Documents of Latin American and Latino Art

In this text, art critic Alberto Tassinari analyzes works by José Resende exhibited at the Gabinete de Arte Raquel Arnaud in São Paulo in March 1983. In Tassinari’s view, these sculptures “formulate the problem of the past”; they partake of [...]

In this text, art critic Sônia Salzstein analyzes a sculpture in the collection of the Museu de Arte Moderna de São Paulo (MAM-SP) produced by José Resende in 1975. On the basis of this sculpture, Salzstein formulates the way that Resende’s work [...]

In this text, art critic Paulo Herkenhoff identifies and describes some of the characteristics of drawing as an autonomous form of expression in contemporary art from South America. He formulates ten categories in relation to the production in the [...]

In this text, Sheila Leirner interweaves her critical thinking on art and on criticism itself, stating that the division between the critical function and the practice of art is being diluted by Conceptual art. Leirner believes that this art trend [...]

This essay analyzes certain characteristics inherent in the selection of foreign artists for participation in the twentieth International Biennial of São Paulo in 1989, highlighting the preponderance of retrospectives. To the writer Lorenzo Mammì, [...]

In this text, prestigious art critic Frederico Morais openly questions “video art.” He argues that it is not, in fact, a product of the art/technology pair, but rather of the idea of making culture portable thanks to low costs and ease of [...]

On the basis of the festive, bold, and boundless nature of the relationship between the social and the artistic in Latin America, critic Aracy Amaral argues that there is an integral connection between the creative and the political in the region. In [...]

Lygia Pape interviews Hélio Oiticica after he had returned from having lived for a period in New York. When asked about the term “Latin American art,” Oiticica says that he does not believe his work fits into that category, which he considers [...]

This article by Brazilian artist and art critic Ricardo Basbaum examines some aspects of the connection between text and image on the basis of the philosophical distinction Gilles Deleuze establishes between “enunciation” and “visibility.” [...]

This text by Harumi Yamagishi provides information about artistic research in photography, a study undertaken by Roberto Okumura, who thinks that photography is, first and foremost, a support of ideas. In addition, photography is mentioned as a means [...]

The manifesto written by members of the Nervo Óptico group is critical of matters such as submitting artistic work to commercial pressure. The text, which was signed in Porto Alegre (Rio Grande do Sul), warns that the “market’s demands oblige [...]

In this essay the critic Roberto Pontual discusses the works of Vera Chaves Barcellos, paying particular attention to her thoughts on the subject of prints. He focuses on her work during the 1970s, especially her experiments with a photo-language [...]

In 1977, the critic Francisco Bittencourt introduced the work of Ângelo de Aquino in an exhibition, Identidade do artista, the title of which addressed the identity of the contemporary artist vis-à-vis his public status in the world. The discussion [...]

The introduction to this essay rejects the possibility of defining Brazilian art by clearly describing the parameters of such a process which, usually, refers to cultural policies based on folkloric and anecdotal visions of national reality. [...]