Documents of Latin American and Latino Art

In this newspaper article, Oscar Cerruto discusses the work of the photographer Martín Chambi. Cerruto refers to Benedetto Croce’s idealistic philosophical concept about expressive beauty, which he uses to defend the artistic nature of photography [...]

This is an informative short article about an exhibition held by Tina Modotti and Edward Weston in Guadalajara, Jalisco, from August 31 to September 6, 1925, in the Exhibition Hall of the Museo del Estado. José María Peña gives us a detailed [...]

The writer of this short article tells us that there will be an exhibition of about 100 photographs of the “very delicate” work of Edward Weston. He tells us that these works will be related to the concept of daily life in Mexico, and that the [...]

In this letter, the painter [and writer] Roubaix de l’Abrie Richey, known by the pseudonym, “Robo,” the husband of the Italian artist and photographer, Tina Modotti, writes to Edward Weston from Mexico City. The writer is visiting Mexico in [...]

In this article, Aragón Leyva defends the artistic qualities relevant to photography. In a rapid analysis ranging from scientific to technical discourse about the image, the writer points out the specific characteristics of photographic creation. [...]

To Fernando Gamboa, the contemporary Mexican painters are not imitators of ancient art; rather their intention is to recreate the past in modern terms. In the Mexican past, they found formal inspiration for creating their own language that resulted [...]

The Liga pro-luchadores perseguidos [League for Support of Persecuted Fighters] objected to a letter written by Enea Sormenti [a.k.a. Vittorio Vidali] to the Editorial Department of El Machete. Sormenti was Secretary of the Liga Antifascista de Mé [...]

This is a review written in the journal Helios about an exhibition mounted by Agustín Jiménez, a photography professor at the Escuela Nacional de Bellas Artes (Mexico City) with his disciple Aurora Eugenia Latapi (no accent). In this show, they [...]

In this article, David Alfaro Siqueiros makes very clear comments on avant-garde photography in the 1920s. In easily understood terms, he describes the specifics of the photographic image and its technical and formal resources in order to distinguish [...]

In this article, Frances Toor develops her analysis of the exhibition of works of Tina Modotti that opened at the Biblioteca Nacional on December 3, 1929. Toor states that this is the first exhibition sponsored by the Universidad Nacional [UNAM] [...]

In this text, Tina Modotti shows her way of understanding and evaluating photography based on an aesthetic and expressive search that went beyond merely pictorial canons. She clearly explains that it is important that images have clarity, [...]

The anonymous author refers to the competition established in Mexico under the name Primera Exposición de Arte Fotográfico Nacional [First Exhibition of National Photographic Art]. The text describes the different genres included in the competition [...]

This article attempts to show Tina Modotti’s creative and artistic side during the media coverage that she endured in the difficult time following the assassination of her life partner and comrade in militancy, Julio Antonio Mella, who founded the [...]

In this article for the magazine Vanity Fair, Marie Brenner writes a biographical sketch of her aunt, Anita Brenner, about the relationship that is established with Mexican art and culture, particularly during the 1920s. During that decade, Anita [...]

Martí Casanovas discusses the two qualities to be found in Tina Modotti’s photographs, referring on the one hand to the formalist, aesthetic value of her work and, on the other, highlighting its social importance as a propaganda tool used on [...]

Based on this description by the chronicler of Estridentismo and director of the magazine Horizonte, Germán List Arzubide, said publication was sponsored by the revolutionary government of the State of Veracruz. The magazine got its impulse from the [...]

Renato Molina Enriquez chooses four photos by Tina Modotti and through them unveils the beauty of a contemporary vision linked to industrial progress by finding in the photos of electric cables a refined sensuality. The photos are not a product at [...]

Diego Rivera reaches out to photography, including it as one more technique within the field of plastic creation. In his view, it was photography that liberated painting from the need to express an objective reality. He also equates the technical [...]