Documents of Latin American and Latino Art

The art critic for the New York Times, Holland Cotter, introduces the artist Beatriz González—who is also an art critic—as an artist who defies the conventions imposed by the North American and European art markets and sets her own rules as [...]

The artist Emilio Hernández Saavedra adds his ironic comments to the discussion about Motociclista No. 3, the controversial painting by Luis Zevallos Hetzel that won first prize at the competition organized by the Festivales de Ancón (1969). [...]

According to Luis Zevallos Hetzel, the painting that took the prize at the Festivales Ancón is not exactly a work of art because it is an (exact) reproduction of an advertisement for a brand of motorcycles. Though the painter claims he is under no [...]

This is an essay by Luis Hernando Giraldo that was published in the catalogue for La sensación del tiempo humano. Homenaje a Giorgione, the exhibition presented in March 1999 at the Museo de Arte Moderno in Bogotá. Giraldo mentions anecdotes and [...]

In this document, excerpted from the “Colombia pregunta” [Colombia Asks] section of La Nueva Prensa [The New Press] magazine, Arturo Bastidas, from the city of Pereira, asks for a definition of Pop Art. The magazine editor replies to his question [...]

The catalogue for the exhibition Video Arte explains aesthetic approaches linked to developing and consolidating a specific video-art language understood as a tool for creating art. This first exhibition came about based on research performed by the [...]

This text by Juan Acha is an important contribution to the debate that arose when Luis Zevallos Hetzel’s work, Motociclista No. 3, won the grand prize at the painting competition organized by the Festivales de Ancón. Acha questions the accusation [...]

This document is a handwritten excerpt from the journal of Carlos Almaraz in which he discusses what he sees as the problem of “art for art’s sake” and the ways in which this kind of artistic outlook prevents certain sectors of society from [...]

This handwritten journal excerpt from Carlos Almaraz has a compilation of notes on his thoughts about the potential Marxism of Andy Warhol’s artistic practice. He suggests that Warhol’s work displays Marxist tendencies in its seriality, which [...]

In this text written on the occasion of the exhibition L’Avant-Garde held at the Galería Colibrí (1965), Puerto Rican critic Ernesto Ruiz de la Mata discusses what he considers an interesting show of avant-garde prints by artists from different [...]

This introductory text by Otto Hahn analyzes some of the consequences of modern life within an industrialized city, such as uniformity, anonymity and the acceptance of triviality. He places the work of Robert Rauschenberg within this framework, as [...]