Documents of Latin American and Latino Art

In 1943, an exhibition consisting of twenty-two Argentinean artists organized by the Argentinean art critic Jorge Romero Brest and sponsored by the Comisión Nacional de Bellas Artes de la Argentina [National Commission of Fine Arts of Argentina] [...]

This article reports on the destruction of a theater set made by Antonio Berni at the Teatro del Pueblo in Buenos Aires. The report mentions the situation that artists were facing under the repressive measures of the G.O.U. (a group of Argentinian [...]

The painter Carmelo de Arzadun wrote this critical review of the exhibitions held in Uruguay from 1936 to 1939, a period that was defined by effervescent creativity and a lively calendar of artistic events. The exhibition of works by French artists, [...]

This essay notes the bonds of friendship and ideological affinity that existed between the multifaceted Antonio Berni, whose paintings are steeped in realism and social awareness, and his fellow travelers in Uruguay. This friendship between the AIAPE [...]

The researcher Irma Arestizábal comments on the placement of Argentinean avant-garde art, (always at the margin) in relationship to the hegemonic art centers. She writes based on a selection of works of Argentinean artists that appear in [...]

This document is the catalogue for the exhibition Tres pintores argentinos (1963), featuring the work of Antonio Berni, Carlos Alonso, and Carlos Uria. In addition to a text written by art critic Marta Traba that presents the artists and works—and [...]

Chilean art critic Miguel Rojas Mix provides an overview of the exhibition Art in Latin America held at the Hayward Gallery in London in mid-1989. Rojas Mix’s account attempts to explain the curatorial criteria underlying the show, its organization [...]

In this text, Damián Bayón introduces a collection of essays on Latin American art with a broad overview of what he argues are the most critical issues when considering the historical and contemporary art of the region as a whole. He begins by [...]

In this text, Damián Bayón considers the question: What qualities make art produced by Latin American artists Latin American? He begins by declaring that the art of Latin America becomes Latin American when an artist—because of his or her [...]

The Argentine critic Silvia de Ambrosini claims that there have always been “opponents” in the art field. In her opinion, these “opponents” are what revitalizes the creative atmosphere. She says that in Latin American art & [...]

María Esther Vázquez interviews artists Antonio Berni and Raúl Soldi who speak of an artist’s commitment to his or her work, the opportunities that they came upon in their early careers, the risks faced by well-established artists, as well as [...]

Berni himself wrote this text explaining the work, La masacre de los inocentes [The Massacre of the Innocents], whose origin, he says, goes back to nativity scenes. Berni also explains the aesthetic and political message of his work. This text was [...]

In this article Damián Bayón questions the general state of the art world and the place occupied by Latin American artists within it. He defines the preeminent art trends of the time and then analyzes the way in which Latin American [...]

Miguel Angel Rozzisi writes about Antonio Berni’s art as though it has overcome the decadence of the system. He maintains the existence of class warfare between the official culture and that of the people, with Berni as the representative for the [...]

Eduardo Zaldívar writes about the Antonio Berni exhibition at the Museo de Arte Moderno de Buenos Aires, where the artist presented his series of prints on Ramona Montiel [...]

In this interview, artist Antonio Berni explains his vision of North American culture, and contemporary art and techniques. He also speaks about his work in the print medium and his notion of realism [...]

This document is an interview with Antonio Berni in which he describes the relationship between the landscapes he painted in the 1950s and the collages of his Juanito Laguna and Ramona Montiel series. He also comments on some aspects of his engraving [...]

Santiago A. Ferrari writes about meeting Antonio Berni in New York; he discusses the artist’s everyday life and the changes in his political views concerning Marxism [...]

In this essay, Hernández Rosselot claims that reality competes with art in Antonio Berni’s work. He writes about the materials Berni uses and reviews the collages in the Juanito Laguna and Ramona Montiel series. Rosselot goes on to compare Berni [...]

Antonio Berni states his position on hyperrealism; he mentions the work of his surrealist stage in order relate the mechanisms of creation for photomontage and the collages from his Juanito Laguna series [...]

Antonio Berni is interviewed by María Esther Gilio, and talks about his training, art criticism, hyperrealism, and the essential Argentine nature of his work [...]

This article, dated October 14, 1981, describes the death and burial of Antonio Berni, the artist, and mentions the official visitors at his funeral service [...]

This is an account of the occasion when Admiral Emilio Eduardo Massera, a member of the ruling military junta, visited the Galerías Pacífico in Buenos Aires in 1978, to observe the mural restoration project in which Antonio Berni was engaged [...]

French art critic Miguel Ragon writes about Antonio Berni’s engraving technique, as well as the question of narrative in his work with regard to the development of his chief characters: Juanito Laguna and Ramona Montiel [...]

Jorge Glusberg signed this text about Trans-Vanguard painting in Latin America, mentioning its expressive tradition, its formal precedents, stylistic characteristics, as well as contradictions and originality [...]

Originally published in Romanian, this unsigned text describes the career of Antonio Berni, who is presented as an intellectual and artist deeply committed to the social situation of the Argentine people. This essay was written on the occasion of the [...]

Braulio Solsona writes about the success Antonio Berni achieved with his exhibition in Paris (Galerie R. Creuze, 1955), while also affirming the importance of representing local problems; he also comments on the introduction by Louis Aragon [...]

