Documents of Latin American and Latino Art

This document is a statement issued by the Montevideo-based GRUPO 8. Although diverse, all of the group members produced “abstract art”; in the late fifties, it was a sort of avant-garde functional to local industry insofar as the group connected [...]

In this response to Fernando de Szyszlo, well-known critic Sebastián Salazar Bondy points out how dynamic the Peruvian art scene is; against all odds, “there are people working tirelessly, with no pointless nostalgia as they undertake the creation [...]

In this text, Raúl María Pereira reflects on the history of painting in Peru, affirming that the Incan “genius in form and color” lived on despite the Spanish conquest, not as a parallel or marginal entity, but as a force that acted on “the [...]

According to the Cuban journalist, there is “a rich tradition of indigenous art” behind the paintings by Fernando de Szyszlo that were exhibited in Havana: a form of popular art whose roots can be traced back to pre-Hispanic culture in the Andean [...]

This editorial was published in number 4/5 (1984) of U-tópicos. Entornoalovisual, the Peruvian magazine. In the text, Gustavo Buntinx states that, while the Marxist proposal has yet to be carried out, Marxism itself tends to be distorted and reduced [...]

To provide context for non-object art in Peru, researcher Hugo Salazar del Alcázar briefly cites theorist Juan Acha. Salazar del Alcázar is critical, however, in his description of a scene that in no way partakes of the avant-garde enthusiasm Acha [...]

This is a review of the state of art in the capital city of Peru, written by the academic painter Enrique Domingo Barreda on the occasion of the I Salón organized by the Municipality of Lima. In his opinion, this competition exposed “the appalling [...]

This document is an interview with Peruvian critic and theorist Juan Acha, who lived in Mexico. It sheds light on the uncertainties and concerns facing “art in Latin America” from the perspective of Uruguay and the countries of the Southern Cone [...]

In this text, Uruguayan artist Luis Camnitzer—resident of New York since 1964 who was a correspondent from there for the Montevideo-based weekly Marcha—discusses the rising importance of “Latin American” art in New York art galleries and in [...]

His extensive preaching in favor of spiritual rectitude led Joaquin Torres García to reject the “superfluous” in art and keep the fundamental elements that make up the concept and structure of Constructivist art. The resulting logic of this [...]

This essay is about a conference that was presented by Joaquín Torres García a few months after arriving in Montevideo in April 1934. In it, Torres García seeks to characterize the Uruguayan artistic environment while also proposing a path forward [...]

This essay is on another new text about American art by Joaquín Torres García that addresses the distance from Europe after a harsh judgment about the “delay” in aesthetic concepts in Uruguay in which he tries to explain his concept of “ [...]

Following harsh criticism of positivism (and eclecticism) of the intellectual environment of Montevideo, Joaquín Torres García presented his ideas about metaphysics, ethics, and religiosity in art. This text makes several important points about the [...]

In this essay, Joaquín Torres García attempts to link this sociopolitical doctrine with that of modern art after presenting a succinct historical review starting from “primitive communism” up through the Marxist doctrine. He does so by [...]

This essay is on “Hachepiencia,” the manifesto produced by the Uruguayan group Los hachepientos, which was formed by Clemente Padín, Héctor Paz, and Juan José Linares. The principal objectives of the group were outlined in the manifesto [...]

In this essay, the artist and performer Clemente Padín explains the concept of “street art and urban art” following the alternative art exhibition, Tomarte, held in the city of Rosario, Argentina, in April 1990, with the pretense [...]

This article is called a “lesson” (as are all the chapters in the book Universalismo Constructivo, which is a collection of lectures), a reference to Joaquín Torres García’s didactic style throughout the lengthy volume. The project is the [...]

Luis Camnitzer harshly criticizes the contemporary “young art” that emerged in Uruguay, while also critiquing his own 1960s generation. This article is of interest because of its highly controversial nature, given that it was published at a time [...]

In this essay the critic Gabriel Peluffo discusses the artistic and cultural policies that were introduced during the Gabriel Terra dictatorship (the so-called period of political terrismo, 1933–1938), and the institutional map that was proposed [...]

This text is the manifesto of Latin American art issued by the Sindicato Uruguayo de Artistas Plásticos (SUAP) in 1991, after the Primer Congreso de Arte Hispanoamericano held in La Paz, Bolivia. It addresses issues facing the region as a whole, [...]

This article is by Hans Platschek who was living in Montevideo between 1939 and 1953. The German artist makes a self- analysis on the resulting situation of postwar modernism, specifically the debated notion of “Art Nouveau or young art” both in [...]

In 1943, an exhibition of one hundred and seven Argentinean artists, consisting of late 19th- century and early 20th-century painters and sculptors, was held in Montevideo under the auspices of the National Commission of Fine Arts of Montevideo and [...]

In this essay, the Uruguayan art critic Fernando García Esteban praised Paris as being the artistic center of the world. He questioned the fading creative impulse that was being experienced by the Uruguayan artists, whom after so daringly being [...]

In response to the hypotheses of an “integral art” proposed by Alejandro Romualdo, the writer states his belief that Modern art trends entail a progressive “destruction of reality.” This is why art’s síntesis cannot entail a return to [...]

