Documents of Latin American and Latino Art

This is an introduction written by Juan Calzadilla for the first iteration of Espacios Vivientes (Living Spaces), a salón held at the Palacio Municipal in Maracaibo, Venezuela from February 14 to 28, 1960, that explored new currents in the [...]

In this review, Ferreira Gullar describes the one-man show of works by Iberê Camargo at the Acervo gallery in Rio de Janeiro (1981). No invitation was issued, and no catalogue was printed for the exhibition that displayed a selection of the artist [...]

Art critic Antônio Bento identifies painter Antônio Bandeira as the “most important young artist of the School of Paris” during the post-World War II era, when the Brazilian artist participated in one of the pioneering groups of Informalism ( [...]

Brazilian art critic Mário Pedrosa writes this article in response to a text published in the press by Jaime Maurício, another critic who had expressed his “dislike” for the term “informal(ist),” which was used to designate some non- [...]

In this essay the noted Brazilian art critic Mário Pedrosa discusses the Informalist Abstraction, also known as “voga tachista” [Tachisme vogue or fashion], of the late 1950s. The critic deplores this style, complaining that tachist painters [...]

Mário Pedrosa establishes his position on non-geometric abstract trends in this text. Specifically, he is in favor of what he calls “arte signográfica” [art using graphic symbols], and he openly opposes the informal(ist) trend. In his judgment [...]

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 [...]

Poet Julio Llinás writes about the works of Marta Peluffo (Galería Peluffo, 1958) by analyzing her desperation brought about by her “innermost explosion.” Most of all because it happens at the core of a modern art with its [...]

Damián Bayón writes about the work of Argentinean-Japanese artist Kasuya Sakai by analyzing his different stages; that is, concerning the harmony of contrasting colors; the influence of Hartung and calligraphy; black forms in a more complex [...]

In this article, the Argentine critic Jorge Romero Brest compares and contrasts the work of two young artists—Luis Alberto Wells and Pérez Celis—and suggests that they both create something “innovative” and thus connect to what “is real [...]

Jorge Romero Brest describes Leopoldo Torres Agüero’s work by saying that it is clearly by someone who understands that contemporary creative output does not represent individual expression as much as a manifestation of reality. The critic also [...]

Ignacio Pirovano wrote a brief letter to Alberto Greco on the impact his exhibition Las Monjas [The Nuns] had had on him; he considered the works to be an eerie testimony of the current era. Furthermore, Pirovano considered that with this exhibition [...]

Dora de la Torre wrote about the exhibition Las Monjas [The Nuns] by Alberto Greco at the Galería Pizarro, pointing to the artist’s success; moreover, signaling him as head of Informalism, someone whose jeers were taken seriously by the critics. [...]

Germaine Derbeqc, the French artist, introduces Jorge de la Vega’s exhibition by acknowledging his ability to invent languages that translate what is real. She also refers to de la Vega’s earlier periods during which his work gradually changed, [...]

Hugo Parpagnoli comments on the works both by Argentinean artists and by Antoni Tàpies, presented by the Torcuato Di Tella Institute at the Museo Nacional de Bellas Artes [National Museum of Fine Arts]. In addition, the critic argues that, in regard [...]

Guillermo Whitelow writes about how prone the Argentinean artists are to group themselves into three distinct tendencies. In the first group (José A. Fernández Muro, Sarah Grilo, Miguel Ocampo, Kasuya Sakai, Clorindo Testa), he points out they have [...]

This is of the checklist of the groups included in the Exposición de arte no figurativo [Exhibition of Non-Figurative Art] (1960): they were Asociación de Arte no figurativo [Association of Non-Figurative Art], Arte Nuevo [New Art], Grupo Buenos [...]

Jorge Romero Brest begins his text with theoretical definitions about art’s meaning, perceived as an entity that has its own being. In his opinion, the artist becomes a trigger for an expression that is always being, in addition to the experience [...]

Toward the end of the 1950s, Julio Llinás defines the current times as ones of total convulsion, which implies the growth of a new state of awareness. He critiques Tachism, calling for an ongoing, always renewed experimentation that is alive and [...]

Poet and essayist Saúl Yurkiévich identifies Nelson Blanco and Carlos Pacheco as two figurative artists who react against Informalism, although he tracks the influence of chromatic geometry in both. For Yurkievich, the dynamics of new painting [...]

The jury appointed to judge the 1964 Premio Instituto Torcuato Di Tella [Torcuato Di Tella Institute Prize]—whose members included the critics Jorge Romero Brest (Argentina), Clement Greenberg (United States), and Pierre Restany (France)— [...]

This text by Hugo Parpagnoli analyzes the works presented by Luis Felipe Noé and Rómulo Macció. He states that the controversial atmosphere that arose from these works—awarded by the ITDT [Instituto Torcuato Di Tella]—proves that they were not [...]

Within the context of a journey through exhibitions open in Argentina at the time, Lorenzo Varela points out the singularity of an exhibition in which both the human figure and reality as a motive prevail, in overt opposition to the Informal art [...]

Jacques Lassaigne’s presentation text gathers some of the impressions that were brought forth regarding the purity of the original expression, and motivated by the production of Joan Miró. It emphasizes the usage of different materials (textiles, [...]

In this document Rubén Santantonín establishes the difference between objects and things; in other words, the manner in which he names his works. He explains that the former lack all “indicio humano” [“human traces”]; they are [...]