Rubén Vela writes about the relationship of Argentine artists to international art. He believes that Argentine artists are working on a purely aesthetic plane of creation. He studies the Juanito Laguna series in Antonio Berni’s work, previously [...]

Gérald Gassiot-Talabot writes about discovering Antonio Berni’s work at the Venice Biennial, and describes the Ramona Montiel series. He speaks poetically about the artist’s Monsters, discussing the allegorical aspect of Berni’s production, [...]

Jorge Romero Brest, the art critic and director of the Centro de Artes Visuales [Center for the Visual Arts], writes about the style and attitude he sees in Antonio Berni’s work, discussing the changes that can be observed in the artist’s [...]

Argentine art critic Bernardo Graiver writes on the animated debates occasioned by the work of Antonio Berni, and proposes that it be reassessed. Graiver speaks of the nexus between aesthetics, ethics, and truth. He maintains that Berni’s work [...]

Horacio Safons reports on Antonio Berni’s exhibition at the Centro de Artes Visuales (Buenos Aires, 1965) at the Instituto Torcuato Di Tella, principally analyzing his Ramona Montiel series from a formal perspective and with regard to the nature of [...]

French poet Louis Aragon begins this text by establishing a comparison between the wood of the quebracho tree and the peasants; he describes their physical characteristics and their living conditions. Aragon points out Berni’s early relation to [...]

Leonardo Estarico critiques the seven artists (Antonio Berni, Lino Enea Spilimbergo, Horacio Butler, Ramón Goméz Cornet, Héctor Basaldúa, Aquiles Badi, and Emilio Pettoruti) who exhibited at Amigos del Arte [Friends of Art [...]

This is the text of Antonio Berni’s lecture to the gathering on the artistic reality in Latin America, the media, and fashions imposed on art. He also underscores the relationship between art from the countries of the center and art from Latin [...]

Antonio Berni organizes the works he exhibited at Amigos del Arte [Friends of Art] in 1932 into the following groups: Plastic art, subjective realist compositions, nightmares, and objective realism. Berni created these works between 1928 and 1932 [...]

Juan Grela speaks about painting in the city of Rosario at his lecture, beginning with the Mutualidad [Society]. He refers to his respect for the university and his long-standing relationship with Amigos del Arte [Friends of Art]. The author tells [...]

The text explains that the selection criteria for the artists appearing in the exhibition Buenos Aires 64 (New York: Pepsi-Cola Co., September 1964) was to show different vanguard groups’ expressions existing in Buenos Aires. It briefly [...]

Julio Rinaldini criticizes the exhibition of modern artists in Amigos del Arte [Friends of Art] and maintains that it conceals a disturbing situation under a pleasant tone: modern painting is not liberty without control, he states. The critic defends [...]

This is a letter from Mr. Ramón Huidobro, the Chilean ambassador to Buenos Aires, , to Antonio Berni, the Argentine artist, to thank him for his donation of a work of art to the Museo de la Solidaridad. The letter was accompanied by a catalogue of [...]

This critique emphasizes the search for Modern art undertaken by the artists at an exhibition mounted at the Asociación de los Amigos del Arte [Friends of Art Association] circa 1930); they were Antonio Berni, Lino Enea Spilimbergo,Horacio Butler [...]

Schedule of activities and exhibitions for the Semana de arte avanzado [Advanced Art Week] in Argentina. The following entries stand out in the program: Experiencias visuales 1967 [the 1967 Visual Practices], the shows of Ernesto Deira (1928-86) and [...]

The author offers a critical, manifesto-style review of the situation in the field of Latin American art and, especially, culture. Alberto Pérez describes himself as an “American,” “Hispanic American,” “Indian [...]

This is from the catalogue of the Nuevo Arte de la Argentina [New Art of Argentina] exhibition (Buenos Aires: Instituto Torcuato Di Tella, February 18 through March 8, 1964). The document explains that the goal of the exhibition was to present, in [...]

This text—included in the offprint “Elementos para una biografía” [Elements for a Biography] taken from the exhibition catalogue for Berni - Óleos y Collages [Berni: Oils and Collages]— points out the trajectory of Berni’s work through [...]

This document is a formal commentary in Plástica [Visual Arts] regarding the Joaquín Ezequiel Linares exhibition. Upon analyzing the suburban landscapes of Antonio Berni, Noé states that expressionist realism is the best outlet to social realism. [...]

Julio Rinaldini criticizes the leaflet with the manifesto of the Seven Artists (Antonio Berni, Lino Enea Spilimbergo, Horacio Butler, Ramón Goméz Cornet, Héctor Basaldúa, Aquiles Badi, and Emilio Pettoruti) who participated in the exhibition at [...]

The checklist of the retrospective exhibition of modern artists at Amigos del Arte [Friends of Art] in 1935. Those who participated, with important works created since the 1920s, were Aquiles Badi, Héctor Basaldúa, Antonio Berni, Horacio Butler, [...]

Alberto Prebisch points out that given the quantity of new artists shown each time at the Salón de Primavera [Spring Salon], two sections can be distinguished. The first and most numerous is comprised of works absolutely devoid of aesthetic appeal [...]