Documents of Latin American and Latino Art

This is Nelly Richard’s critical review of La pintura en Chile: desde la Colonia hasta 1981 (Painting in Chile: From the Colonial Period to 1981), the book cowritten by Milán Ivelic and Gaspar Galaz. Richard takes issue with a number of [...]

This text by architect Lina Bo Bardi describes the difficulties she faced as the head of the Museu de Arte Moderna da Bahia (MAMB) and of the Museu de Arte Popular (MAP), both of which were located in the Solar do Unhão (since 1963), a seventeenth- [...]

This essay by Murilo Mendes appeared in the exhibition catalogue for work by the sculptor Maria Martins at the MAM-RJ (Museu de Arte Moderna do Rio de Janeiro) in 1956. Mendes thinks the uniqueness of her work arises from a confrontation at a [...]

This is the catalogue for Nipo brasileiros. Mestres e alunos em 50 anos, the exhibition held at the Pinacoteca do Estado de São Paulo (São Paulo, 1984). It includes an essay by Maria Cecília França Lourenço, the art historian and curator of the [...]

This text by architect Luis Saia discusses the collection of popular sculptures he put together during his trip to northern and northeastern Brazil in 1938. The architect presents a thesis on the African origin of the “miracle,” the name used for [...]

In these two brief articles, Ralph de Romero, a Puerto Rican artist born in New York, states that he feels no responsibility for art history. In other words, it is the artist’s privilege to call anything he creates whatever he wants to call it. De [...]

This text was to be placed on the main wall of the exhibition on Brazilian painting organized by the Museu de Arte Moderna da Bahia (MAMB) in 1960. The text asserts that the true innovating power of a culture is found by delving into its popular [...]

This text is the minutes of the first meeting of the Grupo Seibi (1935). It presents the deliberations that took place in a meeting that stated the following objectives for the group: (1) Encourage ties among the members; (2) Hold a monthly meeting [...]

In this article, the artist Hélio Oiticica discusses the work of Lygia Clark. He believes that her work has become part of a historic art movement, and underscores his connections to the artist’s work. Oiticica expresses his admiration for Clark [...]

This is an article by the Italian architect Lina Bo Bardi, who lived in Brazil, about the first exhibition held at the MAP (Museu de Arte Popular) in 1963 in Salvador, the capital of the state of Bahia. The exhibit included everyday items handcrafted [...]

Kemble develops a historical and formalist view of art, both from a Western and Eastern perspective, to arrive at the stylistic evolution present in both the 20th century and in his own work, which he analyzes from inception and through his personal [...]

In his text on the life and work of Ismael Nery, writer Murilo Mendes asserts that, though Nery was mostly known as a painter, his true focus was philosophy. Mendes provides an overview of Nery’s “essentialism”—a philosophical system he [...]

This is a letter from the critic Mário de Andrade to the writer Prudente de Moraes Neto. Adopting a brotherly tone, de Andrade criticizes the Surrealist nature of Moraes Neto’s article in the modernist magazine VERDE, published in Cataguazes (in [...]

This is a letter from Lívio Xavier—who, at the time, was the director of the MAUC (Museu de Arte da Universidade do Ceará)—to the architect Lina Bo Bardi, who was the director of both the MAMB (Museu de Arte Moderna da Bahia) and the MAP (Museu [...]

In this letter to Lomanto Júnior, the governor of the State of Bahia at the time, architect Lina Bo Bardi requests public support for the Plano de Artesanato Popular, a project geared to encouraging craft production in northeastern Brazil. In a way [...]

This essay by the French Surrealist poet Benjamin Péret appeared in the catalogue for the exhibition of works by Maria Martins presented at the MAM-RJ (Museu de Arte Moderna do Rio de Janeiro) in 1956. Péret discusses the artist’s sculptures, [...]

This book is on the wooden panels sculpted by Carybé, an Argentine artist who resided in Brazil. The reliefs represent Candomblé Orishas, that is, male, female, or gender neutral Afro-Brazilian deities. In his introduction, Afro-Brazilian artist [...]

This text by writer Murilo Mendes addresses the connections between the work of Brazilian painter Nery and the Surrealist movement. It contains an account of when, in 1927, Nery met Russian painter Marc Chagall and remarks on certain affinities [...]

This document is the cooperation agreement between the government of the State of Bahia, the Museu de Arte Moderno da Bahia (MAMB), and the Universidade da Bahia that establishes joint efforts in the sphere of culture and efforts to work on the [...]

The Italian journalist and art dealer Pietro Maria Bardi describes the organization and construction of the MASP (Museu de Arte de São Paulo) during the first two decades of its existence, from 1947 to 1967. This was no easy task in the provincial [...]

This text was written by the Greek critic Theon Spanudis about the first Bienal Nacional de Artes Plásticas, held in 1966, in the city of Salvador (state of Bahia). The critic objects to the presence of artwork linked to Pop art and the New [...]

Rubens Mano analyzes the relation between artists and urban spaces during the 1960s and 1970s, both of which introduced into the visual arts a key discussion of the implications of their entry into the core of urban life. The making of art becomes an [...]

Critic Mário Pedrosa analyzes the work of Ruben Valentim and defines his “authentic Brazilian painting.” His work is removed from the well-known, anecdotal, and picturesque regionalism that abounds in the art of the state of Bahia, where [...]

In this essay the art historian Mário Barata discusses various facets of the African-inspired sculpture produced by Brazilian artists. He notes the diversity in style from one African nation to another, and identifies the influences that are most [...]

