Documents of Latin American and Latino Art

This essay by author Gilberto Freyre is dedicated to the work of the artist Cícero Dias; the text compares the work to the highly renowned Brazilian painter Candido Portinari. In his opinion, despite being the most nationally famous visual artist, [...]

In this essay, author Gilberto Freyre examines the various phases of the life and artistic career of the painter Lula Cardoso Ayres, establishing a nexus between his art and origins from the social elite of the state of Pernambuco. He comments on the [...]

Gilberto Freyre identifies the seed of Brazilian regionalism in the Regionalist movement of Recife, which in his judgment was subtly preceded by Franklin Távora, Inglês de Sousa, Afonso Arinos, Alcides Maya, and reflected by Mário de Andrade and [...]

After the death of Flávio de Carvalho, Gilberto Freyre looks back on the ties he had with the visual artist, a relationship that began with his preface to the book Os Ossos do Mundo [The Bones of the World]. It was during the time when they both [...]

In 1951, precisely twenty-five years after reading his “Regionalist Manifesto of 1926” for the first time, the sociologist Gilberto Freyre still deemed the effects of regionalist expression to be visible. This was particularly true in journals [...]

An architectural project by Henrique Mindlin for an American bank in Recife, Brazil, presents Gilberto Freyre with an opportunity to analyze the idea of “nationalism.” Mindlin was an important theorist on Brazilian architectural modernism, and [...]

In this text, author Gilberto Freyre recognized the integrative potential of art for its ability to gather disagreements. He points to the constant fusion of antagonistic elements in the music of Heitor Villa-Lobos, in which the erudite and the [...]

This essay is an analysis by Gilberto Freyre on what he felt was a “lack of common sense” with regard to the work of Cícero Dias, declaring that there was no “conventionalism” in his paintings. At times, their titles brought contradictory [...]

This essay is about the proposal of the author Gilberto Freyre about the need for teaching the sociology of art within a planned fine art curriculum, highlighting the importance of this and anthropology. In his opinion, one must try to understand a [...]

This is a speech given by Gilberto Freyre in Recife, the capital of the state of Pernambuco, on the twenty-fifth anniversary of theEscola de Belas Artes. In the speech, the author equates the economy and culture in importance, from which art and [...]

The five lectures given by Gilberto Freyre in his city of Recife and in São Paulo comprise this book. The one theme that tied all five lectures together was the imperative need to instill a tropical equatorial Portuguese Brazilian lifestyle. In a [...]

In this essay, the Brazilian sociologist Gilberto Freyre reflects on the interest generated by things resulting from the inverse reason to their proximity. His inquiry led to the basic question of why had the northeastern region of Brazil not [...]

This essay by Gilberto Freyre is on the characteristics of the work of Francisco Brennand. The author believed that the overall approach proposed was a synthesis of tropical aesthetics, that the art as well as the sculpture by Brennand was a [...]

This book by draftsman and watercolorist Noêmia Mourão is one of the very few expressions of interest on the part of Brazilian artists in indigenous crafts, in this case feather work. The book contains reproductions of sixty-nine full-color [...]

The sociologist Gilberto Freyre discusses the latest designs produced by the painter, and in this case, illustrator Vicente do Rego Monteiro, for the book about dance written by F. Divoire in Paris. In Freyre’s opinion, the artist here reveals his [...]

According to the Brazilian sociologist, Gilberto Freyre, Franciscan nominalism constituted the scientific training of Europeans, especially the Portuguese. This was particularly true with reference to the fifteenth-century discoveries that led to the [...]

According to the Brazilian sociologist, Gilberto Freyre, Franciscan nominalism constituted the scientific training of Europeans, especially the Portuguese. This was particularly true with reference to the fifteenth-century discoveries that led to the [...]

In this newspaper article, Gilberto Freyre reviews the work of Candido Portinari, whom he considers to be a “genuine representative of Brazilian culture.” According to Freyre, Portinari’s painting expresses a true image of Brazil that should be [...]

In this article, Gilberto Freyre outlines some of his thoughts about an exhibition of work by Cícero Dias—in the city of Feira de Santana, sixty kilometers from Salvador, the capital of the state of Bahia. The reason for the text was due to a [...]

In this text [dated November 14, 1964], the Brazilian sociologist Gilberto Freyre states that European culture has to some extent been influenced by tropical culture. In his opinion, “England today is showing the impact of the tropical arts within [...]

The synopsis in English are coming soon [...]

In response to the article “Sociólogos versus Pintores” written by the art critic Mário Pedrosa, the Brazilian sociologist Gilberto Freyre speaks up in defense of the painter Candido Portinari. Freyre believes that this painter was treated [...]

In this essay, the Brazilian sociologist Gilberto Freyre criticizes the exaggerated and mystic academicism of intellectual works produced by Brazilian universities that distance them from the concerns of society as a whole. Describing himself as a [...]

This manifesto was written by the sociologist Gilberto Freyre on behalf of the “rehabilitation of regional and traditional values” and in support of a “new organization” in Brazil. Stating his opposition to the administrative division of the [...]

In this article, Gilberto Freyre points out a common trait he sees among the peoples of the Americas and, especially, in the field of inter-American relationships. He refers to areas where he can affirm the people’s natural ability to combine unity [...]

This is a summary of Gilberto Freyre’s thoughts on the subject of Latin America, with a focus on the cultural anthropological aspects of a hybrid civilization based on a blend of black, American Indian, and European traditions. The author discusses [...]

Gilberto Freyre defends the right of each country in the Americas to have its own form of government, as long as it refrains from causing any kind of violent disturbance elsewhere on the continent. His views are challenged by orthodox supporters of [...]

Gilberto Freyre’s essay highlights the importance of research into the origins of Brazilian culture and the Brazilian people, as well as their “interpersonal” and interregional relationships, noting that those who interpreted that data were [...]

Gilberto Freyre describes his visit to the visual artist Vicente do Rego Monteiro’s studio in Paris. Freyre acknowledges the artist’s talent and independence, and disagrees with the “Futurist” label with which he has been tagged by the [...]

Gilberto Freyre, the sociologist from Pernambuco, discusses the I Congresso Afro-Brasileiro, held in Recife in 1934. Freyre briefly refers to comments and discussions concerning the viability of the meeting and the informality of the event, among [...]