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 [...]

In 1956, the art critic José Pedro Argul published a text written the year before for the faculty at the Colegio Sagrada Familia. In it, he outlined his ideas on visual art, his studies, and his philosophy. It reviewed the concept of “beauty,” [...]

This article was written around the time Joaquín Torres García was giving his lecture on “Mística de la Pintura” and reviewing the main points supporting his conception of “art,” that is, immanentism [God or an abstract mind or spirit [...]

This article by Marcel Gromaire was published in AIAPE magazine—a champion of social realism in art—at a crucial point in the debate over aesthetics in Montevideo: the beginning of painting’s slide toward a “politically committed” form of [...]

On the occasion of a tribute to Mexico, Joaquín Torres García gives a talk at the Ateneo de Montevideo about the major Mexican artists. He mentions the group of artists who are commonly referred to as “Los Tres Grandes:” David Alfaro Siqueiros [...]

This anonymous article mentions three important events in the Uruguayan visual arts calendar in 1940: the exhibition of French painting, the Salón Municipal de Artes Plásticas, and the critiques of the Salón Nacional de Artes Plásticas. These [...]

Eduardo Blanco Acevedo was ideologically conservative and participated in the 1933 coup d’état of Gabriel Terra. During the elections of 1946, he self-directed the “blancoacevedismo” movement, a major force of conservative ideology within [...]

In this essay by Adolfo Halty, ideas are espoused about the controversial “social” sense of art and “folkloric art” at a time in Uruguay when debates about the notions of “cultural heritage,” “popular art,” etc., were beginning to be [...]

The synopsis and the annotations in English are coming soon.                                However, our bilingual readers can click on “Español” to access this information in Spanish [...]

After a number of years of inactivity, the Comisión Nacional de Bellas Artes (CNBA) was restructured in 1967. While the commission was largely supportive of the Uruguayan government, it included a wide range of representatives of the artistic and [...]

Entitled “La función social del arte,” this article discusses one of the final lectures given by philosopher Carlos Vaz Ferreira. In the lecture, Vaz Ferreira describes the figure of an intellectual not committed to the social and political [...]

This article advocates “social art” in Uruguay in the framework of the ideological battle between capitalist society and the Soviet Communist regime. The author clearly supports the latter position when he asserts that not even the members of the [...]

This article by Francisco R. Pintos is a response to the one by Juvenal Ortiz Saralegui published in the previous issue of Movimiento journal. Whereas Ortiz Saralegui was conciliatory in his approach to the problem of the relationship between “pure [...]

This article by Juvenal Ortiz Saralegui formed part of the early debates in the leftist press in Uruguay on the relationship between art and politics, debates that largely ensued in the publication of the Confederación de Trabajadores Intelectuales [...]

A manifesto of sorts, this article expands on the statement of principles voiced by the Confederación de Trabajadores Intelectuales del Uruguay (CTIU) in its first publication, the journal Aportación. The text is an extended exposition of the [...]

This article by Juvenal Ortiz Saralegui formed part of a series published in Movimiento journal—the publication of the Confederación de Trabajadores Intelectuales del Uruguay (CTIU)—that attempted to formulate a “revolutionary art” that did [...]

This article describes and analyzes the role of the “recipient” of the various messages expressed by the visual arts. At the end of the dictatorship period (1973–85), Uruguayan artists once again sought to come to grips with the question of [...]

In this document, the art critic and historian Olga Larnaudie discusses the art that Uruguayan artists were making in the early 1980s. The author looks at long term processes, basing her views on the writings of the Argentinean writer and critic Aldo [...]

Drawing on the perspective gained from her association with the CGM (Club de Grabado de Montevideo), Olga Larnaudie describes the general dissatisfaction and sense of crisis she sees in the visual arts community in Uruguay. She was writing in the [...]

The article titled “Opiniones I” in the Boletín N° 12 (1982) published by the CGM (Club de Grabado de Montevideo) provides the Uruguayan reader with an appraisal of the current state of contemporary art, which the author claims is facing a [...]

In this essay, numerous questions are raised relating to national and continental identity in Latin America, after eleven years (1973–84) under military dictatorship. There is a manifest recognition of both the reality of underdevelopment, as well [...]

The journalist Silvia Coronil interviews César Rengifo; she begins the conversation by mentioning that this artist had recently been awarded the CONAC [Consejo Nacional de la Cultura, Venezuela] theater prize. Rengifo discusses his views about art [...]

This text by curator Zuleiva Vivas provides a visual overview of and a reflection on the works by Ricardo Alcaide, Nelsón Garrido, María Eugenia Arria, Alberto Asprino, Mauricio Lupini, Alfredo Ramírez, Luisa Richter, Fabiola Sequera, Jesús [...]

In this text on the 58º Salón Michelena (Valencia, state of Carabobo) written in the year 2000, art critic Juan Astorga discusses the relationship between art and technique to reflect on the definition and meaning of “art.” Astorga defines art [...]

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 short essay, Víctor Vasarely recalls the beginning of his collaboration with architects, which began in 1952, when he met Venezuelan architect Carlos Raul Villanueva in Paris through Sofia Imber. [Villanueva] invited him to participate in [...]