Documents of Latin American and Latino Art

In this article, poet and critic Luis Vidales expresses his position on the debate surrounding abstract and figurative art, a polemic central to Colombian art at the time. First, Vidales argues that certain concepts have been poorly defined in [...]

In this article, Luis Vidales Jaramillo discusses the historical and sociological importance of the portrait artist and caricaturist Ricardo Rendón and the universality of his work. Vidales reflects on the eternal nature of genuine works of art. He [...]

In this article, Luis Vidales explains and critiques the aesthetics of Italian idealist philosopher Benedetto Croce. Vidales starts out with an introduction to Croce, emphasizing his importance to European aesthetics of the time. He then mentions the [...]

This article reads like an indictment of the IX Salón Anual de Artistas Colombianos held in August 1952 at the Biblioteca Nacional in Bogota. Critic Luis Vidales Jaramillo voices a resounding personal judgment of some of the works exhibited and of [...]

This article provides a sociological assessment of Cubism on the basis of the idea that all art reflects the needs of its times. It questions those who have condemned Cubism because it changed the rules of classical representation formulated in the [...]

This article discusses the major works shown at the Primer Salón Nacional [First National Salon] of Colombian artists from September through October 1940. The author sharply criticizes the lack of well-thought-out opinions on the event, and [...]

In this 1950 article, Luis Vidales describes the view Colombian critics had of abstract art, and while on the subject, he introduces the work of the Colombian painter Marco Ospina. Vidales begins by discussing how art critics have reacted to new [...]

In this article, the critic Luis Vidales Jaramillo presents an overview of the work of the Colombian painter Gregorio Vázquez de Arce y Ceballos, one of the major colonial artists of the Viceroyalty of New Granada. Vidales places the artist in the [...]

On the basis of a critical discussion of Colombian poet Rafael Maya, Luis Vidales states that he does not consider the times mundane or individualistic, but rather he thinks we are facing major changes including the bold emergence of a new aesthetic [...]

This article mentions the Colombian artists Judith Márquez, Cecilia Porras, and Lucy Tejada who showed their work at Three Women Painters of Colombia, the exhibition held at the Pan-American Union in Washington, DC, May 5–25, 1960. They were [...]

The critic Luis Vidales Jaramillo reviews the fresco La liberación de los esclavos [The Freeing of the Slaves] by Ignacio Gómez Jaramillo at the National Capitol of Colombia. Vidales Jaramillo considers it a successful work because it expresses “ [...]

In this article, the Colombian writer and critic Luis Vidales evaluates aesthetic methods based on spiritual causality, as distinct from positivist doctrines that seek causality in external phenomena. He suggests that style—that is, the technical [...]

In this article, which consists of notes on the Séptimo Salón de Artistas Colombianos held in 1946, critic Luis Vidales Jaramillo addresses six issues. First, he cites the aesthetic doctrine of Italian professor Matteo Marangoni, which he then uses [...]

In this article, Luis Vidales reflects on the art of caricature after viewing an exhibition of works by the young artist Omar Rayo, who distorts and contorts lianas to create his images. Vidales begins by asking where caricature stands within the [...]

In this text, writer Luis Vidales compares an aesthetic method grounded on spiritual causality to positivist formulations that see causality as residing in external phenomena. Vidales maintains that style (defined as technical aspects of the work of [...]

In this prologue to Tratado de Estética [Aesthetic Treatise], Colombian poet and critic Luis Vidales outlines the tenets of his theory and the framework of his research. In essence, his treatise attempts to refute “aesthetic systems” that [...]

In this article published in Revista Espiral in 1945, critic Luis Vidales Jaramillo responds to the missive that Basque sculptor Jorge de Oteiza addressed to artists from the Americas, published a few months earlier in Revista de la Universidad del [...]