Documents of Latin American and Latino Art

In this article the art historian Alfonso Castrillón looks back at the debate over the jury’s decision to award the 1975 National Culture Prize for art to Joaquín López Antay, the altarpiece artist from the Andean region of Peru. There is a [...]

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 [...]

The article written by the researcher Pilar García de Germenos presents the cultural biography of Alfredo Ramos Martínez from 1910 to 1920, to help our understanding of the changes he implemented at the Escuela Nacional de Bellas Artes. During [...]

In this text, José Martí discusses an exhibition of paintings at the Academia de San Carlos and how this exhibition has brought to light important issues about the most relevant artistic expressions of today. The author begins by warning how the [...]

In his proclamation, Diego Rivera denounces that the stance of the Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México (UNAM) is classist. According to the muralist, UNAM closes ranks against any attack from the proletariat organizations that [...]

This is the third of four articles on the nature of the current painting movement in Mexico. It classifies those painters and writers as retrogressive, who continue to paint under outdated and foreign influences without contributing to the local [...]

The journalist and future historian of journalism, Agustín Agüeros, undertakes a defense of Mexican artists who have studied in Europe and are now showing their work at the Academia Nacional de Bellas Artes (midyear 1906). Agüeros makes every [...]

Signed in September 1914, the short article by Dr. Atl—then director of the Academia de San Carlos—states his opinion about the direction the Academy should take as the Mexican revolution raged around it. “The dilemma I am facing is this: [...]

This article in the Excélsior newspaper reports on the visit Frances Flynn Paine, the American promoter of Mexican art, made to Mexico. She covered all the official institutions in the city in order to collect material for two shows on Mexican art [...]

To strengthen the idea of a modern art museum in Mexico, Carlos Román proposes that the modern and contemporary material accumulated in the warehouses of the Academia de San Carlos be added to the collection. He also suggests allocating public funds [...]

A visit to the salon of Antonio Fabrés’ students inspires the author to praise the master and his teaching methods, whose rigor in drafting and striking subjectivity had trampled the old methods of the Escuela Nacional de Bellas Artes (formerly [...]

This article reproduces some of the works by Carlos Mérida that would be shown in his upcoming exhibition sponsored by the Academia de Bellas Artes. The author states that the artist’s personality is well defined. He points out that Mérida is [...]

Carlos Mérida states that he will base his commentary on the exhibition of the Escuelas Libres de Pintura [Open-Air Schools of Painting], taking place at the Palacio de Minería, on the writings of Dr. Atl (Gerardo Murillo), which he feels could [...]

In the second treinta-treintista manifesto, the group declares the reason for its dispute. It states that the struggle between independent painters and the academics intensified when the presidency changed hands, since certain conservative teachers [...]

The article comments that the honeymoon of the painter Alfredo Ramos Martínez as director of the Escuela Nacional de Bellas Artes has been eclipsed by the students in the Academy shouting for his resignation. At the same time, the students in the [...]

This short article reports on some painters’ comments on possible changes in the curriculum at the Escuela Nacional de Bellas Artes and the Escuelas de Pintura al Aire Libre [Open-Air Schools of Painting]. Details of the changes were kept [...]

The author, Jorge Useta, reports that a group of students at the Escuela Nacional de Bellas Artes has called for the resignation of the director, Alfredo Ramos Martínez, because of his favoritism toward the Escuelas de Pintura al Aire Libre [Open- [...]

At what was going to be a lecture organized at the Universidad Nacional de México during winter term, Manuel Toussaint set forth his ideas on what art education should be, since art provides a major support in completing the educational work the [...]

Alfredo Ramos Martínez, director of the Escuela Nacional de Bellas Artes [National School of Fine Arts], discusses the new trend at the Escuela al Aire Libre [Open-Air School] in Coyoacán and the free workshops at the Academia. With freedom to [...]

This article describes Diego Rivera’s lecture in the library at the Academia de Bellas Artes [Academy of Fine Arts], which was well attended. There was a great deal of interest in his presentation, particularly in artistic and intellectual circles [...]

In this article, journalist Guillermo Castillo criticizes the directors of the Mexican Academia de Bellas Artes, portraying the institution as outdated. Castillo targets proposed limitations on the curriculum of the open-air painting schools, which [...]

Rafael Vera de Córdova, the journalist, writes about artworks brought into the country by Ricardo Gómez Robelo to be exhibited at the Escuela Nacional de Bellas Artes. Vera de Córdova mentions various art techniques, such as the “baticks” by [...]

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 [...]

Carlos Mérida reviews the 1926 Exhibition of the Academia Nacional de Bellas Artes. He comments that what stands out for its pictorial values, is the group of works presented by the Escuelas de Pintura al Aires Libre [Open-Air Painting Schools], but [...]

In this brief interview, Diego Rivera is asked what prompted his return to Mexico. He states that he is interested in studying the traditional art of Mexico as well as the ruins of the country’s amazing past in order to crystallize certain artistic [...]

Here Ramón Alva de la Canal writes on various matters related to the aesthetic backwardness of sculpture. He reports that, while painting has been developing, the other arts have stagnated through mere repetition. He points out that one of the [...]

This article, written anonymously, points out the importance of the Escuela Nacional de Bellas Artes for the teaching of drawing and observation perspective for 500 Mexican workers registered in evening classes at the school. The brief report [...]

In this article Carlos Mérida reviews the annual exhibition at the Academia Nacional de Bellas Artes. He emphasizes the show’s disorder, the lack of information to guide the public, and the unevenness of both quantity and quality among the [...]

Painter Carlos Mérida thanks and praises Alfredo Ramos Martínez, who was then director of the Escuela Nacional de Bellas Artes, for organizing a series of exhibitions that would influence the artistic development of Mexico. In the introduction to [...]