Documents of Latin American and Latino Art

Venezuelan cultural journalist Mara Comerlati conducted this interview with Gego in 1980 soon after she had been awarded the Premio Nacional de Artes Plásticas in 1979. Comerlati provides biographical information about the artist: her arrival [...]

The biography by María Luz Cárdena of Catalan-born Venezuelan artist José María Cruxent contains five chapters. The first one, an introduction, provides an overview. In the second, Cárdena analyzes Cruxent’s ideas and philosophy. The following [...]

This brief obituary was written by the historian Daniel Arias Argáez following the death of the artist Ricardo Moros Urbina. It includes a short but detailed biographical profile that mentions Moros Urbina’s art studies at the Escuela de Bellas [...]

In this brief overview of the life of Spanish painter José Gutiérrez Solana, Colombian artist Ignacio Gómez Jaramillo criticizes the overly academic Spanish art scene of the first decade of the 20th century and describes its social context. Solana [...]

This essay, by the art historian Eugenio Barney Cabrera, discusses the work of the painter Andrés de Santa María in five distinct categories, as follows: (I) his social background; (II) his long absence from Colombia; (III) his connection to Europe [...]

This is a first-person narrative in which Lucy Tejada discusses recollections and biographical details that she thinks had an impact on her work. She takes up the story in her childhood and mentions her memories of cities and spaces where she lived. [...]

This essay by journalist Lourdes Blanco on Venezuelan artist Roberto Obregón examines the course of Obregón’s career: the “premature boom” of his work in Maracaibo in 1964; his first exhibitions in Caracas (1967 and 1968) when he was seen as [...]

In this interview, Claude-Louis Renard seeks insights into the Venezuelan visual artist Jesús Rafael Soto’s thinking and character. Chronologically structured along biographical lines, the conversation begins with Soto’s early days as an artist [...]

In this essay, art historian Robert Farris Thompson provides a narrative of Manuel Vega’s biography and art. Vega, a New Yorker of Puerto Rican descent, grew up in the tough streets of the Bronx. In his early years, Vega gravitated toward diverse [...]

This brochure for artist Raoul Deal includes photographs of his works from 1984–1992, biographical information, an artist statement, and teaching philosophy.  Deal outlines his artistic philosophy as one informed by popular culture. He cites a [...]

In this essay, George Vargas attests that Carlos Lopez “serves as a vital historical link connecting American modern art in Michigan with a new Latino history of the state.” During the 1920s–1940s, Carlos Lopez was a Latino artist who did not [...]

In this brief and posthumous profile of Dominican artist Darío Suro, critic and art historian Marianne de Tolentino starts by recounting the affectionate link she had with him and how her professional trajectory was marked by Suro’s mentoring and [...]

This is an obituary essay by Alejandro Anreus on the Dominican painter Darío Suro (1918–97). A former student of Diego Rivera and Manuel Rodríguez Lozano during his stay in Mexico in the 1940s, Suro’s trajectory as a painter—evolving from [...]

In this essay, Teresa del Conde traces the artistic evolution of Enrique Echeverría during the 1950s-1960s; during the years that an artistic renovation was occurring in Mexico. Del Conde explains how from the beginning Echeverría’s career was [...]

This article about the work of painter José Clemente Orozco was written by the then-young writer Carlos Heredia Jasso, who enjoyed working in the biographical genre. He starts the piece with a portrait of the artist at work, seeking to decipher his [...]