Documents of Latin American and Latino Art

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

In this newspaper article, the journalist Miguel de Almeida reviews Idéias Modernas, the exhibition of work by Guto Lacaz that was presented at the Galeria São Paulo in 1982. The journalist comments on the inventiveness and excellent humor he sees [...]

In this essay about Cassio Michalany’s painting, the critic Rodrigo Naves initially confines his remarks to the “template” that the artist has used over the course of two decades to structure his paintings with interrelated bands of color. In [...]

This text by art critic Alberto Tassinari provides an overview of Laura Vinci’s art, from her early paintings produced in the late eighties to her participation, in 1997, in the Projeto Arte/Cidade—that is, a decade of work. Tassinari sees Vinci [...]

Interview with artist Nelson Felix conducted by art critic Rodrigo Naves and three artists: Lygia Pape, José Resende and Nuno Ramos (São Paulo, May 24, 1997). Felix comments on his education as an architect; his love of music; his first drawings, [...]

This manifesto was written by artist Raul Córdula, then director of the Núcleo de Arte Contemporânea da Universidade Federal da Paraíba (NAC-UFPB). Today, it serves as a record of the precarious situation of state-supported cultural institutions [...]

In this text, art critic Alberto Tassinari analyzes works by José Resende exhibited at the Gabinete de Arte Raquel Arnaud in São Paulo in March 1983. In Tassinari’s view, these sculptures “formulate the problem of the past”; they partake of [...]

In this text presenting the exhibition Objeto de arte Brasil anos 60, Daisy Peccinini describes the research carried out for the event, placing particular emphasis on the publication of a series of critical documents, statements, and interviews with [...]

In his presentation of the exhibition 63/66: Figura e Objeto, Casimiro Xavier de Mendonça asserts that the sixties witnessed an explosion of utopias and changes with the advent of a new generation of creators. Regarding the exhibition, he attempts [...]

Ana Mae Barbosa points out the consequence of the internal diaspora of visual artists from Northeastern Brazil toward the major centers (São Paulo and Rio de Janeiro) starting in the 1960s. In her opinion, those artists were better prepared for a [...]

This text summarizes artist Regina Silveira’s position in a debate held at the Galeria São Paulo in December 1981 on the state of printmaking in Brazil in the early eighties. Early on, Silveira asserts that in her view, the idea that printmaking [...]

The art critic José Geraldo Vieira reviews the history of Surrealism and mentions Hieronymus Bosch, Albrecht Dürer, and William Hogarth, among others. In the critic’s opinion, these artists created a “cosmogony of the absurd” centuries ahead [...]

In this essay, Rogério Duarte defines “industrial design” as the concept of  form in its serial reproduction. As he references the origins of Renaissance-style typography, he weighs in and deliberates about various theories on the subject, as [...]

In this text, art critic Sônia Salzstein analyzes a sculpture in the collection of the Museu de Arte Moderna de São Paulo (MAM-SP) produced by José Resende in 1975. On the basis of this sculpture, Salzstein formulates the way that Resende’s work [...]

In this text, originally published in 1943 in a portfolio of drawings and prints entitled Mangue, by Lasar Segall, Mário de Andrade defines the drawing in its calligraphic, lyrical and “extra-visual” properties, coming to consider it as “ [...]

In this text, art critic Paulo Herkenhoff identifies and describes some of the characteristics of drawing as an autonomous form of expression in contemporary art from South America. He formulates ten categories in relation to the production in the [...]

The professor and essay writer Celso Favaretto assesses the parameters that frame the work of Hélio Oiticica, from the experience of pure art to the statement made by environmental art. In Favaretto’s opinion, the path followed by the artist from [...]

In this report, the writer and journalist Salim Miguel describes (almost ten years after the fact) the movement formed by young artists and intellectuals in the state of Santa Catarina who started the magazine Sul in the late 1940s. The publication [...]

In this tribute published in 1991, the painter and art critic Quirino Campofiorito recalls the work of Bruno Lechowski, done by the Polish painter who was living in Rio de Janeiro in the1930s. The writer believes Lechowski was responsible for [...]

This is a news item about an exhibition of work by the artist Frans Krajcberg, held at the Museu de Arte Moderna do Rio de Janeiro (MAM-Rio) in 1992. It also covers other similar exhibitions held in connection with the international event Eco-92 - [...]

This text written by the art critic Icleia Borsa Cattani is the result of her in-depth research on the work produced in the 1980s, in her region, the state of Rio Grande do Sul (RGS), its distribution, and the market for that art. Her objective was [...]

This article by the art critic Mário Baratta is about the Exposição Cearense dos Pintores: Antonio Bandeira, Inimá, Raimundo Feitosa, Jean-Pierre Chabloz e Francisco da Silva, the exhibition presented at the Askanasy gallery in Rio de Janeiro in [...]

In 1988 the art critic Mário Baratta described the origins and performance of the group of artists and writers who produced Clã [Clan] magazine and founded the SCAP (Sociedade Cearense de Artes Plásticas) in the mid-1940s in the state of Ceará. [...]

This text by critic Alberto Tassinari addresses the sculptures by Paulo Monteiro exhibited at the Galeria Paulo Figueiredo in São Paulo in 1990. According to Tassinari, the works revolve around the primordial gesture that ensues at the instant when [...]

This essay was written by the art critic Luiz Camillo Osório about the exhibition of work by José Bechara presented at the Centro Cultural Candido Mendes (Rio de Janeiro, 1992). In analyzing his paintings made on a truck tarp or canvas, Osório [...]

