Documents of Latin American and Latino Art

In connection with the exhibition Antología del desarraigo (1992), the curator Katherine Chacón writes about the career of the Venezuelan mixed-media artist, Ángel Vivas Arias. The writer highlights the duality of mysticism and nature evident [...]

In March 1983, members of the Research Department of the Museo de Bellas Artes in Caracas interviewed the painter Ivan Petrovszky about his exhibition at the Art Museum of the Americas in Washington, DC (that same year). By way of introduction, the [...]

One of the objectives of this article by the art historian Juan Carlos Palenzuela was to analyze the Venezuelan art world of the 1980s. The writer also established the guidelines applied to organizing the second Bienal de Artes Visuales Christian [...]

Abdel Hernández, the Cuban critic and writer, discusses the VII Bienal Nacional de Dibujo de Caracas (Museo de Artes Visuales Alejandro Otero, 1994) which, in his opinion, was an event that promoted “fragmentation and disciplinarity” in art, and [...]

The critic and curator Ariel Jiménez begins this article deliberating on the role of jurors when they assess the work received in order to choose which artists should be awarded prizes. He goes on to set out his criticism of the Venezuelan system of [...]

The critic Juan Calzadilla discusses the status of the system governing Venezuelan art biennials and salons in 1984, on the occasion of the II Bienal Nacional de Dibujo y Grabado at the Museo de Artes Visuales Alejandro Otero in Caracas. Calzadilla [...]

Roberto Guevara offers his thoughts in a critique of the artwork presented in Venezuela by the painter María Zabala, based on her most recent design using neon light. Guevara offers some background on Zabala’s creative life that illustrates her [...]

In this text, researcher Roldán Esteva-Grillet writes about the history of drawing in Venezuela from the pre-Hispanic era through the end of the 20th century. He begins by describing the practice of drawing in ancient indigenous cultures in [...]

In this text, critic José María Salvador examines Paul Klose’s career from his first abstract works, produced in the late fifties, to his most recent exhibition, held in 1992. Salvador identifies three distinct stylistic approaches in the work of [...]

[In this text] curator and art critic Bélgica Rodríguez proposes a relationship between formal elements and meaning in the work of Venezuelan painter and draftsman Saúl Huerta. These images express meaning on their own, even as they act as [...]

The curator Luis Ángel Duque offers a critical review of the artistic career of Jorge Pizzani during the 1980s. The text covers a period of successive expressive transitions by Pizzani: from drawing to painting, from paper to canvas, and from color [...]

In this essay, the artist and critic Juan Calzadilla reviews his own creative process and his work. He explains the connection between drawing and writing in his work, referring to drawing as a form of “visual writing” consisting of “ [...]

This anonymous text provides a detailed review of the rooms and halls of the Museo de Bellas Artes (Caracas) containing the works of the XVIII Salón Oficial de Arte Venezolano (1957). The works, according to the author, were grouped in the space by [...]

In this text, Juan Calzadilla analyzes Luisa Richter’s work in drawing while also providing an overview of the drawing genre in the post-World War II era—a time when there was widespread interest in the graphic arts in general. Calzadilla [...]

The journalist Maritza Jiménez interviews the Venezuelan printmaker and illustrator Adrián Pujol on the occasion of the latter’s exhibition at the Sala Ipostel (Caracas, 1981). During the conversation, they discuss Pujol’s conceptual and formal [...]

In this review, Roberto Guevara discusses the exhibition Más duquesas y majas de la calle Carabobo, pinturas, dibujos, collages y acuarelas de Diego Barboza (Caracas: Galería Félix, 1987). Guevara explains that Barboza has returned to painting and [...]

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, [...]

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 well-known writer Ariano Suassuna examines Maria Carmen’s drawings very carefully, and concludes that they are inspired by the occasionally “formless,” chaotic, and elementary nature of life forms. They remind the author of moss, anemones, [...]

Olívio Tavares de Araújo introduces an exhibition of the work of Evandro Carlos Jardim, an artist he considers serious, upright, and aware of long-term standards in art. The writer notes that this was the first time the artist would be showing [...]

This is a written testimony in poetic prose by the Argentinean artist León Ferrari, in which he describes the first of a series of calligraphic works that may be seen either as texts or drawings. He mentions the countless number of copies, tying [...]

In this critique ---which has a biographical tenor--- of the work of engraver Darel Valença Lins, poet and diplomat Vinicius de Moraes juxtaposes Darel’s origins with those of writer José Lins do Rego.  Although both were raised near sugar [...]

Professor Flávio Motta points out the connection (in Portuguese) between the words desenho (drawing) and desígnio [design], thereby proposing the re-establishment of a humanistic culture in which man directly influences the course of his life. He [...]

In this essay, the architect and visual artist Sérgio Ferro outlines the first part of his theory about the contradiction that exists between an architectural drawing and a jobsite. Approaching the subject from a Marxist perspective, he discusses [...]

This essay, written by the art critic Roberto Pontual, is a biographical and artistic profile of the artist Roberto Magalhães, in which the author underscores Magalhães’ penchant for working independently from his colleagues in the Nova Figura [...]

