Documents of Latin American and Latino Art

This document contains information on an exhibition of the Federación de Estudiantes Plásticos del Uruguay (FEPU) held in 1942. A pro-Soviet text is transcribed and a list of participants in the show appears, among them eminent local artists. The [...]

The exhibition 32 artistas de las Américas was held in Bogotá from February 7–17, 1949. The show was one of the cultural activities promoted by the Visual Arts Unit of the Cultural Affairs Department of the Pan American Union/General Secretariat [...]

In his 500ª Conferencia (the five hundredth lecture given in the six years since he returned to Montevideo in 1934), Joaquín Torres García (JTG) presents what he calls “a new theory.” This is his final attempt to adapt his universalist model [...]

In this text, José Valladares reviews the show of work by Carlos Frederico Bastos held at the Public Library in the city of Salvador, state of Bahia. Valladares points out the diversity of the work on exhibit, which attests to the experimental [...]

After spending many years in Paris, the artist Cícero Dias returned to his native city, Recife, in the Brazilian state of Pernambuco. There at the Faculdade de Direito, he exhibited his work, which was of a distinctly abstract nature. In his review [...]

The anonymous author of this article contrasts the favorable response on the part of Peruvian intellectuals and artists to the work of Spanish artist Victorio Macho and their response to María Izquierdo, considered “ambassador of a hypothetical [...]

Mário Pedrosa analyzes the relationship that the works of Alexander Calder and other modern artists (especially Fernand Léger) have with industrial production. In his judgment, for Léger, machines are like an incomprehensible and frightening god; [...]

This is a critique by Mário Pedrosa’s of the Primeira Missa no Brasil by Candido Portinari. Pedrosa compares this work to one by Victor Meirelles painted nearly one century earlier on the same topic. He writes that Portinari opts for a visual [...]

João [or Hans] Koranyi suggests that photography should be thought of in terms of its cultural mission rather than whether it is or is not “art.” In a world where nations are at odds with each other, photography reveals the absence of [...]

This critique is on the book Evolução Social da Pintura (1942), written by Luiz Martins,a book written on the conferences he held at the Biblioteca Municipal de São Paulo. Lourival Gomes Machado states that the author, Luiz Martins, understands [...]

This review of the 1940 Exposição de Arte Francesa at the Museu Nacional de Belas Artes in Rio de Janeiro discusses the “backwardness” of Brazilian art compared to its European counterpart. By presenting over a hundred years of French art— [...]

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 [...]

José Bergamín, the writer in exile and critic, compares poetry with painting as in classical times, and uses the language of poetry to discuss the painting of Antonio Rodríguez Luna. Bergamín refers to Rodríguez Luna’s main theme, which [...]

The author reflects on a comparison between abstraction and realism, presenting it as a grave problem of the era. For José Renau, the main trend of the “bourgeois” culture is based on the abstract and trivial aspect of intellectual creation. He [...]

During the 1940s, Carlos Mérida’s reflections tend toward abstract art and its protagonists. In this article, the painter states that for those who are not familiar with abstract painting, a symbolic form of interpretation is the most logical. [...]

This brief obituary was written by the historian Daniel Arias Argáez following the death of the artist Ricardo Moros Urbina. It includes a short but detailed biographical profile that mentions Moros Urbina’s art studies at the Escuela de Bellas [...]

In this article, Raúl Lozza responds to the ideas expressed by Héctor Agosti Pablo in his essay on “The Defense of Realism”. Lozza contends that Agosti’s thesis is nothing by confused theorizing, which encourages a new combination of [...]

This is a newspaper review of “El arte para la victoria y la pintura mexicana moderna,” the lecture given by David Alfaro Siqueiros at the Escuela Nacional de Bellas Artes de Lima in March 1943. The painter and political activist informed his [...]

This document is the first section of Margarita Nelken’s book Pintores de México [Painters of Mexico], which she wrote by commission of the Secretaría de Educación Pública [SEP, Ministry of Public Education]. Nevertheless, it was never [...]

This article by Sarandy Cabrera, which appeared in Removedor, the journal published by the TTG (Taller Torres-García), is an example of the magazine’s colloquial—and aggressive, “from the trenches”—discourse. This [...]

The critic and visual artist Waldemar Cordeiro defends the true language of the arts—the one that, in his opinion, is “real”—in which the visual elements present themselves (to themselves) as lines and colors, making not the slightest [...]

This document records an informal conversation between the art critic Mário Baratta and the Brazilian artist Aldemir Martins. They discuss the motives that led him to join the lengthy list of internal migrants leaving the state of Ceará [...]

This short article covers the opinions of the painter Ángel Zárraga on mural painting, given his recent work decorating the bar of the Club de Banqueros at Edificio Guardiola in the historic center of the Mexican capital. This is the first fresco [...]

The catalogue for the exhibition Alejandro Otero, presented at the Museo de Bellas Artes de Caracas, (which opened on January 30, 1949) contains four texts, three photographic reproductions of works and a reproduction of a photographic portrait of [...]

This article by José Gómez-Sicre is on Alejandro Otero’s exhibition held at the Pan-American Union in Washington, D.C., in 1948. On that occasion, the artist showcased his well-known series Las Cafeteras at the OAS’s Salón de las Américas [...]