In this text, critic Márcio Doctors provides an in-depth analysis of the work of artist Ivens Machado. Doctor’s interpretation goes beyond conventional readings of Machado’s work that overwhelmingly tend to revolve around the erotic and the use [...]

In this text, critic Márcio Doctors analyzes the work of Brazilian painter Eduardo Sued for whom the author asserts geometry is the translation of the unnamable space of things and a point of departure, rather than a destination. He writes, & [...]

The exhibition of work by Frans Krajcberg at the MAM-RJ (Museu de Arte Moderna do Rio de Janeiro) in 1992 had the desired effect due to the RIO 92 conference (Conferência das Nações Unidas sobre Meio Ambiente e Desenvolvimento). [...]

In this text, professor, art historian, and critic Quirino Campofiorito offers an overview of Brazilian sculpture from the 1930s through the 1960s. In passing, he comments on the modernization process undertaken by Brazilian art, generally in open [...]

Sheila Leirner wrote this article about Marcello Nitsche’s exhibition, Alegres Saudações. The critic reminds us that the artist works in a tradition whose field of action is irreverence, humor and contemplation of the nature of art. That is how [...]

Art critic Carlos von Schmidt wrote this text for the catalogue to the show 3 x 4 Grandes Formatos held at the Centro Empresarial Rio in 1983. The author provides a brief historical overview of the ties between large-format works and transformations [...]

This news report was written by the art critic and curator Casimiro Xavier de Mendonça about a new generation of artists that had eagerly embraced painting. After making a connection between these young artists and personalities in music and theater [...]

Brazil-based art critic and curator Sheila Leirner wrote this text for the catalogue to the show 3x4 Grandes formatos held at the Centro Empresarial Rio in 1983. The author discusses the scale of the works exhibited as well as the resurgence of [...]

In this essay, Tadeu Chiarelli analyzes Brazil art from the eighties and nineties, specifically production that involves three-dimensional space (sculpture, objects, or installation). He draws ties between those decades and the experimental tradition [...]

This article by Olívio Tavares de Araújo discusses the exhibition Pintura como meio (1983) held at the Museu de Arte Contemporânea da Universidade de São Paulo (MAC-USP), which at the time was directed by Aracy Amaral. The exhibition brought [...]

The art historian and critic Aracy Amaral wrote this analysis of the painting produced in the 1980s, with a focus on the art scene in São Paulo. In addition to naming the predecessors of the artists who made up that generation, the critic gives a [...]

According to Sônia Salzstein, the author of this review, Carlos Fajardo alternates between working [in the media of] painting and sculpture. The fundamental concerns of the work revolve around the surface and the tension between matter and time. [...]

Sônia Salzstein wrote this essay for the catalogue accompanying the exhibition of work by Carlos Fajardo that was held at Galeria A. S. Studio in São Paulo in 1997. In it, she discusses the persistence of memory in painting (the medium most [...]

João Cândido Galvão retrospectively analyzes Fernando Velloso’s work. The essay describes Velloso’s artistic career in the early 1970s and his work as a figurative artist before becoming interested in geometric abstraction. In the 1980s, he [...]

In this text, Ronaldo Brito emphasizes the modern themes in the sculpture of José Resende; these go far beyond the mere absence of a pedestal, celebrating “the experience of the contemporary urban space, unfiltered by hierarchies.” Although the [...]

Professor Walter Zanini remarks on the new phase in the production of Mônica Nador. The “decorative element plays a fundamental role” in this work, unlike her earlier monochromatic production. The interest in the forms and motifs of this work [...]

This text by art critic Alberto Tassinari was written for Nuno Ramos’s solo exhibition at the Museu de Arte Contemporânea da Universidade de São Paulo (MAC-USP) in 1988. The show featured the artist’s most recent production based on “piles [...]

This text by art critic Alberto Tassinari addresses the group Casa 7’s participation in the 1985 edition of the São Paulo Biennial. One of the characteristics of the group’s new strain of research is, according to Tassinari, the “arrangement [...]

Written in 1991, this article by art critic Alberto Tassinari discusses the show of work by Antonio Lizárraga held at Millan gallery in São Paulo. In Tassinari’s view, Lizárraga’s objects are neither painting nor sculpture, though they bring [...]

Brazilian Sônia Salzstein discusses the contemporary concepts of “sculpture,” using the thinking of the US art historian Rosalind Krauss as a point of departure. Salzstein’s objective is to examine what distinguishes modern sculpture from [...]

In this text, Sérgio Romagnolo, who is associated with Brazilian art of the eighties, reveals the motivation for his work, which is mainly a fascination with consumerism and the deception it brings. He believes that his art encompasses not only the [...]

Adriano Pedrosa wrote this text on Iran do Espírito Santo’s work for the 1999 edition of the Biennale di Venezia. Pedrosa asserts that any perception of “the real” depends on the language used to express it. That is evident in do Espírito [...]

To the critic and curator Ivo Mesquita, the theme of Mônica Nador’s paintings on exhibit at the Galeria Luisa Strina, in São Paulo (1994), includes both a decorative and a spiritual component. Her works comment on “The obsolescence of the [...]

This text is an introduction to an exhibition of work by the painter Paulo Pasta at the Museu de Arte Contemporânea da Universidade de São Paulo (MAC-USP), written by the art critic Lorenzo Mammì. The writer emphasizes Pasta’s pictorial [...]

This text was written as an introduction to an exhibition of work by Nuno Ramos at the Venice Biennale in 1995. Here, the critic Lorenzo Mammì describes a range of Brazilian art and culture in the context of globalization. After pointing out the [...]