Documents of Latin American and Latino Art

This unsigned article reviews the works of the Colectivo Acciones de Arte (CADA), the art action group that took the name used as the title of the article in question: Para no morir de hambre en el arte (To Avoid Dying of Hunger [or Starving to [...]

This article by C.A.D.A. (Colectivo Acciones de Arte) describes the group’s participation in the IN/OUT exhibition in Washington, DC. Due to the international nature of the exhibition, the text points out differences, provides some context for [...]

Eugenio Dittborn published a poetic-visual creation in La Separata: a text illustrated with a photograph taken by Carlos Gallardo. Dittborn’s poetic prose is based on three points whose sequence produces a similar structure. It begins with & [...]

Chilean artist Mario Toral speaks of his experiences when he arrived in New York as an exile in 1973, immediately after the coup d'état led by General Augusto Pinochet. He compares the squandering of North Americans, who throw everything away, with [...]

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 [...]

In this essay Néstor Olhagaray writes about Yanomami, the video by Juan Downey, focusing on specific moments or scenes. He analyzes the role of the “creator of images” who addresses a proposed fictional reality and its viewers. [...]

The art critic Justo Pastor Mellado examines the connections between politics and the visual arts in Chile from 1970 to 1983, from the election of Salvador Allende and the Unidad Popular (1970–73) to the tenth anniversary of the dictatorship [...]

In this text Francisco Brugnoli writes a first-person account of his first meeting with Alberto Pérez and records his opinions of him as an artist and an art history teacher. Brugnoli thinks back to when he originally met Pérez, who was [...]

In this article, Adriana Valdés discusses the work of Alfredo Jaar, specifically his installations, which she sees as opportunities for open reflection. She rates “space” above “message,” since Jaar’s work does [...]

In this text the anthropologist Pedro Mege challenges the label of “documentary” that is frequently applied to Juan Downey’s work. He suggests that Downey is an artist who presents his specific and subjective images while actively [...]

“Altamirano. Respuestas a un cuestionario” (Altamirano. Answers to a Questionnaire) is a transcript of the conversation in which CAL magazine and gallery interviewed Carlos Altamirano about the exhibition Revisión crítica de [...]

In this short text, members of C.A.D.A. (Colectivo Acciones de Arte) describe the group’s project, Residuos Americanos [American Residues]. They explain that the installation suggests a connection between “American clothes” ( [...]

In this brief essay Gaspar Galaz discusses a series of landmark events that took place in the 1980s and 1990s. In his opinion this period was characterized by an economic boom in Chile (fueled by neoliberal policies) and by conceptual approaches to [...]

The text, “Arte Suramericano” [South American Art], by Jean Emar, is one of his “Notas de arte” [Art Notes] written in the daily newspaper, La Nación between 1923 and 1925. In this text, Emar, in his capacity as an art [...]

In this article Milan Ivelic discusses conditions in Chile for the benefit of Spanish visitors to the exhibition Chile Vive that was held at the Círculo de Bellas Artes in Madrid. One of the main things that stands out about Chile, as seen [...]

In this historical review, prompted by the exhibition of contemporary Chilean art in Berlin, the artist and teacher Francisco Brugnoli reflects on the “impertinence” of (ethnic-geographical and artistic) otherness as seen from the [...]

In her essay “Cada 20 años” (Every 20 Years), Diamela Eltit reviews the art activities organized by C.A.D.A. (Colectivo de Acciones de Arte; Art Action Collective) during the two decades since the group was started in 1979. She [...]

Nelly Richard addresses three different points in her review of Carlos Leppe’s work. She begins by noting his embrace of international art referents, highlighting his exclusion on the grounds of “being Latin American.” In her [...]

This text is a letter from the painter, muralist, printmaker, and architect by training Nemesio Antúnez to his son Pablo. It is written in the first person, in an innovative narrative style that was in vogue in Chile at the time. In this sort [...]

Nemesio Antúnez shares his thoughts and discusses his printmaking experiences and his training under William Hayter. He recalls incidents with famous artists at the Atelier 17 and the circumstances that led him to set up the Taller 99 in his [...]

In this essay, Carmen Bardeguez-Brown weighs the influence of the Berlin Dadaists (1918–22) on photomontage artist Catalina Parra. Of Chilean descent, Parra went to college in Germany where she was exposed to Dada art in 1968. She was drawn to the [...]

In this essay, Carmen Bardeguez-Brown weighs the influence of the Berlin Dadaists (1918–22) on photomontage artist Catalina Parra. Of Chilean descent, Parra went to college in Germany where she was exposed to Dada art in 1968. She was drawn to the [...]

In this essay Antonio Romera discusses the collection of works by Chilean artists that was sent to the Primera Bienal Americana de Arte in Argentina. He states that the roots of current Chilean painting in the 1960s can be traced back to three [...]

Nelly Richard discusses the work of the following Chilean photographers: Gonzalo Díaz, Eduardo Vilches, Alicia Villarreal, Enrique Zamudio, and Alfredo Jaar. Richard explains how each of these artists uses and contextualizes photography, and [...]

This article was written by Gaspar Galaz on the occasion of a retrospective exhibition of works by Claudio Bravo at the Museo Nacional de Bellas Artes in Santiago, Chile. Galaz refers to a debate about art and how it should be defined that was [...]

