Documents of Latin American and Latino Art

The art critic Perán Erminy reviews and analyzes the exhibition Testimonios organized by El Techo de la Ballena in the context of an international meeting of this group. In this text, Erminy points out what he finds interesting in this exhibition: [...]

“El arte y la violencia revolucionaria” is one of the chapters of Arte y violencia en Colombia desde 1948 by Álvaro Medina. A historian and curator, Medina provides a serious reflection on the relationships between artistic practices and the [...]

This letter was written by the Puerto Rican printmaker Lorenzo Homar in San Juan, Puerto Rico on January 12, 1977, to the Colombian artists Pedro Alcántara Herrán and Virginia Amaya Valdivieso. Homar begins his letter on a friendly note, [...]

This document is excerpted from the catalogue for Los que son [Those Who Are], the exhibition organized by Marta Traba at the Galería Marta Traba in Bogotá (May 3–16, 1968). The catalogue includes ten brief critical and biographical reviews of [...]

In this text, historian and critic Germán Rubiano Caballero provides an overview of Colombian art from the twenties through the eighties. He analyzes each decade on the basis of two key criteria: how the modern is constructed and the tension between [...]

This text by Gabriel García Márquez published in the weekly cultural supplement to the Cali-based newspaper El Pueblo is the prologue to the portfolio Graficario de la Lucha popular en Colombia (1977). In his critical analysis of ways of disguising [...]

In the text published in the foldout poster for the show El dibujo colombiano década del sesenta (1981), Miguel González argues that, in the sixties, drawing—whether produced by young artists or by well established figures from [...]

This document includes a number of texts by the organizers of the Segundo Festival de Arte de Vanguardia [Second Festival of Avant-Garde Art], presented in the city of Cali, Colombia from June 16 through July 1, 1966 by members of the nadaísta [ [...]

This is the program for the Primer Festival de Arte de Vanguardia [First Festival of Avant-Garde Art] presented at the Galería de Arte La Nacional in the city of Cali, from June 16 through July 1, 1965 by artists who were members of the nadaísta [ [...]

In this article, art historian María Margarita Malagón-Kurka analyzes a series of works by Colombian artists that address the topic of violence. She argues that there are two distinct tendencies that took shape in two different historical moments. [...]

In this article, critic Germán Rubiano Caballero introduces a group of Colombian artists born in the first half of the twentieth century. To place these artists in the international context of Western art history, Rubiano Caballero associates them [...]

In her review written for Arte en Colombia magazine, the Uruguayan critic Ivonne Pini presents an overview of works by Colombian artists who were producing testimonial art from 1963 through the early 1970s. After referring to certain aspects of Latin [...]

The article “Propuesta para una doble lectura” is a statement of principle as well as a thesis that Marta Traba formulated on the occasion of an exhibition of Modern Colombian art in Paris. In this text, Traba provides a periodization of [...]

This text presents the exhibition Dibujantes y grabadores colombianos held at theMuseo de Arte at the Universidad Nacional de Colombia in May 1975. Historian Álvaro Medina asserts that the exhibition brings together figurative artists representative [...]

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 [...]

Pedro Alcántara: plástica combativa [Pedro Alcántara: Combative Visual Arts] is a historical essay by critic and art historian Álvaro Medina on the work of Colombian draftsman and printmaker Pedro Alcántara. Between 1964 and 1977, the author [...]

This is an article written by Miguel González for the newspaper El País de Cali on the occasion of the retrospective exhibition of work by Colombian draftsman and printmaker Pedro Alcántara presented at the Luis Ángel Arango Library in Bogotá. [...]

This is a biographical sketch of Pedro Alcántara written by the Colombian Nadaísta [Nothing-ist] poet Jotamario Arbeláez on the occasion of the retrospective exhibition Alcántara 1960–1980 at the Museo de Arte Moderno [Museum of Modern Art] in [...]

Art critic Beatriz Viggiani enumerates twenty important points in the work of Colombian artist Pedro Alcántara including his disregard for formalism in relation to his graphic work. What Alcántara is interested in—according to Viggiani—is form [...]

Lorenzo Homar writes to the Colombian artist Pedro Alcántara to congratulate him on being awarded the Berlin Intergraphic Festival Prize. Homar asks Alcántara to refer to the notes he includes in his letter and read them to the artists who attended [...]

In the introduction to the exhibition Solidaridad held at the Museo de Arte Moderno of Bogota, Colombia, in 1976, Argentine critic Marta Traba—who lived in Puerto Rico for many years—explains that the Museo de la Solidaridad Salvador Allende was [...]

Colombian artist Pedro Alcántara tells Lorenzo Homar about his travels to the Soviet Union, Peru (Lima), and Cuba (Havana). He also informs Homar that everything will be set for the printmaking workshop that Homar will give at the Museo La Tertulia [...]

Puerto Rican artist Lorenzo Homar apologizes for being so late with his preparations for the poster exhibition in Cali, Colombia. He comments that his work was not well received by the critics and he has doubts about himself when he finds out that [...]

Lorenzo Homar congratulates the Colombian artist Pedro Alcántara on the excellent lithographs donated by the latter to the Museo del Grabado Latinoamericano [Museum of Latin American Prints] at the Instituto de Cultura Puertorriqueña [ICP, Puerto [...]

In this letter to Colombian artist Pedro Alcántara, Puerto Rican printmaker Lorenzo Homar explains the materials that are necessary to print silkscreens in Colombia. He explains what the dryer should be like, which thinner should be purchased, and [...]

In this brief letter to Pedro Alcántara, Puerto Rican printmaker Lorenzo Homar expresses his view of art biennials. He states that many of them “act as lackeys to the North American market.” Homar believes that the jury should not be indifferent [...]

In this long letter to his Colombian colleague Pedro Alcántara, Puerto Rican artist Lorenzo Homar discusses a number of topics including the technical procedure by which to create a coat with a patina that looks like bronze on a sculpture made from [...]