Documents of Latin American and Latino Art

In the prologue to the book Anotaciones políticas sobre la pintura colombiana (1975), artist Clemencia Lucena questions the culture of a country like Colombia, a culture that, in her view, is imposed by the landowning and bourgeois classes. She [...]

This anonymous document considers the relationship between socially engaged artistic practices by Chicano artists and the development of particular stylistic characteristics that have come to define Chicano art. It posits that the desire to create [...]

This is a report on the opening of the exhibition Os artistas pelas Diretas at the entranceway of the Folha de S. Paulo newspaper facilities in February 1984. The management of the newspaper, in conjunction with various artists, conceived the [...]

This is a proposal for a work of art, by Cildo Meireles, to be called “Inserções em Circuitos Ideológicos — Projeto Coca-Cola.” In the proposal, the Brazilian artist gives specific instructions for the execution of the project: make the [...]

With a brief historical sketch of wood engraving, “the most authentic medium within the visual languages,” the author establishes connections between expressionist art —such as the Brücke [Bridges], Blaue Reiter [Blue Rider], and Sturm [Storm [...]

In this text, José Neistein presents artist Lívio Abramo as a virtuoso of wood engraving within the context of Brazilian art. Characterized with refinement and precision, in the author’s judgment, his work diverged from Expressionism in order to [...]

This essay on the subject of 111 the work by Nuno Ramos is divided into three parts. The art critic Alberto Tassinari begins by describing the sociopolitical, cultural, and ideological conditions in Brazil on October 2, 1992, when military police put [...]

This chapter by José Neistein examines the engraving of Lívio Abramo (1903?93), as seen in Brazil in the context of the work by other engravers such as Oswaldo Goeldi and Lasar Segall. Neistein identifies them as the pioneers of Brazilian engraving [...]

Starting his essay focused on drawing in the work of Lívio Abramo, Arnaldo Pedroso d’Horta deems this skill fundamental to the visual arts. In the writer’s opinion, Abramo’s daily drawings (reportorial, rather than personal) incorporate his [...]

The author considers the work of Lívio Abramo—along with that of Oswaldo Goeldi and Lasar Segall—responsible for bringing Brazilian printmaking into the realm of modern Brazilian art. Abramo’s work is discussed in terms of his early [...]

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 [...]

This interview with Carlos Zilio was written in conjunction with the exhibition Carlos Zilio: Arte e política, 1966–1976 held at the Museu de Arte Moderna do Rio de Janeiro (MAM-Rio) in 1996. The questions put to the artists by a number of [...]

In the middle of 1968—a critical year in the 20th century—Lygia Clark wrote this brief essay on the position that the artist should pursue in society; in the wake of the student protests that began in Paris in May of that year, demands [...]

The author identifies the different phases in the evolution of Candido Portinari’s work; he establishes them between the artist of the 1930s, who condemns social injustice in Brazil—in works such as Café and also in representations of migrant [...]

This interview with Hélio Oiticica was conducted by the anthropologist Carlos Alberto Pereira and the literary critic Heloísa Buarque de Hollanda in Rio de Janeiro on October 15, 1979. Here the artist makes a clear distinction between political [...]

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 [...]

In this essay, Roberto Schwarz discusses the growing prevalence of leftist politics in Brazilian cultural circles after the military coup of 1964 (which kept its grip on power for two decades). He confirms that, the right wing military dictatorship [...]

This essay examines the “proletarian” ambiguities to be found in questions of aesthetics and, more precisely, the risk involved in the production of arbitrary dogmatic statements concerning the connection between art and politics. The author [...]

This article contains a survey carried out on the occasion of the exhibition Depoimento de uma geração [Statement of a Generation] curated by critic Frederico Morais. The show, which took place at the Galeria de Arte Banerj in 1986, intended to [...]

In this lecture, given at the Seminário de Tropicologia de la Universidade Federal de Pernambuco, Recife, in 1967, the art critic Mário Barata explores the connection between painting and certain tropical areas as one possible way of determining [...]

This text consists of comments by Puerto Rican artist Elizam Escobar, regarding the various concepts and functions of art. In the quotations alongside or below the illustrations of his paintings, Escobar talks about what it means to be Puerto Rican. [...]

Painter Bertha Husband takes it for granted that Puerto Rican artist Elizam Escobar analyzes the ideas and images to be developed in his work in advance. However, it is pointless to give explanations or make judgments on the works [based on those [...]

An American feminist critic, Lucy R. Lippard, writes an analysis of the works of Puerto Rican artist Elizam Escobar. In so doing, she makes use of the aesthetic and political positions of the artist, who has dedicated his life both to art and to the [...]

In this text, Puerto Rican artist Elizam Escobar writes a treatise on the relationship between art and freedom. He states that “art is a constant exercise of liberation and freedom, in which a being commits to writing or deliriously recreates his [...]

This text was included in an exhibition held in 1994 entitled Transfixiones. In the show, Puerto Rican artist Elizam Escobar brings up his concept of art as an act of liberation and even salvation, especially in the context of the aberrant obscenity [...]

