Documents of Latin American and Latino Art

In this article, the critic Enrique Viloria discusses the important role of women as a “symbol” in the work of the artist Henry Bermúdez. The author explains that the artist’s work does not portray a woman as such, but takes an iconographic [...]

In this text, researcher Carmen Hernández examines the visual discourse on gender issues of women artists from Latin America. She concludes that there is no artistic movement in the region that specifically reflects on gender of the sort that [...]

Raquel Tibol, an Argentinean critic and art historian who has lived in Mexico City since in 1953, and artist Leonel Góngora discuss work by Góngora considered erotic because it provides a sensual interpretation of reality. Tibol invites the [...]

Sheila Leirner discusses feminine and feminist art in Europe, the United States and Brazil. In her opinion, movements of this kind proliferated in 1980s art, which also served as a vehicle for reporting on the situation of the woman in the [...]

Here, Sheila Leirner discusses the exhibition Interior Reliefs, by the U.S. artist Mary Dritschel, held at the Luisa Strina gallery in São Paulo. To this critic, the works exhibited have almost the same impact as the artist’s first exhibition in [...]

Using a good series of literary metaphors, Cláudio de La Roque Leal presents the photographic work produced by Cláudia Leão during the mid-1990s. He considers it a visual reflection on the perennial character of images and their connection to [...]

In this text, published in the catalogue for an exhibition held at the Galeria Raquel Arnaud in 1993, Maria Alice Milliet sets forth an overall analysis of the artwork of Nazareth Pacheco. In this artist, the writer sees a set of qualities capable of [...]

In this critical overview of the work of Farnese de Andrade—an artist from Minas Gerais—Arlindo Daibert examines the origins and sources of production that ceaselessly attempt to combine opposing elements. In his text, Daibert pays particular [...]

In this brief essay, Arlindo Daibert asserts that Western art is patently masculine. In a few lines, he expresses the idea that there is a gender division in art whereby “the masculine” governs the field of production and “the feminine” the [...]

In this text, Colombian art critic Enrike Torregroza, who wrote on international art for a variety of periodicals, analyzes the Primer Salón de Arte Femenino [First Salon of Female Art] held at the Museo Nacional of Colombia in 1951. Torregroza [...]

In this article, Vienna-born critic and art historian Walter Engel discusses the Primer Salón de Arte Femenino [First Salon of Female Art] held at the Museo Nacional of Colombia in 1951. Engel addresses the event in terms of its gender-based [...]

This is the text for Otras Miradas = Other Glances, written by the historian and art critic Carmen María Jaramillo Jiménez for the exhibition that was organized with the help of the Colombian Ministry of Foreign Affairs in 2004. The [...]

The catalogue for the exhibition, Otras miradas = Other Glances (2004) includes the historian Carmen María Jaramillo’s interview of María Elvira Escallón, which focused on the latter’s series Desde adentro [From Within] (2003) that was [...]

On the occasion of the Ier. Salón de Arte Femenino [First Salon of Feminine Art] in June 1951, the critic Casimiro Eiger begins this essay (written for a radio address) by wondering about the legitimacy and significance of an exhibition focused on [...]

In this document, Amalia Mesa-Bains writes about the women’s practice of altar-making, suggesting that while there has been a decline in the performance of and engagement with popular ritual in contemporary life, the creation of altars as both [...]

While researching feminine strokes in Anita Malfatti’s painting, Mário de Andrade discerns her impetuous nature, the masculine strength of her colors, and the tragic energy of her subjects, though he also glimpses hints of humor and sadness. He [...]

In this text written on the occasion of the Primer Salón de Pintoras Colombianas o Residentes en Colombia [First Salon of Colombian or Residents of Colombia Women Painters] (held at the Compañía Colombiana de Seguros in September 1957), Marta [...]

In her essay “Reverón descansa en Juanita,” Marta Traba explores Armando Reverón’s tendency to choose women as the subject matter of his paintings. Traba pays particular attention to how Reverón uses his wife, Juanita, to express memories of [...]

