Documents of Latin American and Latino Art

In this response to Fernando de Szyszlo, well-known critic Sebastián Salazar Bondy points out how dynamic the Peruvian art scene is; against all odds, “there are people working tirelessly, with no pointless nostalgia as they undertake the creation [...]

In this essay the critic Francisco Márquez reviews three series of paintings by Miguel von Dangel: Mapas, Oro de América [or Calcos en Oro], and Tierras [or Encapsulados], in which he detects three different ways to approach the Venezuelan and [...]

In this essay, the author—Luis Antonio Meza—states that the prize for the Festival Americano de Pintura was three thousand dollars and that the jury was composed by the Argentinean critic Jorge Romero Brest, the Venezuelan collector Inocente [...]

The Colombian publicist and photographer Carlos Duque interviews Karen Lamassonne, the versatile young artist who has worked in the fields of painting, printmaking, the movies, and video art. During the course of the interview, Duque enquires about [...]

This document by Shifra Goldman is a review of the 1987 exhibition Hispanic Artists: 30 Contemporary Painters and Sculptors held at the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston and the Corcoran Gallery of Art in Washington, D.C., in 1987. Goldman applauds the [...]

This article by Ramiro Pérez Reinoso was written in response to a piece by Alberto Gerchunoff published in the Buenos Aires daily newspaper, La Nación (January 31, 1926). The writer reviews the opinion of the Russian/Argentine intellectual, who [...]

In this introduction, Luis Cancel explains the logic behind how he and his colleagues organized the exhibition The Latin American Spirit: Art and Artists in the United States, 1920-1970. He also explains, at length, the curatorial team’s larger [...]

Stanton Loomis Catlin and Terence Grieder introduce their exhibition Art of Latin America since Independence. They begin by arguing that U.S. audiences should naturally find this art of interest because it was produced by fellow “Americans,” and [...]

French anarchist and writer Charles Malato de Corné begins this brief article on Latin America for the first issue of Les Annales de la Jeunesse Laïque by informing the reader of border disputes that have been going on for too long and that are [...]

Italian writer Piero Sanavio remarks on North American artist John Balossi’s sculpture as well as his influence on the art scene in Puerto Rico, where Balossi lived. In terms of Balossi’s work, Sanavio places emphasis on the interactive [...]

American art critic Donald Kuspit opens this essay on the work of María Martínez-Cañas by asking what meaning Cuba holds for the artist, since she immigrated to the United States at such a young age (three months old). He explains the extensive [...]

The essay by Ricardo Pau-Llosa on the work of Cuban-born artist, Humberto Calzada, is divided into three sections. In the first one, “The Symbolism of Order,” Pau-Llosa addresses Calzada’s move from painting elements of colonial Cuban [...]

The essay by Ricardo Pau-Llosa on the work of Cuban-born artist, Humberto Calzada, is divided into three sections. In the first one, “The Symbolism of Order,” Pau-Llosa addresses Calzada’s move from painting elements of colonial Cuban [...]

This document contains the introduction to the exhibition catalog of Past Cuba: Identity and Identification in Cuban-American Art (1997) by curator and art historian Lynette M.F. Bosch in which she explains that the premise of the exhibition was to [...]

The essay by exhibition curator, Lynette M.F. Bosch, discusses the paintings of Luis Alonso, Mario Bencomo, Demi, and Arturo Rodriguez; the photography of Ramón Guerrero and María Martínez Cañas; and the mixed media work of María Brito. Bosch [...]

In this essay, Ricardo Pau-Llosa discusses the work of Cuban-born artist Rafael Soriano as a prime example of what he has termed “oneiric luminism,” which is Latin American art’s most original contribution to modernism, according to the author [...]

In this essay, Ricardo Pau-Llosa discusses the work of Cuban-born artist Rafael Soriano as a prime example of what he has termed “oneiric luminism,” which is Latin American art’s most original contribution to modernism, according to the author [...]

In this essay, American art critic Donald Kuspit discusses the sensuality of the paintings of Cuban-born artist Mario Bencomo. Kuspit notes that the works are both pleasurable and melancholic (revealing the dialectics of desire). He examines specific [...]

In the exhibition catalog for Cuban Artists of the Twentieth Century, which was on view at the Museum of Art, Fort Lauderdale, Florida—from October 1993 to January 1994,—art historian Giulio V. Blanc opens his essay by noting the 50th anniversary [...]

In this short, early artist statement, Cuban-born artist Ana Mendieta explains that the first part of her life was spent in Cuba from where she believes her interest in primitive art and culture probably originated. As a child growing up in Cuba, she [...]

In this short essay on the work of Cuban artist José Bedia, art historian Judith Bettelheim describes the artist as a “transcultural citizen” who “speaks at the intersection of diverse commentaries.” Bettelheim calls Bedia a postmodern [...]

In this short essay on the work of Cuban artist José Bedia, art historian Judith Bettelheim describes the artist as a “transcultural citizen” who “speaks at the intersection of diverse commentaries.” Bettelheim calls Bedia a postmodern [...]

This article by Ricardo Pau-Llosa focuses on the motif of the human body as the one theme that constantly recurs throughout the work of Cuban-American artists. He notes that this is unique given the distance that they live from one another. So that, [...]

In this bilingual essay, Cuban-American artist César Trasobares reflects on the work of his late friend and fellow artist Carlos Alfonzo .Trasobares notes that Alfonzo developed different public and private personas, and throughout his life Alfonzo [...]

