Documents of Latin American and Latino Art

In this statement, artist Raphael Montañez Ortiz describes the process by which he created Archaeological Find, Number 9. Through a ritualistically-prescribed series of destruction sessions, Ortiz recounts how he ripped the sofa apart, thus “ [...]

Artist Rafael Montañez Ortiz describes the assemblages of Marcos Dimas, Puerto Rican artist based in New York City, as an extension of his childhood experience of digging up bits of pre-Columbian Taino artifacts in the fields of Puerto Rico. He [...]

Rafael Montañez Ortiz describes the assemblages of Marcos Dimas as an extension of the artist’s childhood experience of digging up bits of Taíno artifacts in the fields of Puerto Rico. Ortiz proposes that Dimas’s works are the result of his [...]

In this essay, Rafael Montañez Ortiz, an artist of Puerto Rican descent born in the United States, relates his early history as an artist and activist working in New York City during the 1950s, ’60s, and ’70s. He provides a firsthand account of [...]

In this essay, Rafael Montañez Ortiz, a United States-born artist of Puerto Rican descent, argues that Eurocentrism, patriarchy, and racism have deprecated the art and culture of peoples from the Americas, Asia, and Africa. He notes that the legacy [...]

In this manifesto, Rafael Montañez Ortiz, who was born in the United States and is of Puerto Rican descent, discusses the concept of destruction as a new mode of creating art. He validates employing “destruction art” as an appropriate [...]