colombian painters who value volume over content and as a result produce totally insignificant work. According to Ospina, there are substantial theoretical lapses in these paintings, which he dismisses as [...]

The prologue to the book El homosexualismo en el arte actual [Homosexuality in Contemporary Art] by the Colombian artist Pedro Restrepo Peláez was written on May 28, 1968, by the liberal politician Alfonso López Michelsen, who begins by mentioning [...]

The Colombian art critic Roberto Suárez begins his essay by stating that modern civilization is in a “twilight” period. He criticizes the rapid artistic, social, and technical changes of the modern era, and describes Futurism, Cubism, and [...]