Documents of Latin American and Latino Art

José Clemente Orozco believed that opposition to political painting was nothing new in Mexico; it had been around since the start of the mural movement. Some painters tried to stamp out all forms of figurative or representative expression. When [...]

In this short article by Antonio Rodríguez, the art critic shows his support for an article published in the previous issue of the journal Espacios by the artist Roberto Berdecio, in defense of “social painting.” Rodríguez believes that “ [...]

Antonio Rodríguez analyzed Rufino Tamayo’s work, basing his remarks on the retrospective of his paintings exhibited at the Palacio de Bellas Artes. According to the exhibition catalog, Tamayo’s greatest contribution was his handling of color. [...]

Antonio Rodríguez portrayed painter David Alfaro Siqueiros as an avant-garde artist because of his approach to using new pictorial materials. In this interview, Siqueiros declared that contemporary painters remained “impassive before the progress [...]

Antonio Rodríguez begins his text by justifying, to a degree, José Luís Cuevas’ harsh denunciation of the Mexican muralism movement to Marta Traba. The writer states that Cuevas, as a young painter and critic of his time, should be allowed such [...]

Antonio Rodríguez reports that José Luís Cuevas’ statements to Marta Traba concerning the Mexican muralist movement provoked resentful feelings in many painters that consider them to be unpatriotic. He states that Traba repeatedly attacked [...]

Antonio Rodríguez published an open letter sent to him by Marta Traba—the Argentine critic—in response to his article “El muralismo de México: uno de los momentos culminantes del arte de este siglo” [Muralism in Mexico: One of the Climactic [...]

The Comisión Nacional de Pintura Mural [National Commission for Mural Painting], which consisted of Diego Rivera, José Clemente Orozco, and David Alfaro Siqueiros, was founded in late August 1947. The Commission’s goal was to stimulate and [...]

Carlos Mérida was one of the first artists to reply to Antonio Rodríguez’s questionnaire. The Guatemalan painter, a naturalized citizen of Mexico, agreed with David Alfaro Siqueiros regarding the use of new materials. Nevertheless, he doubted [...]

This article is the first of a series of three written by the critic and historian Antonio Rodríguez on the development and dissemination of the news over several centuries and historical periods in Mexico. He organized the graphic and textual [...]

This is the second of three articles written by the art critic, Antonio Rodríguez. To provide continuity with the first essay, Rodríguez reviews the progress of illustrated journalism in Mexico from the woodcut print to copper plate print. From [...]

This is the third and last article in the series by Antonio Rodríguez. In a quick history of illustrated news, he shows us how it developed from the pre-Hispanic period through the modern world of the twentieth century. In this article, Rodríguez [...]

This is one of the articles written by Almagre in response to Margarita Nelken’s piece on Diego Rivera published in Cuadernos Americanos [American Notebooks]. He accuses her of “bad faith and myopia,” and of exerting her influence through a [...]

In his letter, Antonio Rodríguez describes the mural painted by Diego Rivera at the National Palace in Mexico City. Rodríguez refers to the satirical portrayal of Cortés and goes on to criticize the mural, saying that by caricaturing the [...]

When he first became involved in the muralist movement, José Clemente Orozco appeared hesitant and unaware of the basic principles of al fresco painting. In this article, however, Antonio Rodríguez reveals that Orozco possessed a sort of innermost [...]

The critic Antonio Rodríguez sings praise for the life and work of Frida Kahlo in this posthumous tribute. He reviews the salient events of her career, stressing the martyrdom that haunted her work with a mood of constant struggle. Rodríguez refers [...]

Diego Rivera felt it would be an opportune time to publish the program of activities for the Comisión Nacional de Pintura Mural [National Commission for Mural Painting] given the lack of information that many painters had concerning its function. [...]

In commemoration of the XV anniversary of the weekly magazine Hoy [Today], the Instituto de Bellas Artes (INBA) suggests the periodical publish a selection of images representing local painting throughout the ages. An article written by the critic [...]

José Clemente Orozco affirmed that he did not oppose any pictorial innovation because he believed that every new contribution should be well received. Nevertheless, scientific research was important for obtaining better results. Orozco did not agree [...]

Diego Rivera responds to Siqueiros in a confrontational tone, because he believed Siqueiros had in reality accomplished nothing new. Duco materials had already been used before, and the Futurists had already worked with movement effects, the [...]

Antonio Rodríguez, who interviewed many painters, asked Juan O’Gorman if he thought that Rufino Tamayo—currently famous and fashionable—was actually an extraordinary painter, as he was considered in the United States. O’Gorman thought that [...]

Rufino Tamayo made no reference to the government initiative being handled by Rivera, Orozco, and Siqueiros, although he expressed his strong opposition to the idea. In 1944 Tamayo had warned that Mexican painting was stagnating and in a state of [...]

This essay is the final installment of a trilogy that was published in Mañana magazine by the Portuguese art critic Antonio Rodríguez, who was researching the history in the illustrated press by means of which words and images go in tandem. In this [...]

In an interview with Antonio Rodríguez, the painter José Chávez Morado expressed his approval of the Comisión Nacional de Pintura Mural [National Commission for Mural Painting] on the grounds that a standard must be established for decorating [...]

Peruvian painter Joel Marroquín believed that Mexican mural painting was a movement of extreme relevance on the international aesthetic arena. Its artists were able to avail themselves of the thousand year old technique of the Mayans and yet give it [...]

This article is dedicated to the memory of muralist José Clemente Orozco. The author, Antonio Rodríguez, describes one of the painter’s most grounded obsessions with regard to his artistic practice: the search for light, and the possibility of [...]

In this interview by Antonio Rodriguez, Rufino Tamayo responds to José Clemente Orozco and explains what he means by the stagnation and the decadence of Mexican painting. In Tamayo’s opinion, the post-revolutionary pictorial movement initially [...]

Antonio Rodríguez interviewed some figures who were well known in the art world to find out their opinions on the paintings by Jorge González Camarena in the entrance hall of the Edificio Guardiola. Made up of two huge nudes, they had recently been [...]

To the critic Antonio Rodríguez, the decadence of Mexican painting was based on an abandoning of ideological stances and a distancing from the social problems of humanity. The blame could mainly be laid at the door of the abstract painters who had [...]

In this interview, David Alfaro Siqueiros associates Rufino Tamayo with the formalism of the School of Paris, with the snobbish, bourgeois attitude of those who opposed political art. He acknowledges the sense of color and synthesis in Tamayo’s [...]

Antonio Rodríguez thought there had been a campaign to convince the world that Rufino Tamayo was the best painter in Mexico; but there were some who didn’t agree. Rodríguez acknowledged that Tamayo was a good painter, particularly in his command [...]

In this essay, writer Antonio Rodríguez comes to the defense of a photography that goes beyond the mere technical record. He emphasizes that from Charles Baudelaire to Xavier Villaurrutia, aesthetes have affirmed that photography is a mere “ [...]