In this bilingual overview of the life and art of Carlos Alfonzo, curator Olga Viso provides biographical information about the artist, with an emphasis on the impact his immigration to the United States had on his life and work. Viso first discusses [...]

In this discussion with Geno Rodriguez, Eleanor Heartney, and Victor Zamudio-Taylor, the three scholars consider the work of Cuban-born artist Luis Cruz Azaceta. They analyze the subject matter of his work, and all agree that it is melancholic and [...]

In this interview, Ricardo Viera and Juan Boza discuss the latter’s artistic training in Cuba, including the schools that he attended; the awards that he won; his job as a designer at the Coliseo Nacional de Cultura [National Coliseum of Culture] [...]

In this short text, Ricardo Viera looks at the work of Cuban artist Juan Boza, following his immigration to the United States, and transition from “science fiction” based work to art based on Santería. Viera opens this essay with a discussion of [...]

Ricardo Pau-Llosa’s chapter focuses on fine art production by Miami’s Cuban-American population. Before discussing the work thematically, he notes that in Miami there has been a “resistance to seeing Cuban and Latin American Art as an equal [...]

Iván de la Nuez’s entry for the exhibition catalog Cuba siglo XX: Modernidad y sincretismo [Twentieth-Century Cuba: Modernity and Syncretism] focuses on Cuban art made on the island as well as art made in exile from the onset of the 1959 Cuban [...]

Giulio V. Blanc includes a brief bilingual overview of the different generations of Cuban American artists, and this includes the Miami Generation (those who immigrated to Miami in the 1960s), the Post-Miami Generation (artists born in exile), those [...]

Art historian Jacinto Quirarte lays a framework for discussing an artwork or body of work by examining the tradition to which it belongs and the reasons for which (and for whom) it was created. Summarizing the conclusions of the 1979 Symposium on the [...]

In this brief, bilingual artist statement Maria Magdalena Campos-Pons expresses her belief that art is “The transformation of ordinary things into a vision, a new dimension that wasn’t their original purpose.” Therefore, she explains that [...]

This essay by Carol Damian begins in the 1950s with the artist group Los Once [The Eleven Ones] followed by a discussion of the 1959 revolution, and the "Miami Generation" of the 1960s. It continues with coverage of the artistic repression in Cuba [...]

Cesar Trasobares’ essay is broken down into fifteen separate “notes” that describe the exhibited project or the Quinceañera planning process; they are written from the perspective of Rosata Quinceañera, the fictional heroine that is featured [...]

Mexican-American scholar Tomás Ybarra-Frausto defines the Mexican concept of rasquache [crummy] for both Chicano and non-Mexican readers and presents it (with some humor) for the conceptualization of a Chicano artistic sensibility. Defined as the [...]

Graciella Cruz-Taura’s bilingual essay introduces the exhibition, Outside Cuba: Contemporary Cuban Visual Artists (1987-89), and the contributing essayists for the catalogue. She notes that, in Cuba’s artistic production, external influences— [...]

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 feature on the Cuban-American artist Paul Sierra, Jeff Huebner writes the artist’s biography, his recent ascent in the mainstream art world, and the attendant conflicts that arose in relationship to his status as a Latino artist. Huebner [...]

In this text, Francisco Ichaso reflects on the pertinence of the question that Revista de avance posed to its readers: “What should American art be?” and he composes his own response to this question. Ichaso begins by acknowledging that [...]

In the series of questions asked for the survey for Revista de Avance, Alfonso Hernandez Cata is asked four questions that go in accordance with the larger theme of question of identity “Que debe ser el Arte Americano?” (What should be [...]

In this brief interview with Rufino Blanco Fombona in the Cuban magazine, Revista de Avance, he is presented with the 4 specific survey questions that support the larger theme question of identity, “Que debe ser el arte Americano?” (What should [...]

In this text, Joaquín Torres-García theorizes about a vision for the future of American art. He begins by arguing that American art is deeply flawed because its forms are used only to depict regional themes. Torres-García explains that his theory [...]

In this essay Pedro Emilio Coll replies to Latin American critics who, “in the name of tradition and good sense” deplore what they describe as decadent representatives of the new movements that took root in the Americas in the early twentieth [...]

This letter was written by UCLA professor Chon Noriega to Elisabeth Sussman, a former curator of the Whitney Museum of American Art. Written in 1993, the letter addresses several concerns about the museum’s upcoming Biennial Exhibition with [...]

The author wonders how indigenous American people compare to other civilizations. Darcy Ribeiro seeks to articulate a general theory to explain the formative and transformative processes that could provide an alternative to European ethnocentric [...]

By focusing on the work of two Chicano muralists who were active in the 1970s, Leo Tanguma and Emigdio Vásquez, art historian Shifra M. Goldman examines some of the historical experiences represented in the work of Chicano artists. According to [...]

In this essay, Ricardo Pau-Llosa analyzes the paintings of Chicago-based, Cuban-American artist Paul Sierra within a framework of the convergence of nineteenth-century American landscape painting with what he calls the “theatricality” of Latin [...]

After receiving a Guggenheim fellowship to travel to the United States in 1943, Buenos Aires-born Mauricio Lasansky spent eight months working at Stanley William Hayter’s Atelier 17 in New York City. In this essay, Creighton Gilbert examines how [...]

In this short essay, Alejandro Anreus describes Arturo Rodriguez’s series “Ghost Archipelago.” Anreus first names Rodriguez’s influences: Giorgione, El Greco, and Goya, and notes that Rodriguez was self-taught. According to Anreus, Rodriguez [...]