Documents of Latin American and Latino Art

Shifra M. Goldman wrote this text about María Enríquez de Allen to honor her for her contribution to art in the areas of flower making, Santos carving, and crafts. She especially praises Enríquez de Allen for enriching the visual vocabulary of [...]

This is a newspaper review of the Primera Feria Artesanal Naylamp 72, the event organized in the city of Chiclayo in the northern coastal region of Peru. The review notes the participation of about three hundred artisans from sections in that part of [...]

In this interview the painter Leslie Lee discusses the reasons behind the founding of SUTAP (Sindicato Único de Trabajadores en las Artes Plásticas) [Sole Visual Arts Workers Union], explaining the group’s disagreements and subsequent break with [...]

In “Notas sobre lo americano” Luis Oyarzún shares his thoughts about Latin American culture, art, and literature, which he contrasts with his Eurocentric views. He groups his ideas into six points, in which he critiques what he [...]

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 article, Mexican writer Salvador Novo reflects on traditional Mexican arts and handicrafts. In the early twentieth century, wealthy Mexicans considered Mexican artesanías inferior to fine European furnishings. After the Mexican Revolution, [...]

In this article Lívio Xavier discusses the production of handcrafts in the state of Ceará, which are brought into town and offered for sale in the markets in Fortaleza, the state capital. Xavier notes the wide variety of artisan products produced [...]

This article is about the Festival Arte y Pueblo, which was installed in the Plazoleta de San Francisco in the city of Arequipa, in southern Peru, from November 18–25, 1975. The anonymous reviewer notes the integration and multidisciplinary nature [...]

In an earlier article written in 1977, the artist Francisco Abril de Vivero challenged the official populist decision to send arts and crafts to the Bienal Internacional de São Paulo. In his opinion, the decision showed “the spirit of demagoguery [...]

This is a report on the visit of the Andean altarpiece artist Joaquín López Antay—the winner of the 1975 National Culture Prize in the art category—to the INC (Instituto Nacional de Cultura). The report includes his statements as well as those [...]

This article, published in the newspaper La Crónica (Lima, 27 December 1975), quotes the opinions expressed by a group of artists shortly after the announcement that Joaquín López Antay, the altarpiece artist from the Andean region of Peru, had [...]

This article was published in the Peruvian newspaper La Crónica the day after the winners of the Premios Nacionales de Cultura for 1973/74 were announced. Significantly, the prize in the art category was given, the article reports, to Andean [...]

This article was published on November 12, 1977 in the Lima newspaper La Prensa. It contains several quotes from the letter written by Oscar P. Landman, the President of the Fundação Bienal de São Paulo to the INC (Instituto Nacional de Cultura [...]

This newspaper article discusses the opposing points of view expressed by Peruvian artists in the debate over the 1975 National Culture Prize. Speaking in favor of the decision, Ciro Palacios states that the award acknowledges “an urgent need to re [...]

In this letter published in the Lima-based newspaper La Prensa, a group of Peruvian visual artists expresses its opposition to the selection of folk art representing Peru at the twenty-fourth São Paulo Biennial held in 1977. The artists object to [...]

This article is about the events organized by the self-styled “Gobierno Revolucionario de las Fuerzas Armadas Peruanas,” the revolutionary government of the Peruvian armed forces led by General Juan Velasco Alvarado, designed to support the [...]

On the occasion of the decision to grant the 1975 Premio Nacional de Cultura [award] to Andean altarpiece maker Joaquín López Antay (1897–1981), journalist José B. Adolph reviews the categories of “high art” and “folk art.” While Adolph [...]

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 text, Mario Barata ostensibly rejects the function of industrial art and crafts in the modern city. He sees benefits and drawbacks to the standardization of furniture and, naturally, of taste. On the other hand, he believes wholeheartedly in [...]

In this text, Mirko Lauer (under the pseudonym “N. O. Sengai”) points out that only artists and intellectuals, not artisans, have participated in the debate around granting the Premio Nacional [award] to López Antay. He argues that that is due [...]

In this article the intellectual and writer Guillermo Rouillón notes the post-mortem influence exerted by the work of the Indigenist painter José Sabogal, an influence that can even be seen in the decision to award the 1975 National Culture Prize [...]

This is a catalogue for the collection of African art at the Museu Nacional de Belas Artes in Rio de Janeiro, which includes pieces from Nigeria and Benin (the former Republic of Dahomey). This document was produced by the anthropologist and [...]