Documents of Latin American and Latino Art

Juan Acha examines the rationale advanced by those who, in line with the “new pictorial awareness” of the middle of the century, see greater relevance in abstract painting than in the outdated values of the figurative ideal. The main idea [...]

In a letter signed by “the Nadaístas” [Nothing-ists], a group of Colombian artists protest the incarceration of the Beat poet Noel (Neal) Cassady, who was tried in 1958 in the United States “for the crime of smoking marihuana.” The letter [...]

In this article, Jorge Zalamea posits a theory about composition or poetics. His thesis concerns the expression and the assessment of art, and is rooted in the field of art criticism and theory. Zalamea refers to two traditional ways of thinking [...]

In this text, the Colombian artist Enrique Grau writes about fellow artist Cecilia Porras. Both were part of the generation of the twenties associated with the Colombian abstract avant-garde. Grau pays tribute to his friend, who had died by the time [...]

The poet and political thinker Gonzalo Arango discerns poetics in the artistic avant-garde that he invented and named ‘Nadaísmo’ [Nothing-ism] (1958–70), [which is] an art that “has no end, because it is infinite.” The Nadema artists [...]

In 1948, Espiral [Spiral] magazine (1944–75) published this article by the sculptor Julio Abril in their fifteenth issue. The article is illustrated with reproductions of seven sculptures by seven artists. Abril examines Colombian sculpture from [...]

This essay was written by the historian and political thinker Germán Arciniegas for the deluxe edition of the book on Fernando Botero produced by the Edilerner publishing house (1970). This essay is the text for the book, which focuses mainly on the [...]

The regular section on the visual arts in this edition (N° 57, Year 1950) of the magazine published by the Universidad Pontificia Bolivariana in Medellín (1937–2005) is devoted to Cecilia Porras, and includes her essay and six reproductions of [...]

In this article, Daniel Arango criticizes the poetics (or theory of composition) underlying Modern art, which he calls “the new aesthetic.” He argues that there is a void innate to a conception of art at the margin of history, an art that eschews [...]

Critic Jorge Gaitán Durán presents artist Cecilia Porras in relation to recent Colombian art history and to the specificity of her work. Gaitán Durán deems Porras “the greatest revelation in Colombian painting” of the time and one of the [...]

Hernando Valencia Goelkel discusses Lucy Tejada’s work on the occasion of her first exhibition in Colombia after having spent almost five years in Europe. The exhibition, which took place at Biblioteca Luis Ángel Arango in Bogotá in November and [...]

The writer and critic Clemente Airó wrote an article about Carlos Correa in issue number twenty-six of Espiral [Spiral] magazine (1944–75), which the former edited. The article was a tribute to Correa on the occasion of the retrospective [...]

Anthropologist Claude Lévi-Strauss provides a descriptive analysis of the origin, meaning, and function of masks for some South American indigenous groups. His argument revolves around the Amazon River region and other locations in South America; it [...]

The poet Amílcar Osorio Gómez—who, for many years, signed his work “Amílkar U.”—wrote the second manifesto for the nadaísta [Nothing-ist] group (1958–70), a predominantly poetic avant-garde association that coalesced in Colombia in the [...]

In the October and November 1956 issue of Mito, the magazine’s editorial staff discusses the artistic spirit of Alejando Obregón, Cecilia Porras, and Juan Antonio Roda in relation to solo exhibitions of each one’s work. Obregón’s show at the [...]

Art critic Walter Engel wrote five articles on exhibitions held in 1948, among them the solo show of artist Carlos Díaz Forero, sponsored by the Universidad Nacional of Bogotá and held at the Museo Nacional in that city in August; the exhibition of [...]

In 1960, the Cultural Department of the Colombian Ministerio de Educación Nacional opened a space in the Biblioteca Nacional of Bogotá to exhibit seventeen paintings by Cecilia Porras. In this text, the artist describes her beliefs, the elements [...]

The poet and political thinker Gonzalo Arango invites artists to participate in the “Primera Bienal de Las Cruces” [First Las Cruces Biennial]. The event was not mentioned at all in the media, although it took place in Bogotá in the 1960s, and [...]

The artist Enrique Grau is interviewed in Cartagena in 1986. His paintings tend to reflect a “carnival atmosphere” and portray “traditional scenes,” an indication of how his native city, Cartagena de Indias, influenced his work. Grau [...]

In an interview he gave in 1978, Luis Caballero discusses the role of the critic and the evolution of the visual arts in Latin America; gives his opinion on what art means; and reflects on his own work as well as on his influences. Caballero also [...]