Documents of Latin American and Latino Art

This text includes a few excerpts from the six lectures that Jorge Romero Brest gave in São Paulo in 1948. At that time, Romero Brest held an academic position at the Universidad de Montevideo and was the director of the magazine Ver y estimar [...]

The Primera Bienal de Escultura was held in Uruguay in 1969. The controversial French critic Pierre Restany was one of the guests at the event. Nelson Di Maggio interviewed Restany, and this document reports on some of the latter’s thoughts [...]

This is the catalogue published to accompany Camargo, the exhibition organized by the Gimpel Fils gallery in London. The Brazilian artist Sérgio Camargo’s works were exhibited there from November 17 through December 5, 1970. The [...]

This essay, is on the art critic Fernando García Esteban and on his noted intellectual presence in Montevideo during the fifties and the sixties. The art critic echoes the difficulties encountered when critiquing local art and the differences in [...]

In this interview, Romano Espinoza Cáceda classifies Peruvian art into three major periods: ancient (decorative, with its own characteristics), colonial (marked by “natural” European influences) and modern (attempting to pinpoint what makes art [...]

On the occasion of Bernabé Michelena’s exhibition at the Subte de Montevideo (1939), Emilio Oribe, the writer and co-founder of the AIAPE (Agrupación de Intelectuales, Artistas, Periodistas y Escritores), conducted a lecture in which he discussed [...]

The essay “Bernabé Michelena y la claridad solidaria” is the third chapter of the book Arte Simple, published in 1937 by the Uruguayan essayist Cipriano S. Vitureira. The author evaluates the sculptural work of Michelena at a time when the [...]

In this essay that originated from within the C.T.I.U. (Confederación de Trabajadores Intelectuales del Uruguay), the case was taken of a “sample of aspirants to artistic wages in 1933” with the intent to demonstrate the crisis in the quality of [...]

The exhibition “Salón de Bellas Artes de ayuda a los niños de España republicana” was the first political event of this kind organized in support of the children in the Second Spanish Republic (1931–39). It consisted of an exhibition and a [...]

This special edition of the magazine AIAPE (Agrupación de Intelectuales, Artistas, Periodistas y Escritores) was devoted entirely to the first Salón Municipal de Artes Plásticas (Montevideo, 1940). The sole article in the magazine was written by [...]

This interview with Venezuelan sculptor Víctor Valera by journalist Teresa Casique makes mention of the artist’s early exhibitions of painting, specifically the one held in Paris in 1953 and the one held at the Ateneo in Caracas in 1965 (there is [...]

The writer of this text was Sibyl Moholy-Nagy, an art history professor and architecture critic in Germany. Here, she addresses the issue of art integration, which has been of interest to the art world for a long time. Focusing on the way [...]

In this essay, Venezuelan architect Carlos Raúl Villanueva discusses in general terms why an architect might incorporate paintings and sculptures into an architectural project and the social implications of this integration. He outlines the concepts [...]

The curator María Elena Ramos provides a broad overview of Alejandro Otero’s oeuvre on the occasion of a retrospective exhibition of his work. Ramos reflects on the Venezuelan painter and sculptor’s essential concerns which, in her opinion, wove [...]

In this essay, which is arranged in five sections, María Elena Ramos discusses Cornelis Zitman’s sculptures and drawings. In the first section Ramos explains how the artist has chosen to portray the female form with exaggerated features that do [...]

In this essay, French critic and curator Bertrand Lorquin analyzes the work of sculptor Cornelis Zitman. He discusses the range of influences on Zitman’s production, from classical Greek and Renaissance artists to Giacometti, Picasso, and Maillol, [...]

The critic Carlos Silva wrote a study of the work of the Venezuelan sculptor Edgar Guinand, pointing out two fundamental periods in his life in art. The first is defined by the writer in the visual arts context that follows the Latin American Post- [...]

The historian Alfredo Armas Alfonzo studies mid-twentieth century Venezuelan art (between 1940 and 1958) through the survey of the first nineteen years of art salons in the country. Following his analysis of the sociocultural context that certain [...]

Roberto Guevara writes this criticism about the series Tablones by Alejandro Otero. The writer refers to a dynamic that prevails in art: providing solutions that feature continuity along with a range of explorations. Guevara analyzes how the “ [...]

In this essay, Eduardo Planchart studies the specific qualities of the sculptural work of Gaudí Esté. The text can be divided into four parts. In the first, the writer analyzes the art language used by the artist, which is characterized by her use [...]

In this essay, Marta Traba presents a broad overview of contemporary sculpture. She bases her report on the writings of Werner Hoffmann, Gillo Dorfles, and Jean Clarence Lambert, who provide a breakdown of the various movements, trends, and artists [...]

The deterioration of the site occupied by the Taller Libre de Arte (TLA) [(in Caracas)] was evident in this [March 4, 1967] news item. The news piece reported on an order to repair the sanitary facilities and electrical system of the workshop and the [...]

This essay by José Ramón Medina studies the production of artist Marisol [Escobar]. Medina discusses specific traits of the artist’s personality pertinent to her work, among them an incisive sense of satire, a spirit of protest, and an interest [...]

In this essay, the historian José María Salvador identifies the salient features of Carlos Medina’s work—such as his use of basic geometric elements and the material importance of stone—which provide the Venezuelan sculptor with a range of [...]

In this essay, curator María Elena Ramos examines the philosophical and aesthetic implications of representations of man-animal hybrids in the history of humanity, specifically in relation to art and to the wood carvings by Venezuelan sculptor Gaud [...]

