Documents of Latin American and Latino Art

The text states that—although France had always been a symbol of freedom—the French government, along with its curators and some artists, was willing to send a submission to the São Paulo Biennial despite the dramatic situation that Brazil was [...]

The text discusses the work method of the Grupo de los Trece [Group of Thirteen] in relation to its constitution. As the coordinator of the group, David Cooper analyzes, on the one hand, the internal problems of the group, “las ansiedades de cada [...]

In this essay, Ángel Luque, the Spanish artist who lived in Venezuela from 1955 until 1967, criticizes both the exaggerated rationalism of the twentieth century (that rejects any form of subjectivity) and the capitalist system. He also dismisses the [...]

On the third anniversary of Lenin’s death, this article critiques his revolutionary framework.  It states that the path of violence and force are not conducive to human happiness. It gives an example of his “blunder” though a description of [...]

The painters Enrique Estrada and Teresa Morán discuss art in capitalist societies, and mention the need to create art that contributes to society—that is, socialist art. They claim that art produced in capitalist societies is violent and thus [...]

This essay examines the relationship between artists and the consumer society, and claims that the latter seeks to create destructible goods and false needs. Aldo Pellegrini claims that the goal of the consumer world is to annihilate the artist by [...]

This article, published in Revista de avance in 1927, was written by the young essayist and journalist born in Catalonia, Martí Casanovas. Here, he sets forth a fierce criticism of the way the capitalist production system affects and determines the [...]

This document reports on “El anarquismo en la sociedad capitalista" [Anarchism in a Capitalist Society], the lecture given by Herbert Read at the offices of the Federación Libertaria Argentina [Libertarian Federation of Argentina] in Buenos Aires [...]

This essay by the Uruguayan architect and researcher Gabriel Peluffo Linari seeks to explain how aesthetic spaces (understood as symbolic construction zones) and political power spaces are connected in Latin American societies. The author sees a need [...]

This article advocates “social art” in Uruguay in the framework of the ideological battle between capitalist society and the Soviet Communist regime. The author clearly supports the latter position when he asserts that not even the members of the [...]

In this interview, Diego Rivera begins by defining art and explaining its importance to society. In his opinion, “art is better in a society where there are no class divisions.” According to him, “art is able to stimulate very specific [...]

The text by Julio Le Parc takes as its starting point the need to overcome individualistic ideas in order to be able to suggest future expansions. Thus, he introduces the idea with a series of questions, which, at first, refer to the general [...]

In the introduction to his questionnaire, the visual artist Julio Le Parc notes that art, being a product of social importance, needs group feedback. The first part of the questionnaire focuses on the definition, function, and social relationship of [...]

This farce was written in verse and consists of a prologue and four parts. The action takes place in Mexico City. On a throne of clouds rests a trinity: a Mexican politician, “the father devil;” a European capitalist, “the grateful son;” and [...]

The correspondent for The Daily Worker in Chicago creates a context for his readers concerning the formation of a Communist and a revolutionary art in Mexico, which describes on the walls of public buildings the useless life of the upper classes and [...]

In this text, researcher Otília Arantes reflects on the impact of recent initiatives in France to restore the country’s position as a world center of twentieth-century cultural production. The projects undertaken and investments made form the [...]

This essay by Peruvian writer and thinker José Carlos Mariátegui formed part of the “Peruanicemos al Perú” series published by Mundial magazine. Mariátegui asserts that an avant-garde movement has taken hold in the new generations in Peru, [...]

The writer Alejandro Núñez Alonso ironically comments on the restrictions imposed by the Secretaría de Educación Pública [Ministry of Public Education or SEP]. According to his comments, the visual artists will no longer receive a salary, nor [...]

New World [Dis] Orders & Peripheral Strains: Specifying Cultural Dimensions in Latin American and Latino Studies is highly complex, largely due to its jargon laden dense text, but it is an indispensable and provocative document. Through words and [...]

Política Obrera [Working Class Politics], a Trotskyite faction’s journal, published a lengthy article reporting on the incidents at the opening ceremony of the 1968 Braque Prize by the French Embassy in Argentina. The article suggests that the [...]

In this article, the well-known artist César Rengifo explains that art should be an instrument to help mankind restore the balance that has been shattered by the capitalist system. He discusses the class struggle that has been expressed in art [...]

In this article, the Chicano artist and poet Koyokuikatl (Carlos Cortez) considers the revolutionary spirit of Diego Rivera’s art on the occasion of an exhibition at the Detroit Institute of Art celebrating the centennial of Rivera’s birth (1886- [...]

Mariano Picón-Salas discusses the processes and reasons for the “integration” and the “disintegration” of the Latin American peoples during the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, starting with their struggles for independence through the [...]