The Cuban painter and art critic Galaor Carbonell published an article about María de la Paz Jaramillo after she won the prize for prints at the XXV Salón Nacional de Artes Visuales [XXV National Exhibition of Visual Arts] (1974). In his article, [...]

Umberto Valverde published this article about the Colombian artist María de la Paz Jaramillo when she was at the peak of her fame as a result of prizes she had been awarded for her work, and her participation in national exhibitions and [...]

In this panel presentation at the 1992 Women's Caucus for Arts, artist Bibiana Suarez spoke about how her images reflect her reality as a Puerto Rican living in the United States who feels caught between two cultures and who insistently searches for [...]

“Felisa [sic] Bursztyn: La mujer de las camas” [Felisa [sic] Bursztyn: The woman of the beds] is an article (part story and part interview) written by Beatriz Zuluaga after a visit to Feliza Bursztyn’s workshop around 1975. The interview [...]

In this essay, Ramón García explores the foundations and essential qualities of Chicano camp (rasquache) and its artistic and literary manifestations. García begins with a discussion of the walking murals of the Los Angeles conceptual art group, [...]

In this essay, art historian and curator Sybil Venegas discusses the social and economic conditions that led to the public emergence of Chicana artists in the 1970s. According to Venegas, by the 1970s Chicanas had developed both the economic means, [...]

In this essay, Angela Coldsmith examines the varied printmaking techniques of Anaida Hernández, and her work on behalf of women’s issues in her practices as an artist, activist, and educator. In particular, they note that Hernández organized an [...]

This catalogue for the 1980 exhibition, Comadres: A Collective Environmental Exhibit by Ten Women Artists, wasdesigned as a folder containing loose sheets of handwritten minutes taken throughout the different meetings in preparation of the [...]

Judith Brodsky, director of the Rutgers Center for Innovative Print and Paper, and Isabel Nazario, director of the Center for Latino Arts and Culture at Rutgers University, outline the reasons that led them to invite Latina artists to serve as [...]

In this bilingual catalogue essay, art historian Holly Barnet-Sanchez explores Chicana graphic art in California from the mid-1970s to the end of the millennium by discussing the unifying trends in Chicana art and the importance of—yet seldom [...]

This document is a curatorial statement by Kathy Vargas, curator of the exhibition, Intimate Lives: Work by Ten Contemporary Latina Artists. Vargas notes the similarity of preoccupations reflected in the exhibition works but stresses the importance [...]

In 1948, many years after their relationship ended, Graciela Amador tells of events from her life with David Alfaro Siqueiros in this article. This second article (of four) describes the trip they took to Paris via New York; she relates nine days of [...]

This document is a brief manifesto written by the women’s mural collective Mujeres Muralistas. It states the principles behind their practice of mural painting, emphasizing the importance of collectivity and collaboration to their mission. [...]

Shifra M. Goldman’s essay provides a brief history of the Chicano Movement and also names some of the early Mexican American women’s political groups, professional associations, and art groups. She discusses the overall failure of the Chicano [...]

This essay by artist, scholar, and cultural critic Amalia Mesa-Bains explores the personal, cultural, and social histories that have influenced Chicana artist, Ester Hernández. The author begins with an analysis of one of Hernández’s most famous [...]

This document is an interview between Ralph Maradiaga and Patricia Rodriguez, one of the founding members of Mujeres Muralistas, a collective of Chicana artists that painted murals in the San Francisco Mission District during the 1970s. Rodriguez [...]

In this essay Adriana Valdés discusses the production of women artists, and takes a sweeping look at women artists in Latin America and Chile. She follows María Zambrano’s lead regarding the cultural and historical forces that [...]

Kenneth Kemble writes about the exhibitions taking place in several galleries. By observing the works of five female artists, he is able to analyze the variables in Argentinean art at that moment. Based on a formal analysis of this production, he [...]

Luis Felipe Noé states that the work of Luis Seoane is the search for the natural aspect of what is substantial. The drawings of Ramón Gómez Cornet, on the other hand, are paintings without color. Noé also critiques various exhibitions, providing [...]