Documents of Latin American and Latino Art

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 [...]

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 [...]

In this letter, the writer Mário de Andrade critiques the researcher Luiz da Câmara Cascudo’s articles about folklore. He notes, however, the latter’s rigorous, scientific approach to the subject. The letter mentions (though not explicitly) [...]

In this essay published in the exhibition catalog, Remerica! Amerika, artists Coco Fusco and Guillermo Gomez-Peña contend that the origins of dada events and performance art date back to the 1500s when native peoples from Africa and the Americas [...]

This book illustrated in detail by painter Vicente do Rego Monteiro explores the legends, beliefs, and talismans of Amazonian natives. The artist offers vignettes, drawings of symbols, and illustrations based on indigenous motifs. It was published in [...]

In this article, the writer Ronald de Carvalho questions the undeniable presence of foreign styles in the decorative art to be seen in the city of Rio de Janeiro, and suggests using ornamental motifs inspired by Brazilian flora and fauna and native [...]

Questioning the exhaustion of Western civilization (specifically the European version), and basing his arguments on the psychoanalytic theory of Sigmund Freud—who wrote about the social life of primitive peoples in his book Totem and Taboo— Plí [...]