The art critic Antonio Romera identifies the uniquely Chilean aspects of Chilean painting in his study of four constants that, in his opinion, are repeated throughout its history: landscape, color, French influence, and character. Similarly, the [...]

The text informs the Italian press that in the meeting which took place on October 15 and 16, 1975, it was agreed among the artists representing Argentina, Brazil, Chile, France, Italy, the Netherlands and Uruguay to constitute the Fronte [...]

Diamela Eltit and María Eugenia Brito coauthored this essay about Lotty Rosenfeld’s project Una milla de cruces sobre el pavimento [A Mile of Crosses on the Pavement]. The text includes a prologue and eight chapters, each identified with [...]

In this interview with Iván Navarro, Julia P. Herzberg poses questions about process and materials, the use of electricity, and art historical influences on his work from the 1990s to the 2000s. Navarro’s Blade Runner series (2004), [...]

This is Pablo Oyarzún’s critical review of Nelly Richard’s book Márgenes e Instituciones (Margins and Institutions). He acknowledges her role in the field of Chilean art and her contributions to a new approach to art [...]

This essay examines the impact of Roberto Matta’s presence in the United States during 1939–1948, when, as part of a Surrealist cohort of émigrés, he established temporary residence in New York to escape the war in Europe. The authors [...]

Nelly Richard writes about Juan Domingo Dávila’s paintings, which rely on quotes, referring to the concept of “bodies” in each of the nine sections in the text. Richard explains how quotes can dismantle the whole and, with it [...]

The artist Roser Bru provides a first-person account of the founding of Taller 99, specifically at the time when Nemesio Antúnez first started teaching. When he was unable to start a workshop at the Escuela de Artes Aplicadas in Santiago, [...]

This essay is by the artist Mario Soro, who was educated at the Escuela de Arte de la Universidad Católica in Santiago, Chile where he studied under the printmaker Eduardo Vilches. Soro describes his teacher in terms of his experience as a [...]

Diamela Eltit writes about Lotty Rosenfeld’s intervention, which consisted of altering the intermittent lines painted on streets to create traffic lanes. The text is arranged in a non-traditional layout that testifies to its poetic, reflective [...]

Nelly Richard discusses the background that inspired the works that Francisco Brugnoli and Virginia Errázuriz presented at the Paisaje / Brugnoli / Errázuriz exhibition. Richard analyzes the works and notes that, despite the artists& [...]

The essay written by Patricio M. Zárate covered the new emerging generation of Chilean artists. According to the author “customary artistic boundaries had been disregarded” with the incorporation of artistic works pertaining to [...]

In this catalogue essay, Victor Alejandro Sorell considers the 36-year career (spanning 1964–2000) of the Chicano artist Carlos Cortez, praising him as the “quintessential artist-reporter,” and emphasizing his virtuosity as a master printmaker [...]

This address was given by the Spanish-born, Chilean-based scholar José Victorino Lastarria in 1842 during a meeting of the recently formed Sociedad Literaria, a literary society of important Chilean scholars and politicians. In his speech to the [...]

In this essay Ricardo Richon Brunet reviews the evolution of Chilean art since the arrival of Raymond Monvoisin in the mid-nineteenth century. He describes the kind of work that was produced by the early artists, especially those who trained at the [...]

In this essay “El caso Simón Bolívar o el arte como zona de disturbios” (The Simón Bolívar Case, or Art as a Site of Civil Unrest), Nelly Richard addresses the outrage expressed in the Santiago press and by the general [...]

This poetic text refers to the art actions that Juan Castillo produced in 1981. The Chilean artist’s project, titled Te devuelvo tu imagen (I Return Your Image), was photographed by Lotty Rosenfeld. The text describes Rosenfeld’s filming [...]

In his essay about the vast subject of art criticism in Chile from 1950 to 1973, Patricio Muñoz Zárate highlights the field’s defining moments, milestones, and notable personalities. In a series of subchapters, he sheds light on [...]

Justo Pastor Mellado wrote this introduction to El deseo de Antígona (The Desire of Antigone), the exhibition of works by Patricia Israel. In a review of earlier projects and exhibitions, the critic explains how the artist researches and [...]

In 2003 Justo Pastor Mellado wrote an essay for the catalogue for La quinta del sordo, the exhibition of works by Guillermo Núñez. On this occasion Mellado looks back to the retrospective Núñez presented in 1993, for which [...]

"El día de Díaz" is a text written by Pablo Oyarzún on the subject of Biografía, a work by Gonzalo Díaz. Oyarzún provides a detailed description of the piece, a triptych in which each part [...]

This essay by Mario Soro was one of the chapters in the catalogue for the exhibition Chile 100 años (Chile 100 Years) covering the second period, 1950–73, titled “Entre modernidad y utopía” (Between Modernity and [...]

In this text the essayist Adriana Valdés discusses the work of Alicia Villarreal, who has created a game based on the alphabet that uses images of discarded objects as vowels to be read as a text. Based on the Walter Benjamin quote (the search [...]

“El infinito de la obra” by Francisco Brugnoli is the introductory essay in the catalogue for the exhibition Centenario Carlos Hermosilla, 1905–2005, which acknowledged the centenary of the birth of the famous printmaker from [...]

Federico Galende wrote this detailed review of Las cuatro operaciones del aparato reproductor, an intervention created by Mario Soro  in a public space. Galende reflects on the kind of cartography that can provide orientation for a work of [...]