In this prologue to the catalog on the Argentine artists who participated in the VII Biennial of São Paulo, Julio Llinás points out the profusion of abstract or informal works that are found alongside more current international trends. He believes [...]

This text presents each of the artists who represented Argentina in the VII Biennial of São Paulo (1963). It briefly describes the characteristics of their work and identifies the variety of visual arts languages and the subtlety that “califica a [...]

This document contains two texts, one by Rubén Santantonín and another by Kenneth Kemble, as well as a reproduction of the work by Santantonín that was part of the national selections for the 1963 Premio Internacional de Pintura del Intituto [...]

This article analyzes the works of Josef Albers, Eduardo Barilari and Rubén Santantonín, who exhibited at the same time in Buenos Aires. It declares that “dentro de lo absurdo, lindan ya con la burla más cruel e inexplicable” [within the [...]

The jurors of the Premio Instituto Torcuato Di Tella 1963, Jorge Romero Brest, Jacques Lassaigne, and William Sandberg, awarded the Premio Nacional [National Prize] to Luis Felipe Noé for his work and in particular, Introducción a la esperanza [ [...]

Art critic Alfredo Roland affirms that traditional painting required a certain degree of skill. In his judgment, Informal Art and other cultural expressions of the time seem to have completely done away with this element. Roland ponders this aspect [...]

The critic reflects on Informal art by summarizing the different names that it has been given: art autre, action painting, art informel, art brut, etc. Romero Brest proposes to call it either Virginal or Un-constructive art, even though he deems [...]

Mario Pucciarelli, the Argentine artist who won the Premio Instituto Torcuato Di Tella in 1960, writes to Guido Di Tella about his opinions on the new guidelines established by the 1962 Premio, with particular regard to the prize stipend and the [...]

Pellegrini's text remarks that during the nineteenth century, Argentine art mainly adapted to academic patterns. For the later evolution of Modern art, the critic adopts a division based on three fundamental periods: first, the artists who absorb [...]

In this article Pellegrini affirms that as long as artists perceive that the image conveys an instantaneous message, and the researchers remark that we live in a “visual era,” the visual arts will be at the pole of maximum attraction of a culture [...]

Pellegrini places Bruno Venier in an intermediate trend, between the extremes whose priority was the object and the purely visual elements. The critic states that his painting–more static than in the previous stage–started becoming freer as [...]

The critic considers that the relevance of Surrealism lies in the fact that it is not an artistic but an ideological movement; it is in art where it finds itself justified. Pellegrini analyzes, among others, several aspects such as humor, desire, [...]

This introductory text for Lea Lublin’s work emphasizes that the formal and informal universes are contrasted in her paintings, as are violence and lyricism in order to reflect the panic of a world populated by monsters and threatened by [...]

Rafael Squirru discusses the term Informalism, analyzing the concept of form in the scholastic, idealist, and oriental philosophies. Squirru defines art as the sensible manifestation of inner states of consciousness. He remits the mystical intuitions [...]

Rafael Squirru discusses the term Informalism, analyzing the concept of form in the scholastic, idealist, and Eastern philosophies. Squirru defines art as the sensible manifestation of innermost states of consciousness. He ponders the mystical [...]

Rafael Squirru wrote that the Argentinean artist, Kenneth Kemble was a restless artist, who worked ceaselessly in any of his aesthetic searches. Squirru considers that to talk about aa artwork is tantamount to discussing the man; therefore, he [...]

Hugo Parpagnoli ponders both the Fifth Annual Exhibition of New Art at Galería Van Riel and the Informal Art trend show at Museo Sívori; both of which demonstrate how Informal art painting has captivated the new generation. Parpagnoli describes [...]

Hugo Parpagnoli wrote about the exhibitions of Informalist painting in Buenos Aires, defining Informalism as an irrational attitude. On the other hand, the author explained how the viewer must behave while facing this new approach to painting [...]

Rafael Squirru wrote that Kenneth Kemble’s oeuvre exemplifies the artist’s struggle to develop within a hostile milieu, given that Argentina was not sufficiently contemporary to understand the work produced by this Informalist artist. Squirru [...]

Hernández Rosselot writes about an interview he had with Kenneth Kemble at the artist’s exhibition at Galería Lirolay (December 1960). While interviewed, Kemble discusses his passion for music and points out the three paths of his work: collage, [...]

Barry James reported on Kenneth Kemble’s lecture of July 15, 1960, at the Society of British Artist of Buenos Aires: “Esquemas cambiantes sobre la apreciación del arte modern”[Changing Models on Modern Art Appreciation], in which the artist [...]

The critic Ernesto Schóo points out the significant texts on Informal Art up to that time. Schóo undercores the contradictions between the authors’ concepts, for which art is defined by formal will, spurring Schóo to criticize the term “ [...]

As an introduction of the exhibition on arte destructivo [Destructive Art], Aldo Pellegrini wrote about the meaning of destruction, a mechanism associated with construction, just as it is perceived through observable changes in nature. Destruction, [...]

Kenneth Kemble tackles the authorship of an idea of destructive art, which is more an experimentation than an -ism. In his view, destructive art evokes the diversity of man’s essential needs: destruction as emotion, the pleasure and the [...]

Jorge Romero Brest introduces the artists Ernesto Deiro, Rómulo Macció, Luis Felipe Noé, and  Jorge de la Vega as a collective group. He points out the commonalities that the artists have with Informalism, such as a liberated approach to things [...]