Documents of Latin American and Latino Art

This is the first of two articles by Sebastián Salazar Bondy, published under the pseudonym “Juan Eye,” on the Mexican art exhibition organized in Lima by La Crónica newspaper. The author believes the show is exceptional for its positive [...]

In the symposium entitled Hacia otra ruta hacia Siqueiros [Towards Another Route Towards Siqueiros] and organized by Curare, Esther Acevedo presented a paper in which she dealt with landscapes in the work of David Alfaro Siqueiros. This facet of the [...]

Using newspaper sources, Esther Acevedo explores the diverse ways in which different groups of artists and intellectuals arose during 1920-1924 around the concept of “what is national,” particularly in the visual arts. She also investigates the [...]

The exhibition catalog is a curatorial reconstruction of the 1910 exhibition held for the Centennial of Mexican Independence and organized by the Escuela Nacional de Bellas Artes de México. The study was based on an amassing of graphic materials [...]

According to Ceferino Palencia, the Spanish art critic living in exile in Mexico, Frida Kahlo’s pictorial art was an eloquent example of will in service to sensitivity. Palencia speaks of Frida’s lifelong rebellion against her mother’s violent [...]

This article is a review of the exhibition of 19th- and 20th-century Jalisco painting that took place at the Palacio de Bellas Artes in the capital of Mexico. The exhibition included works by José María Estrada, Dr. Atl, Roberto Montenegro, José [...]

On the fifteenth anniversary of the Galería de Arte Mexicano [GAM, Mexican Art Gallery], Margarita de Ponce reviews its activities and discusses what she considers to be its greatest contributions toward the distribution and promotion of Mexican art [...]

In this short article by Antonio Rodríguez, the art critic shows his support for an article published in the previous issue of the journal Espacios by the artist Roberto Berdecio, in defense of “social painting.” Rodríguez believes that “ [...]

While this article mounts a defense of Mexican painting with “human/social content,” it also admits that this art has entered into a “period of crisis or, if you will, reorientation.” In today’s artwork, Berdecio sees “unmistakable signs [...]

Fradique’s article, signed in Guadalajara, which is the capital of the state of Jalisco, sets out to review the work of some of the artists from that state. He begins with the “elders”: Dr. Atl, Alfredo Ramos Martínez (sic) and Rafael Ponce de [...]

Critic Jorge Juan Crespo de la Serna reviews the content of the newly opened Museo Nacional de Bellas Artes at the Palacio de Bellas Artes. After several visits to take in the breadth of the collection, he concludes that the Mexican painting section [...]

In this essay, originally published in 1970, Jorge Alberto Manrique points out that in the 1950s the Mexican School of Painting began to stagnate in terms of both form and motifs. However, official support allowed it to maintain its control of the [...]

In this document, José Clemente Orozco provides a vast panorama of what he believes was thought in Mexico in 1920 regarding art: 1. Any person could feel he was a painter; 2. Pre-Cortés art was the only tradition and everyone spoke of [...]

This is an autobiographical account by the Mexican muralist José Clemente Orozco that reveals the extraordinary influence exerted on his life and work by Dr. Atl. When Dr. Atl returned from Europe, he sought the support of his old colleagues [...]

This article centers on two events: Orozco’s participation in the student exhibition at the Academia de Bellas Artes de San Carlos during the critical year of 1910 and his start as a caricaturist for opposition newspapers. The government [...]

This article violently criticizes the political and artistic positions taken by Gerardo Murillo (a. k. a. Dr. Atl) during and after the revolution. “Dr. Atl” is accused of having founded the Batallones Rojos [Red Battalions] through the Casa del [...]

Xavier Moyssén writes about mural painting’s nineteenth-century precedents, in private houses and in pulquerías [agave sap saloons,] and works painted by nineteenth-century students at the Academia; the artists, he includes, are José Obregón, [...]

This article mentions the forthcoming opening of the Escuela n° 6 de la Secretaría de Educación Pública [Ministry of Public Education’s School No. 6] that will be attended by President Álvaro Obregón (1920-24). The building that was once the [...]

With this article, the journalist celebrates the recent publication of MacKinley Helm’s book Modern Mexican Painters in the United States. His review describes the book as the most complete panorama of Mexican painting: “no other writer that we [...]

This article is an interesting reflection by Ángel Zárraga on the art of the painter’s era, sent from Spain to the magazine Savia Moderna; at the time, he was also an amateur writer. He dedicates the article to two key figures that were beginning [...]

This article, by a noted member of the group behind the magazine Savia Moderna [Modern Sap], is a presentation of the painting exhibition sponsored by the magazine and held in May 1906. This exhibition had a very decisive effect on the future of [...]

Dr. Atl’s exhibition provides an opportunity for the critic Francisco Monterde to interview the painter, although he manages to extract little information from him. Monterde states that Alberto J. Pani and Don Luis Quintanilla were present, as a [...]