This is an interview by Puerto Rican journalist Larissa Vázquez Zapata of Elizam Escobar, an artist and political prisoner, released after 19 years in U.S. federal prison. In the interview, he reflects on how for him, art turned into an “act of [...]

In this text, Puerto Rican artist Elizam Escobar comments on the relationship between art and politics, a subject that was the linchpin of artistic and cultural activities in the twentieth century. He states that individuals transform their vision of [...]

In this interview of Puerto Rican artist Elizam Escobar by journalist Leticia Cortez, the subjects discussed include politics and an overview of Escobar’s concepts as an artist and thinker. The interview also focuses on his time as a prisoner in a [...]

This forty-eight page catalogue consists of the following sections: “Manifiesto de los artistas independientes a los artistas de las Américas” [Manifesto Dedicated by Independent Artists to the Artists of the Americas] (two pages); “La [...]

In this letter, the painter [and writer] Roubaix de l’Abrie Richey, known by the pseudonym, “Robo,” the husband of the Italian artist and photographer, Tina Modotti, writes to Edward Weston from Mexico City. The writer is visiting Mexico in [...]

Puerto Rican artist Elizam Escobar applies semiotic and Marxist theories to analyze social value in art occurring in an historical era that proclaims itself both postmodern and postcolonial. He observes that such discourse renders people oppressed by [...]

María Esther Vázquez interviews artists Antonio Berni and Raúl Soldi who speak of an artist’s commitment to his or her work, the opportunities that they came upon in their early careers, the risks faced by well-established artists, as well as [...]

After attending the Primer Encuentro de Plástica Latinoamericana [First Latin American Visual Arts Encounter], which took place at the Casa de las Américas in Havana, Cuba, Julio Le Parc and Brazilian artist Sérvulo Esmeraldo undertook the task of [...]

Siqueiros calls for the organization of a movement of monumental visual arts in order to bring to the fore social reality. By means of it, he promotes the unionization of artists [...]

The Nazi-affiliated nationalist newspaper Crisol [Melting pot] writes about the exhibition of Mexican artist David Alfaro Siqueiros that took place at Amigos del Arte [Friends of Art], a liberal institution that promotes the modernization of the [...]

Mario Canale criticizes a campaign organized as much by institutions dedicated to arts education, such as the Mutualidad de Estudiantes de Bellas Artes [Society of Fine Arts Students], as by Communist activists under the influence of David Alfaro [...]

Amaro Martínez presents an aesthetic and political critique of David Alfaro Siqueiros’s work and political agenda. The author defends art as an expression of man; he considers proletariat art absurd. At the same time that he defends the concept of [...]

Miguel Angel Rozzisi writes about Antonio Berni’s art as though it has overcome the decadence of the system. He maintains the existence of class warfare between the official culture and that of the people, with Berni as the representative for the [...]

Eduardo Zaldívar writes about the Antonio Berni exhibition at the Museo de Arte Moderno de Buenos Aires, where the artist presented his series of prints on Ramona Montiel [...]

In this interview, artist Antonio Berni explains his vision of North American culture, and contemporary art and techniques. He also speaks about his work in the print medium and his notion of realism [...]

This document is an interview with Antonio Berni in which he describes the relationship between the landscapes he painted in the 1950s and the collages of his Juanito Laguna and Ramona Montiel series. He also comments on some aspects of his engraving [...]

Santiago A. Ferrari writes about meeting Antonio Berni in New York; he discusses the artist’s everyday life and the changes in his political views concerning Marxism [...]

In this essay, Hernández Rosselot claims that reality competes with art in Antonio Berni’s work. He writes about the materials Berni uses and reviews the collages in the Juanito Laguna and Ramona Montiel series. Rosselot goes on to compare Berni [...]

Antonio Berni states his position on hyperrealism; he mentions the work of his surrealist stage in order relate the mechanisms of creation for photomontage and the collages from his Juanito Laguna series [...]

Antonio Berni is interviewed by María Esther Gilio, and talks about his training, art criticism, hyperrealism, and the essential Argentine nature of his work [...]

This article, dated October 14, 1981, describes the death and burial of Antonio Berni, the artist, and mentions the official visitors at his funeral service [...]

French art critic Miguel Ragon writes about Antonio Berni’s engraving technique, as well as the question of narrative in his work with regard to the development of his chief characters: Juanito Laguna and Ramona Montiel [...]

Originally published in Romanian, this unsigned text describes the career of Antonio Berni, who is presented as an intellectual and artist deeply committed to the social situation of the Argentine people. This essay was written on the occasion of the [...]

Gérald Gassiot-Talabot writes about discovering Antonio Berni’s work at the Venice Biennial, and describes the Ramona Montiel series. He speaks poetically about the artist’s Monsters, discussing the allegorical aspect of Berni’s production, [...]

Jorge Romero Brest, the art critic and director of the Centro de Artes Visuales [Center for the Visual Arts], writes about the style and attitude he sees in Antonio Berni’s work, discussing the changes that can be observed in the artist’s [...]