In this text, José Valladares reviews the show of work by Carlos Frederico Bastos held at the Public Library in the city of Salvador, state of Bahia. Valladares points out the diversity of the work on exhibit, which attests to the experimental [...]

Doctor Osório César used psychoanalysis to study the artistic expression of inpatients at the institution de Juquerí (in the São Paulo area). The writer compares his patients’ works with certain other modern artwork (created by children, [...]

Beginning at the end of the 1940s, writer Riolan Metzker Coutinho traces a history of wood engraving in the state of Bahia, which in his judgment, is a privileged endeavor in which engravers such as Oswaldo Goeldi, Poty Lazzarotto and Carl Hansen ( [...]

Writer Aníbal Machado published this text on the occasion of the death of Ismael Nery. He points out some aspects of the artist’s personality and work and compares his painting with foreign artists of the stature of Max Ernest and André Masson [...]

This is the transcript of a statement made by the poet Tristan Tzara when he was interviewed by Flávio de Carvalho during the latter’s trip to Europe in 1934. Tzara speaks at great length about Dadaist methods, the movement he leads, and the [...]

This critique is on the book Evolução Social da Pintura (1942), written by Luiz Martins,a book written on the conferences he held at the Biblioteca Municipal de São Paulo. Lourival Gomes Machado states that the author, Luiz Martins, understands [...]

In this article, critic Sheila Leirner formulates the tie between the place where a work of art is produced and the work itself. In her view, artists can be divided into those who engage problems innate to art and those who make use of images for the [...]

In this article, Lourival Gomes Machado discusses the major contribution that Concrete artists have made to the São Paulo art scene. In his view, their stimulating presence provoked a wide range of reactions years after the first exhibition of the [...]

The catalogue for Arte e religiosidade afro-brasileira, the exhibition held at the Kunstverein Museum, in Frankfurt in 1994, introduces the work of contemporary artists of African descent or whose work is inspired by African culture. The exhibition [...]

The critic José Roberto Teixeira Leite rates the artist Agnaldo [Manoel dos Santos] as one of the greatest Brazilian sculptors of all times. The critic sees the artist’s work as the product of a syncretism that oscillates between African and [...]

In this essay on Bahían sculptor Agnaldo Manoel dos Santos, Clarival do Prado Valladares discusses aspects of the artist’s life—in particular, the arduous work he did making blocks of limestone— and of his work. The text describes the [...]

This is a text about the life and work of Bahia sculptor Agnaldo Manoel dos Santos. The article points out certain characteristics of his personality and significant events in his life as a sculptor, including [his participation in] the fourth Bienal [...]

In this newspaper article, Lourival Gomes Machado observes that art criticism in Brazil has finally started considering Concrete art as an important form of expression in Brazilian art. In his opinion, the idea of “rupture” with the art world— [...]

In this text Francisco Brugnoli writes a first-person account of his first meeting with Alberto Pérez and records his opinions of him as an artist and an art history teacher. Brugnoli thinks back to when he originally met Pérez, who was [...]

The catalogue for a solo exhibition of work by sculptor Maria Martins held at the Valentine Gallery in New York in 1943 included a group of texts on myths from the Amazon, specifically legends about mythological characters like Cobra Norato ( [...]

In this brief essay Gaspar Galaz discusses a series of landmark events that took place in the 1980s and 1990s. In his opinion this period was characterized by an economic boom in Chile (fueled by neoliberal policies) and by conceptual approaches to [...]

This book, written by the sociologist Dilma de Melo Silva and the social communicator Maria Cecília Felix Calaça, presents a historical review of Brazilian art and its African sources, and a discussion of African tribal art produced [...]

This text is a historical balance sheet of Concrete art in Brazil. The art critic, Ferreira Gullar, introduces Concrete art as a movement of “rupture” whose radical nature contrasts with the painting that predominated in Brazil in the late 1940s [...]

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 [...]

Art critic Mário Pedrosa wrote this text for the catalogue of the Exposição Infantil held at the MAM-RJ (Museu de Arte Moderna do Rio de Janeiro) in 1952, which he based on the work regarding the creative potential of children conducted at the end [...]

In this article, the critic Sheila Leirner seeks to differentiate between marginal art, marginalized art, and art that is understood as marginalized by the artist who created it. In her opinion, there is a tendency to regard marginal art and artists [...]

Here, José Valladares comments on the launching of his book Dominicais [Sunday Essays], which is a collection of his texts published  between 1948 and 1950 in the Diário de Notícias, a daily newspaper in the city of Salvador (state of Bahia). He [...]

This text by Arthur Ramos is an overview of art of African origin in Brazil and its importance to the formation of the culture within the country. From a historical perspective, the text discusses Western contact with African art starting in the [...]

This is a short unsigned article about the opening of the Museu de Arte Popular (MAP) in 1963 in Salvador (Bahia). The writer refers to more than 200 art and craft works by more than twenty artists and artisans. Regarding the exhibition held along [...]

The art historian and critic Clarival do Prado Valladares discusses the connections he sees between Genaro de Carvalho’s tapestries and the traditional art of the state of Bahia. The critic insists that Carvalho’s works cannot be mistaken for [...]

This text discusses African sculpture and sculpture produced by African slaves and their descendents in Brazil. The analysis begins with statues used in Afro-Brazilian religions, some of which represent priests possessed by gods. Other works are [...]