Documents of Latin American and Latino Art

The text “¡Pare de sufrir!: Decálogo de autoayuda para espectadores intimidados por las exposiciones de arte,” written by artist and critic Lucas Ospina was initially published on the website http://esferapublica.org on July 15, 2007. It was [...]

The article “¡Que viva Manrique!” [Hooray for Manrique!], written by the editorial team at the Bogotá newspaper El Espectador and published on April 16, 1996, referred to Pedro Manrique Figueroa. Precursor del Collage en Colombia [Pedro [...]

In this interview, David Alfaro Siqueiros expressed his views on the Biennial. He began by critiquing the paintings exhibited by the United States, and warned Latin American painters against imitating hybrid ideas that made no sense, such as Tachisme [...]

The text, “¿Arte joven?” [Young Art?] by art critic Eduardo Serrano Rueda introduces the exhibition Nombres nuevos en el arte de Colombia [New Names in Colombian Art] held at the Museo de Arte Moderno [Museum of Modern Art] in Bogotá in March [...]

The exhibition at Perls Gallery in Beverly Hills, Los Angeles, presented Rufino Tamayo as one of the four great Mexican artists. His works were part of the great modernism and, unlike those of his colleagues, no Communist symbols could be found in [...]

This interview consists of fourteen questions regarding the reception that the Mexican art exhibition experienced from the Parisian public. Fernando Gamboa believed that the event was a great opportunity for the Mexican people, and also was a great [...]

This article expresses the official point of view on the controversy that was sparked by the decision to award no prizes at the XXIII Salón de Artistas Nacionales [XXIII National Artists’ Salon] (1972). The article is written by Germán Rubiano, [...]

In response to the absence of artists, such as Pablo Picasso and Juan Gris at the Contemporary Spanish Art Exhibition shown at the Museo Nacional de Bellas Artes in December 1947, the Argentinian artists expressed their disagreement by signing a [...]

In this essay, which appeared in the catalogue for Veinte disecciones (Caracas: Museo de Bellas Artes, 1982), the exhibition of works by Roberto Obregón, the researcher Susana Benko reflects on cultural symbols, conventions, and codes and the [...]

With this text, Colombian poet and essayist Juan Gustavo Cobo Borda introduces the exhibition of works by painter Manolo Vellojín held at Galería Garcés Velásquez in Bogotá in 1978. In Cobo Borda’s view, Holy Week (a Spanish religious [...]

This short article is a commentary on 1927: Exposición de Arte Nuevo, which opened on May 7 at the “Asociación de Pintores y Escultores.” In announcing and promoting the exhibition, the editors of Revista de avance stated [...]

Julio Rinaldini criticizes the leaflet with the manifesto of the Seven Artists (Antonio Berni, Lino Enea Spilimbergo, Horacio Butler, Ramón Goméz Cornet, Héctor Basaldúa, Aquiles Badi, and Emilio Pettoruti) who participated in the exhibition at [...]

This document contains excerpts from a grant proposal submitted by Eduardo Carrillo to the National Endowment for the Humanities seeking traveling support for an exhibition of California Chicano art entitled Califas, Chicano Art and Culture in [...]

On the occasion of the exhibition La casa de todos nosotros: Antonio Martorell y sus amigos [A House for Us All: Antonio Martorell and Friends] held at El Museo del Barrio in 1992, Puerto Rican curator Susana Torruella Leval analyzes Antonio [...]

The poet, Enrique Molina wrote a literary essay on the exhibition on Arte Destructivo [Destructive Art] in which he states that its power is in the unveiling of what is hidden and prohibited. Observed with Surrealism in mind and the imprint of [...]

This is the introduction to the catalogue for the Salón de Artistas Jóvenes Latinoamericanos [Young Latin American Artists Salon]—held at the Pan-American Union in Washington, DC in 1965. It was written by José Gómez Sicre, director of the [...]

Leandro Soto Ortiz interprets the sculptural works of fellow artist Raoul Deal that were featured in the exhibition La Esperanza del Loro Verde. Soto Ortiz positions Deal’s work within a Postmodernist current, contextualizing it at the core of [...]

This is an anonymous interview with Fernando de Szyszlo on his successful presentation at the III Salón Moncloa in Lima in 1955. The artist stated that it was the first artistic competition in which he had participated since 1951 due to his distrust [...]

In this essay, which is the introduction to the book Ciudad–Espejo [City–Mirror] (2009), the Colombian critic Natalia Gutiérrez bases her review of Colombian contemporary art on the works presented at the 39 Salón Nacional de Artistas [39th [...]

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 interview, the journalist Rubén Wisotzki asks Eugenio Espinoza about Orla, the exhibition presented at the Museo de Arte Contemporáneo Sofía Imber in Caracas, in 1993. The Venezuelan artist believes that the exhibition was a moment for [...]

Roberto Guevara reviewed Gego’s Reticulárea (1969) when it was first installed at the Museo de Bellas Artes [Museum of Fine Arts] in Caracas. He mentions the artist’s use of space within the Reticulárea, which acquires a new environmental [...]

The art critic Perán Erminy reviews and analyzes the exhibition Testimonios organized by El Techo de la Ballena in the context of an international meeting of this group. In this text, Erminy points out what he finds interesting in this exhibition: [...]

By way of a brief interview, this text announces the opening of Bernardo Salcedo’s exhibition, Un mes de desahogos pasionales, at UD gallery in Parque de la Independencia in Bogotá. It explains that once the show is over, the works in it will [...]

