Documents of Latin American and Latino Art

To start with, the newspaper’s editorial statement was very clear concerning the basic purpose of A parte do fogo [The Fire’s Part]: to take part in Brazil’s cultural process and create a space devoted to reflection and to the production of [...]

This report details developments since May 14, the opening day of the Experiencias 1968 [1968 Practices]. It reports on the presence of the police and the municipal authorities due to a complaint regarding a happening presented at the Instituto [...]

This text transcribes the article published in the French newspaper Le Monde reporting that the Federal Police Department of São Paulo sent to the local newspaper Folha de São Paulo a list of news items forbidden to be published. The censored [...]

The first artist to condemn the modification to the rules of the 1968 Premio Braque (promoted by the French embassy in Argentina) was Margarita Paksa. She sent a letter to the organizers, dated June 18, in which she, besides resigning her [...]

Pol Bury’s letter states his decision to withdraw his participation from the 1969 São Paulo Biennial due to the fact that several Brazilian artists had informed him that another biennial, held in Bahia, was compelled to close and that paintings [...]

In this letter to poet Ferreira Gullar, artist Antonio Henrique Amaral expresses the dilemma he faces about whether to continue to deal with the problems of life in New York or return to Brazil. He explains that he has grown accustomed to the [...]

The document is one of the small flyers that the FATRAC (Frente Antiimperialista de Trabajadores de la Cultura) [Anti-Imperialist Cultural Workers Front] threw into the air during the incidents that occurred during the 1968 Premio Braque award [...]

This text provides information regarding the measures imposed upon Brazilian culture after the state coup of 1964. It particularly refers to the actions derived from the Institutional Act No. 5, dated December 13, 1968. Once the Parliament was [...]

This article explains that the Federación Argentina de Entidades de Artistas Plásticos [Argentine Federation of Visual Arts Groups] became active again, after a long break. One of the projects on the group’s agenda is to review modifications to [...]

In his function as the Secretary General of the Instituto Torcuato Di Tella [Torcuato Di Tella Institute], Mario T. Marzana, communicates to the aforementioned institution’s personnel the proceedings that led to the closure of Roberto Plate’s [...]

In this article, the art critic Sheila Leirner avoids mentioning any particular case while discussing the “discouragement” caused by the news of the imprisonment of an artist accused of the crime of “free expression.” She muses on the role of [...]

This prescient op-ed takes the events at the 1968 Braque Prize (sponsored by the French embassy in Argentina) as a starting point and uses them to arrive at the conclusion that the finest artwork was the “uproar” that occurred due to the [...]

This article reports on the closure of the CAyC al Aire Libre [CAyC in the Outside] exhibition by order of the municipal authorities of the city of Buenos Aires. It explains that the arguments presented to justify the closure were based on a view [...]

In view of the contemporary events related to raids, censorship, and repression, this report collected testimonials from several artists regarding freedom of expression during the Brazilian military regime (1964–85). The artists consulted included [...]

The writer and art critic Geraldo Ferraz discusses the boycott of the tenth Bienal de São Paulo (1969), noting that the artists’ refusal to participate in the international exhibition would cause irreparable damage to the event. He calls the [...]

The artist Antonio Manuel describes two works that were conceived for an exhibition at the MAM-RJ (Museu de Arte Moderna do Rio de Janeiro) in 1973, an event that the museum canceled on the eve of its opening in an attempt to avoid “difficult [...]

Julio Le Parc presents a brief explanation about a situation in which he was not permitted to include a pamphlet with his works in the Denise René L’intrépide exhibition. Due to this situation, which he considered to be censorship, Le Parc [...]

The article points out that the artists invited by the Academia Nacional de Bellas Artes (Argentina) to the Primer Premio de Grabado “Facio Hebecquer” [First “Facio Hebecquer” Prize for Engraving] (1971) communicated their refusal to submit [...]

This article explains that the Sociedad Argentina de Artistas Plásticos [Argentine Society of Visual Artists] called a meeting at which they decided not to participate in the National Salon (Buenos Aires, Argentina, 1971). Instead, they agreed to [...]

The goal of this essay is to make people aware that the government of the city of Buenos Aires closed and seized the CAyC al Aire Libre [CAyC in the Open Air] exhibition three days after it opened. The essay also asks for the support of those who [...]

This document, produced by the Centro de Arte y Comunicación [Art and Communication Center], is a collection of statements issued by a variety of representatives of international cultural organizations. They were addressed to the president of the [...]

Looking through the prism of her philosophical education, Otília Arantes explores the different approaches taken as a result of the Brazilian political situation⸺following the military coup d’etat that installed an iron-fisted [...]

In this essay, Fábio Duarte asserts that cyberspace is the new territory of communicational exchange, as it is unimpeded by borders or ideological obstacles. He defines it in spatial terms as an informational network where telecommunications and [...]

In this article the writer and art critic Walmir Ayala reports on a “festive communication event” created by artists from Rio de Janeiro and São Paulo who organized “an evening for the exposure and sale” of flags at the General Osório [...]

This article lists the reasons why the painter Juan O’Gorman filed an appeal with the Second Court of the Federal District (Mexico City). His goal was to lift the censorship on the murals he had painted in the waiting area of the Benito Juárez [...]