Damián Bayón reviews Alejandro Otero’s paintings and sculptures in search of what he calls their “dynamic space.” The Argentine critic and historian discusses Otero’s earliest work and the synthesis in his landscapes, then associates his [...]

In this text, the Antilles-born writer Boeli van Leeuwen studies the sculpture of Cornelis Zitman, the Venezuelan artist of Dutch origin, offering a narrative description of the walkthrough that extends from the entrance of La Trinidad Hacienda to [...]

Bélgica Rodríguez analyzes the work of sculptor Colette Delozanne, the Venezuelan artist born in France. In this text, she covers Delozanne’s artistic and personal trajectory, including her arrival in Venezuela in 1955. The author divides the [...]

Supported by theories of folk art that are backed by authors such as Néstor García Canclini and Francisco Da Antonio, the author, Francisco Prada, defends this genre through the formulation of a definition that affords it dignity and examines it in [...]

In 1998, the Cuban art researcher and curator established in Venezuela, Félix Suazo, presented his review of the ninth round of the Bienal de Churuguara (State of Falcón). It was held in the Ateneo Casta J. Riera, and its purpose was to reconsider [...]

The art critic Perán Erminy sets forth the standards for organizing the Third Bárbaro Rivas Biennial of Popular Art (Museo de Arte Popular de Petare, Caracas, 1992), explaining the changes in the conditions of the competition stated in the related [...]

The critic Víctor Guédez reviews the work of the Venezuelan painter, engraver, and sculptor William Stone. He structures his readings at three levels: conceptual, aesthetic, and visual. At each level, Guédez points out the distinctive feature in [...]

In this essay, the critic Roberto Guevara discusses the Cuban-born Venezuelan painter Rolando Dorrego’s career and latest work. Guevara begins with a review of the art movement of the early 1970s (in which Dorrego was an active participant), which [...]

The Venezuelan writer José Napoleón Oropeza reviews the works exhibited at the 51º Salón Michelena in Valencia (in the Venezuelan state of Carabobo) in 1993, and groups them in the categories mentioned in the invitation: painting, photography, [...]

In this text, curator William Niño Araque reflects on Fabiola Sequera’s sculpture on the occasion of the exhibition held at the Galería Astrid Paredes in Caracas in 1991. The curatorial essay proposes three approaches to a body of work that [...]

Historian Juan Carlos Palenzuela provides a detailed account of the first five editions of the Bienal Nacional de Escultura Francisco Narváez held at the Museo de Arte Contemporáneo Francisco Narváez de Porlamar (state of Nueva Esparta) from 1982 [...]

Perán Erminy discusses sculpture in relation to what he sees as its origins in Judeo-Christian mythology: the Bible states that man was molded out of earth, which Erminy understands as the first sculptural form. Erminy upholds the historical [...]

In this essay, Juan Calzadilla describes some of the characteristics of classic works of sculpture. Both ancient artists like Polykleitos and more recent figures like Alberto Giacometti make use of a vertical form in sculpture akin to living bodies. [...]

In this essay, Víctor Guédez reviews the work of the Venezuelan sculptor Carlos Mendoza. The critic proposes a classification of the artist’s work according to four categories, each one focused on a particular aspect of his sculptural works, as [...]

In this document, the critic Francisco Da Antonio develops a chronological essay on the life and work of Domenico Casasanta, starting in 1958, when the artist arrived in Venezuela. After almost a decade in which he produced no work, in 1968, the [...]

This essay by Japanese art critic Akiko Hyuga on the art of Marisol [Escobar] is divided into three parts. In the first, Hyuga examines the origins of Pop art in North America, discussing its influence and major exponents. He then considers how [...]

In this essay, the Venezuelan critic Roberto Guevara not only addresses the Pop art work of the Venezuelan-North American sculptor Marisol [Escobar] but also the varied characteristics of her personality. Guevara examines the underlying true [...]

In this essay, the critic Víctor Guédez reviews Alejandro Otero’s sculptural work, basing his comments on its visual, technical, and conceptual aspects. As regards the visual aspects, Guédez identifies movement, time, space, and light as Otero [...]

The Venezuelan critic Juan Carlos Palenzuela examines the career trajectory of Alejandro Otero from the perspective of the notions of “innovation” and “renewal.” [According to Palenzuela,] the lucidity that the Venezuelan artist and sculptor [...]

In this essay on the fourth Bienal Nacional de Escultura Francisco Narváez (Museo de Arte Contemporáneo Francisco Narváez, 1988), the critic Freddy Carreño introduces the reader to the history of sculpture from its beginnings. The writer points [...]

In this essay Carlos Silva provides a general description of Pedro Barreto’s sculptural work. Silva mentions the sculptor’s major influences, which include nature and the area around the Orinoco River Delta. The author identifies many of the [...]

This essay by the curator Ana Tapias is divided into two parts. In the first part Tapias rapidly reviews the history of sculpture in Venezuela, then describes what’s going on in the contemporary Abstract art scene. In the second part she discusses [...]

This text by Venezuelan writer José Balza provides an overview of the life and sculpture of Pedro Barreto. Balza depicts the landscape of the Delta of the Orinoco River, where the artist was born, as well as his youth and relationship to his father [...]

In this essay, Roberto Guevara discusses Gaudí Esté’s visual art, acknowledging the importance of the Venezuelan sculptor’s relationship with wood, her material of choice. Guevara sees similarities between her carvings and Russian “matryoshka [...]

In this text, Katherine Chacón analyzes sculpture in wood by Venezuelan artist Gaudí Esté in terms of symbolism, balance of form, and gestural violence. Chacón asserts that the two fundamental aspects of Esté’s work are an inclination for [...]