According to this article, David Alfaro Siqueiros had just founded the Centro de Arte Realista [Center for Realist Art] that was intended to function as a “school” or “institute” in which research into techniques, pedagogical theory, geometry [...]

The catalogue for a solo exhibition of work by sculptor Maria Martins held at the Valentine Gallery in New York in 1943 included a group of texts on myths from the Amazon, specifically legends about mythological characters like Cobra Norato ( [...]

To Diego Rivera, discrimination against Indians is the greatest collective crime of the descendants of the Spanish colonists on the continent. If this situation is not corrected, Latin America will be set on a path to extinction. In this essay, as [...]

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 [...]

In this article the Austrian critic Walter Engel reviews the exhibition of works by the painter Andrés de Santa María held at the Galerías de Arte in Bogotá. Engel begins his article by mentioning that the Colombian artist died in Brussels, [...]

In this review of the New York exhibition of works by Ángel Botello Barros—the Galician painter living in exile—Manuel Valldeperes discusses the values he perceives in the paintings, referring in particular to the artist’s use of color as “ [...]

This brief text refers to a 1935 newspaper article by Manuel Abril about the Concurso Nacional de Escultura [National Sculpture Contest] whose theme was “Conmemoración a Lope de Vega” [In Remembrance of Lope de Vega]. Abril reports that the [...]

In this article, critic Fernando Guillén Martínez reflects on the relationship between the artist and the environment surrounding the creative process. To that end, he starts out by explaining the universal law of symmetry that maintains the [...]

This is an article by José Sabogal on the civil architecture of the Peruvian city of Arequipa. He highlights one of the most original constructive solutions of the Spanish during the colonial era. Given the lack of wood in the environment, the [...]

María Izquierdo undertakes an assessment of the pictorial artwork of Antonio Ruiz, known as El Corcito. She addresses both the small format and meticulous technique used by the artist as well as his inventive motifs. After describing several of his [...]

This article in the Revista Semana discusses the research and sketches being done by Santiago Martínez Delgado in order to portray the congressional session in Cúcuta when the Liberator, Simón Bolívar, and General Francisco Santander took office [...]

María Izquierdo describes the customs of the inhabitants of the small mining village of Chillán, Chile, which was damaged by a strong earthquake in January 1939. Mexico declared its support for Chile, presenting Chillán with the construction of [...]

 María Izquierdo addresses two topics in this short article. She analyzes the characteristics of the five most important galleries in Mexico City: the one at the University, Galería Espiral, Galería de Arte y Decoración, Galería de Arte María [...]

Analysis of the exhibition Arte Abstracto, del arte figurativo al arte abstracto [Abstract Art, from Figurative Art to Abstract Art], organized by French critic Léon Degand and presented at the Instituto de Arte Moderno de Buenos Aires, in July of [...]

This is a critical essay that discusses Nuevas Realidades. Arte Abstracto, concreto, no figurativo [New Realities. Abstract, Concrete, Non-Figurative Art], the exhibition that was presented at the Galería Van Riel September 12-25, 1948. The [...]

In 1943, an exhibition of one hundred and seven Argentinean artists, consisting of late 19th- century and early 20th-century painters and sculptors, was held in Montevideo under the auspices of the National Commission of Fine Arts of Montevideo and [...]

In this essay by Adolfo Halty, ideas are espoused about the controversial “social” sense of art and “folkloric art” at a time in Uruguay when debates about the notions of “cultural heritage,” “popular art,” etc., were beginning to be [...]

Luis Quero Chiesa, an educator born in Puerto Rico, believes that his fellow countrymen are responsible for creating the foundation for their own national art: a simple yet vigorous art that explores serious, profound issues and that “awakens in [...]

The Puerto Rican educator Luis Quero Chiesa thinks that the Puerto Rican people have become confused by the change in government and the subsequent imposition of Anglo Saxon culture that have altered their way of life. Puerto Rican modern art does [...]

The Puerto Rican educator Luis Quero Chiesa titles this section, “Malezal.” He believes that the North American invasion of Puerto Rico was “the most profound cultural tragedy of the New World.” In his opinion, everything that was [...]

The Puerto Rican educator Luis Quero Chiesa suggests that José Campeche’s painting contributes to Puerto Rico’s artistic tradition. In later years there were other artists?such as Juan Fagundo and Juan Cletos Noa who left their native Spain and [...]

The Puerto Rican educator Luis Quero Chiesa explains that after the printing press was introduced to Puerto Rico in 1806, many newspapers were started and books were published in the nineteenth. From the very beginning, the press was harassed by [...]

Puerto Rican educator Luis Quero Chiesa while searching for his cultural roots, begins with the Spanish discovery of Puerto Rico in 1493. He says that the conquerors had no compunctions about wiping out any trace of the native Taino culture. In [...]

Puerto Rican painter and educator Luis Quero Chiesa explains that life is hard for painters in the island because they need to rely on another line of work to survive. In his opinion, Puerto Rican art is an “indigenous art inspired by our symbols [...]

This text by Arthur Ramos is an overview of art of African origin in Brazil and its importance to the formation of the culture within the country. From a historical perspective, the text discusses Western contact with African art starting in the [...]