While living in New York, Rubens Gerchman announced that he would no longer paint, and began producing objects instead. Nonetheless drawing continued to be his starting point. Throughout his text, he offers observations on the arts scene of the city [...]

Sixteen years after having worked in northeastern Brazil, specifically in the state of Bahia, architect and cultural administrator Lina Bo Bardi evaluates the state of drawing in a dependent and capitalist country that underwent intense [...]

In this essay, Flávio de Carvalho discusses the role that drawing has played in art, and its importance in establishing a contrast between composition and movement. The artist from São Paulo claims that the thickness of a line is to drawing what [...]

This is an editorial that was published in the Jornal Artes Plásticas, in São Paulo, in the 1940s, an essential period in terms of establishing museums in Brazil. This text is a record of the phenomenon that led to São Paulo’s construction of [...]

This document is the flyer for the solo exhibition of drawings by Fernando Lemos, held at the MAM-SP (Museu de Arte Moderna de São Paulo) in August 1956. It includes this article, in which the artist discusses drawing and its role in art, as well as [...]

The poet Manuel Bandeira makes use of the image of “thinness” and is convinced that his city, Recife, has a “dryness” that is not evident at first sight. He notes that its special attraction lies in being “unadorned and bone-thin.” The [...]

This article by Carlos Duarte analyzes the graphic work of caricaturist Nestor Silva. It explains the originality of his drawings and his interest in the details of everyday life, pointing out his sharp and pronounced lines, which are characterized [...]

After happening upon drawings used to decorate the walls of fishermen’s houses in Praia Formosa (Fortaleza, capital of the state of Ceará), Jean-Pierre Chabloz went out in search of the artist. Elementary, but genuine, was his opinion about the [...]

Jean-Pierre Chabloz relates his experience in the state of Ceará (Northeast Brazil), a memory he closely links to his pencil and brush. He owes his encounters with artists in the region to drawing, and he believes the work he created then was the [...]

The curator Lisette Lagnado interviews the artist José Leonilson, and mentions a long list of artistic references concerning his activity in Brazil. These include Antonio Dias, the most productive influence on his development as an artist; the [...]

In this text, Sheila Leirner praises a show of work by Carmela Gross as a clear demonstration of a thought process at work. Leirner remarks on the radical and artistically revolutionary stance of these works in relation to traditional drawing and its [...]

In this essay, Walter Zanini expresses his opinion of Carmela Gross’s work, highlighting that after supporting in spirit a precise constructive phase, her artistic research has come to a threshold between sign and writing. In her previous works, [...]

The journalist Miguel de Almeida interviews the Brazilian artist Carmela Gross in regards to her drawings series titled Projeto para a construção de um céu. The artist explains that her purpose is to discuss the meaning of the work in relation to [...]

This essay was written about the concept of “primitive drawing,” due to the imprecision of that expression. The writer Gilda de Mello e Souza bases her text on certain fundamental ideas of the sociologist Raymond Firth. His definition of “ [...]

In this interview of Johanna Calle, the Colombian journalist Diego Garzón emphasizes the relationship between the artist’s work and the sociopolitical problems of the world in which she lives. It also explores the paths through which she has made [...]

The visual artist Willys de Castro reviews the exhibition of drawings by his lifelong companion Hércules Barsotti at the Galeria de Arte das Folhas, in São Paulo. De Castro discusses Barsotti’s technique in great detail, including [...]

This text presents the exhibition Dibujantes y grabadores colombianos held at theMuseo de Arte at the Universidad Nacional de Colombia in May 1975. Historian Álvaro Medina asserts that the exhibition brings together figurative artists representative [...]

The writer Monteiro Lobato reports that the exhibition of watercolors by Vicente do Rego Monteiro was well-received because it consisted of drawings rather oil paintings. He is hard-pressed to describe the genre that the artist from Pernambuco works [...]

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 [...]

This essay is a review of the 1979 exhibition of pastel drawings by Rupert Garcia at the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, as well as a “manifesto” by poet and artist José Montoya on the state of the relationship between Chicano artists and [...]

The sociologist Gilberto Freyre discusses the latest designs produced by the painter, and in this case, illustrator Vicente do Rego Monteiro, for the book about dance written by F. Divoire in Paris. In Freyre’s opinion, the artist here reveals his [...]

In this manuscript, Gego (Gertrud Goldschmidt, 1912–1994), a Venezuelan artist of German origin, provides a brief chronology of the main conceptual and structural “ideas and interests” that drove her work from 1956 to 1976. Gego specifies her [...]

In this essay about the exhibition of paintings by the Ecuadorian artist Oswaldo Guayasamín at the Museo de Bellas Artes de Caracas, Alejandro Otero discusses the question of influences in art and originality. Following a detailed analysis of many [...]

In his introduction to Método de Dibujo [Drafting Method], José Juan Tablada identifies it as a weapon in the struggle to establish harmony and democracy amid the chaos and authoritarianism in the artistic milieu. He states that the process at work [...]