The incidents during the of the Premio Braque 1968 awards ceremony (brought about by the French embassy in Argentina) were a direct result of the boycott proposed by the artists in reaction to a censorship clause. In this newspaper article, with the [...]

Daniel Gutman points out that the Argentine Government apologizes to the artists censored in the II Certamen Nacional de Investigaciones Visuales[Second National Competition of Visual Research] and, although it will not return the amount of the [...]

In this article David Alfaro Siqueiros denounces and criticizes the Colegio Nacional. The charter and rules were written by Octavio Vejar Vázquez who was Minister of Education at the time, and whom the painter considers to be mediocre. Siqueiros [...]

In this open letter, Hélio Oiticica writes against the 1969 São Paulo Biennial and expounds on the situation of strict censorship prevailing in Brazil. He considers that it is reason enough for France not to participate either. In addition, [...]

Within the context of the historic reparation received by Gabriela Bocchi—who created Celda [Cell] in tandem with Jorge de Santa María (deceased)—and by Hugo Pereyra—who in turn conceived Made in Argentina with Ignacio Colombres (deceased)— [...]

The Sociedad Argentina de Artistas Plásticos reports that the II Certamen Nacional de Investigaciones Visuales [Second National Visual Arts Research Competition] was not held in accordance with the Reglamento [Regulations] on November 12, 1971. The [...]

In this text, Brazilian artist Cildo Meireles recalls the late sixties when he and other artists “first came into contact with what was truly of interest,” mainly acting directly on real “situations” rather than creating representations of [...]

In this interview, the writer Mario Vargas Llosa criticizes governmental cultural plans during the first phase (1968–75) of the self-styled Gobierno Revolucionario de las Fuerzas Armadas del Perú. Vargas Llosa says the results of those plans have [...]

[This document is the] warrant to inspect the Centro de Artes Visuales del Instituto Torcuato Di Tella [ Visual Arts Center of the Torcuato Di Tella Institute] premises at 936 Florida, Buenos Aires. The official notice reports that obscene [...]

This article explains that, eight days after the opening of the II Certamen de Investigaciones Visuales [2nd Visual Research Contest] in Buenos Aires, Argentina, in 1971, the public was informed about Decree 5696, which partially acknowledged the [...]

This article describes how, on December 7, 1971, the Sociedad Argentina de Artistas Plásticos [Argentine Society of Visual Artists] issued a statement to vigorously protest the situation provoked by the Academia Nacional de Bellas Artes, the [...]

This article explains that the Argentine Association of Art Critics, whose president at the time was Basilio Uribe, circulated a statement disagreeing with the decision taken by the Ministry of Culture regarding the II Certamen Nacional de [...]

Eduardo Felipe Nero, the editor of the news agency Servicio Informativo Continental (Argentina), reports on the incidents caused by Roberto Plate’s work Baño [Bathroom]. The article comments on the reports by some media sources regarding the [...]

While the law governing the theater was under official consideration, the Argentine Actor’s Association expressed its concern regarding the confusion and uneasiness that was caused when the Certamen de Investigaciones Visuales [Visual Research [...]

This article critiques the choices of the II Certamen Nacional de Investigaciones Visuales [Second National Visual Arts Research Competition] (Buenos Aires, Argentina 1971). It details the irregularities regarding the dissemination of the jury’s [...]

This article reviews the alternative opening of the II Certamen Nacional de InvestigacionesVisuales [2nd National Visual Research Contest] in Buenos Aires, Argentina, in 1971, which took place after the scheduled date and did not include the censored [...]

Text from a document written after a meeting at the Musée d’Art Moderne in Paris, in which it was agreed to boycott the 10th São Paulo Biennial. The document points out that after May 1968 the artists took a position regarding the repression, [...]

This article includes the Grupo Manifiesto [Manifesto Group] statement condemning the 1972 Salón Nacional in Buenos Aires, Argentina, on the grounds that it was being used by the people in power to further their own political agenda. Meanwhile, just [...]

Jacob Klintowitz, the author of this text, mocks the boycott of the São Paulo Biennial since many of the countries participating in it have committed countless “international sins” in his view. He states that he does not support any form of [...]

This document pertains to the clarification offered by the organizers of the Premio Braque [the Braque Prize], two weeks after the announcement of the competition. It was written the day after a letter by Margarita Paksa had been received, announcing [...]

The newspaper Excélsior reproduces an open letter to Nabor Carrillo, rector of the Universidad Nacional Autónoma de Mexico, signed by both Diego Rivera and David Alfaro Siqueiros, putting into question UNAM’s choice of Mathías Goeritz as the [...]

The artists who had called for boycotting the 1968 Premio Braque (promoted by the French embassy in Argentina) stated their condemnation of its censorship in the midst of the awards ceremony, which was carried out in the Museo Nacional de Bellas [...]

The incidents that took place at the 1968 Braque Prize competition (sponsored by the French embassy in Argentina) raise with great force a series of questions that would have direct consequences for the subsequent declarations of the vanguard [...]

This article reports on the awards ceremony for the 1968 Braque Prize (sponsored by the French embassy in Argentina). It was interrupted by the actions of “a group of painters and poets” that were members of the Frente Antiimperialista de [...]

This article chronicles the verdict handed down by the Supreme Court, which denied the lawsuit filed by Ignacio Colombes and Hugo Pereyra, the creators of the work of art that was awarded the Grand Runner-Up Prize at the II Certamen de [...]