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

This is an article written by the editorial staff at the weekly Magazine Dominical about the life and work of Alicia Tafur, the Colombian artist. It was written on the occasion of the “first large exhibition for Bogotá” at the Banco de la Repú [...]

According to Frederico Morais, the emergence of audiovisual work in several exhibition halls was linked to the introduction of the “object” category that freed up other more traditional categories. In his opinion, “the object” implied a [...]

In this article, Barboza Leite identifies the artists who contributed to the founding of the SCAP (Sociedade Cearense de Artes Plásticas) from 1941 to 1949, when the association was launched. He provides a detailed description of the endemic [...]

The artist Rubens Gerchman discusses Pare, the exhibition he jointly presented with Roberto Magalhães, Antonio Dias, Carlos Vergara, and Pedro Escosteguy at the G-4 gallery in Rio de Janeiro in April 1966. Gerchman explains that the exhibition [...]

Jorge López Anaya writes about the rapid emergence of Grupo Sí [Yes Group] in the city of La Plata. He analyzes the use of chromatic saturation as a trait typical of the group’s artists. The critic states that the chromatic geometry represents, [...]

Invitation to Alfredo Londaibere’s exhibition (Buenos Aires: Centro Cultural Ricardo Rojas, June, 1991 [...]

According to Ivo Mesquita, it is due to political-economic changes and social crises in Brazil—the results of a colonial project—that the country is influenced by the non-optimistic perspectives that have taken hold in the rest of the world with [...]

Luis Felipe Noé writes a letter directed to the viewer containing ironic commentary on exhibition catalogs. He supports art as a permanent adventure in revelation and man as the instrument of new quests. Noé proposes “chaos”as the only truth of [...]

This exhibition catalog, Chicago Latino, was part of an intercultural dialogue initiated by two “socially-minded arts groups,” the 369 Gallery of Edinburgh, Scotland, and the Near Northwest Arts Council of Chicago, Illinois. The exhibition [...]

A collection of images from the happening called “Cementerio” [Cemetery], which was staged as part of the Arte de Sistemas [Systems Art] exhibition (Buenos Aires: Museo de Arte Moderno, July 1971). The work consisted of a cluster of crosses, each [...]

This essay by curator Jeannette Ingberman analyzes ten years of work by Papo Colo in painting, sculpture, drawing, and performance. According to the author, Colo’s work explores the metaphysical and the spiritual, incorporating organic forms and [...]

Jorge Romero Brest points out that in the Experiencias 1968 [1968 Practices], young artists tried to raise the problem of creation in terms that were almost extreme, presenting crucial situations that depart from traditional “artwork” only by a [...]

In this brief text that appeared in the catalogue of Roberto Obregón’s second solo exhibition held in Caracas at Galería XX2 (1967), the artist presents a creed-like manner in expressing his convictions about art and life, and also commenting on [...]

The curator Axel Stein introduces the exhibition of works by Luis Lizardo at the Centro de Arte Euroamericano (Caracas, 1991). In his essay Stein talks about the artist’s early days, when he was just getting started, interspersing his own formal [...]

This brief introductory text by Carlos Rodríguez Saavedra was written for the official catalogue of the painting competition organized by the Festivales de Ancón, then an elegant resort on the outskirts of Lima. In a lyrical tone, the author [...]

Jorge Romero-Brest presents Horacio García-Rossi’s exhibition (Galería Rubbers, Buenos Aires, May, 1967), highlighting the fact that he belongs to GRAV (the Paris-based Group of Research on Experimental Visual Arts), though emphasizing the fact [...]

In his text, Pedro Briceño describes how the work of another Venezuelan sculptor, Pedro Barreto, has evolved from his early work (“totems”) of tropical and chain-like forms, to his new work. The latter is characterized by a greater preoccupation [...]

Researcher and historian Bélgica Rodríguez analyzes the work of Hugo Baptista in a biographical text with quotations made by the painter; beginning with the artist’s move to Caracas in 1951 so that he could enroll in Vicente Emilio Sojo’s [...]

While introducing the work of Gyula Kosice, the author refers to movements that sought to create an independent object instead of imitating or deforming one. Juan Bay identifies the difference between the works produced by members of certain [...]

This document reproduces the speech given by priest and historian José Manuel Marroquín Osorio at the opening of the exhibition of fine arts on the occasion of the celebration of the centennial of Colombian independence—Celebración del Primer [...]

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 [...]

The text, ¡Al Fin Pintura! (1976) [Painting, at Last!] was an introduction to the exhibition with the same name at the Galería Belarca in Bogotá, organized by Eduardo Serrano. This art critic emphasizes the acceptance of the drawing and the print [...]

This article reviews the first exhibition of the Grupo de Artistas Modernos [Modern Artists Group] of Argentina, presented at Galería Viau and featuring works by independent artists Sarah Grilo, Hans Aebi, Miguel Ocampo, and Fernández Muro, as well [...]

In this brief text, the subscribing artists (participants in the exhibition 7 pintores argentinos [Seven Argentinean Painters] in August 1935) maintain that they do not support any specific pictorial trend; they have however conflicting ideologies. [...]

Invitation to the Exposición de Pintores Modernos [Modern Painters Exhibition], which took place at Amigos del Arte [Friends of Art] (Buenos Aires, June, 1926), and included the following artists: Emilio Pettoruti, Norah Borges, Xul Solar, and [...]