This article reports on the success of the exhibition of ancient and modern Mexican art that was presented in Paris and then shipped to Stockholm. In Fernando Gamboa’s opinion, the exhibition was a revelation. The Parisian press described it as the [...]

Carlos Chávez announces the opening of the Mexican art exhibition organized by the governments of Mexico and France, in which a very carefully selected collection of masterpieces would be presented, beginning with the pre-Cortés era and continuing [...]

This is a collection of articles by David Alfaro Siqueiros in which he restates the principles of an art about war, linking it to the great artistic traditions expressed in the work of artists such as Dr. Atl, José Clemente Orozco, and Diego Rivera [...]

The “independents” exhibition was born out of an effort by artists to promote an art market and maintain control of it, christened in the same manner as the Parisian avant-garde. That first show in November 1922—by Grupos de Acción de Arte [ [...]

Both Jorge Juan Crespo de la Serna and Luis Cardoza y Aragón agreed that the deliberations of the International Jury’s Panel (which had established the parameters for awarding the prizes) for the Bienal Interamericana de Pintura y Grabado [Inter- [...]

The article provides a detailed description of an encounter with the artist known as “El Chango” [The Monkey] Cabral in his studio during the creation of a removable mural. The reporter describes in detail the composition and animal-like [...]

Act one, scene two of this farce is entitled “A jury [to try] the reactionary intellectuals and capricious intellectual revolutionaries.” The figures to be judged and the extras, as well as the wailing chorus, have the actual names of numerous [...]

To the French poet Robert Desnos, Mexico was facing a historical moment in which the defense of its freedom was linked to its territorial integrity. He believes it is unfair to call what is going on in Mexico nationalism, since the effort to defend [...]

Raquel Tibol interviewed Dr. Atl, who declared his total agreement with the organizers of the Bienal Interamericana de Pintura y Grabado [Inter-American Biennial of Painting and Printmaking], sponsored by the Instituto Nacional de Bellas Artes (INBA [...]

Manuel Toussaint states that Dr. Atl was now beginning to express himself in his work. The exhibition of his paintings could teach art students how the great visionaries expressed their emotions. But the personal life of this painter could not be [...]

In this piece, Febronio Ortega gathered a variety of opinions from the art world. Among them, he recalled Diego Rivera’s description of his visit to the “Museo de Mediocridades” [Museum of Mediocrities]—Rivera’s characterization of the [...]

A review of the exhibition Plástica Jalisciense, 1668-1953 organized by Lola Álvarez Bravo, under the auspices of the government of the State of Jalisco and the Universidad de Guadalajara, and held at the Museo de Guadalajara. The exhibition [...]

In this book, published in 1951, Virginia Stewart looks back at the 45 most representative artists of modern Mexican painting. Her list, created at the end of the golden era of the “Mexican School of Painting,” includes painters from the first [...]

Gerardo Murillo (Dr. Atl) is accused of pretending that General Esteban Cantú, an ardent supporter of President Venustiano Carranza, should rebel against the established government. By denouncing this “attempt” of coup d’état, the General [...]

This article shows how the personalities in arts and politics are intimately linked. The long essay describes the defense that Dr. Atl made of a "seat" in the National Congress. It is about a lawmakers’ bench. In these elections, in spite of having [...]

This article announces the large number of votes won by Gerardo Murillo (better known as Dr. Atl) compared to his losing opponents Rafael Martínez and Miguel Gómez Noriega, and the many supporters of Porfirio Díaz regime in Mexico City. Mr. [...]

Within the devastated atmosphere of the post-First World War period, Gerardo Murillo, a.k.a. Doctor Atl, calls for a revolutionary solution. He also stresses his experiments: his new language, the “pintura sígnica” [sign-based] painting, and the [...]

Rubén Darío kept in close contact with the Mexican artists settled in Paris, such as Alfredo Ramos Martínez, Roberto Montenegro, Ángel Zárraga, Diego Rivera, and Dr. Atl. This statement by Ernesto Mejía Sánchez documents the exchanges with the [...]

After mentioning the contributions of Diego Rivera and Dr. Atl, the author emphasizes the importance of Guillermo Ruiz, as a prototype of cubist art, also identified with planismo [a flat-like fad] in sculpture. The author asserts that Ruiz produces [...]

This brief survey of Dr. Atl’s exhibit at the Galería de Arte Moderno, remarks on the vocation shown by this branch of the DDF [Mexico City-City Hall] to encourage openly and generously any sincere artistic manifestation. Regarding the work of the [...]

In his essay written in the form of a letter, David Alfaro Siqueiros refers to four of José Clemente Orozco’s major areas of interest as he looks back on the life of the recently deceased painter, identifying him as an artist and a friend, and as [...]

In this brief excerpt from his autobiography, José Clemente Orozco describes his stay in Orizaba during the Mexican revolution. Of interest is Orozco’s mention of Dr. Atl, whom he refers to as a friend and as the founding father of the [...]