Documents of Latin American and Latino Art

This document relates the response of artist Gyula Kosice (1924-2016), to the survey regarding abstract or non-figurative art, in which he states that Madí adopted, in principle, the name "non-figurative" because it corresponded to the nature of [...]

Rafael Squirru presents the exhibition that conmemorates the first 15 years of Madí Art (Museo de Arte Moderno, Buenos Aires, 1961), highlighting the overt opposition that these dedicated artists must have faced in their research of experimental [...]

Here the writer refers to the importance of movement in the work of art, explaining that it is the fleeting nature of movement that contributes both “lucidity” and “plurality” to the piece. Carmelo Arden Quin also mentions the role played by [...]

This text by the French critic, Pierre Guéguen, analyzes the unbiased searches of twentieth century art insofar as they represent a spiritual adventure and a true revolution, scandalizing a whole era. In this regard, he considers the grupo Madí [ [...]

Guyla Kosice’s essay refers to the topical nature and, therefore, the universal quality of “arte madí” [Madí Art]. He explains that Madí art has already spread beyond its original core in Buenos Aires, as he notes in his comments on this [...]

This is the Manifesto in which the Madí group claims to have invented the irregular, cut-out frame; painting and sculpture that incorporate articulated movement; and a form of artistic expression that is both plural and playful. The group also [...]

This text describes in French a manifesto by the artists who were members of the Movimiento Madí [Madí Movement], in which they propose the idea of the “invención real” [actual invention]. This is a creation whose aesthetic corresponds as much [...]

The Madí group expressed a desire to invent and construct objects in the very heart of a society that is capable of releasing energy and controlling both space and time. They also proposed that their ideas could be applied to all artistic [...]

Kosice’s essay refers to the topical nature and, therefore, the universal quality of “arte madí” [Madí Art]. He explains that Madí art has already spread beyond its original core in Buenos Aires, as he notes in his comments on this [...]

Hans-Joachim Koellreutter wrote this letter from Teresópolis, Brazil, in August 1950. In it, the German-Brazilian composer mentions the research he is doing, exploring new relationships between sounds that will lead to a Madí style of music [...]

This article stresses the importance of invention to Madí artists. Having broken free from the older forms of conception and composition, the Madí group worked with a dialectic theory that offered a new set of principles based on invention to [...]

A letter from Tomás Maldonado to Blanca Stabile, clearing up a few inaccuracies in the chronological record of the origins of the Argentine Concrete art groups and the Grupo de Artistas Modernos de la Argentina [Modern Artists of Argentina [...]

This letter from Gyula Kosice to Blanca Stabile explains that Tomás Maldonado was not a member of the board of directors of Arturo magazine, and refers to certain sources that document chronological details concerning the origins of the Argentine [...]

In this article, Sarandy Cabrera comments on the opinions expressed by Tomás Maldonado in his essay, “Torres-García against Modern Art,” published in the magazine [Bulletin of the Concrete Art and Invention Association]in December 1946. Cabrera [...]

In this article, Gyula Kosice stresses the displacement, the conversion, and the shift of forms inherent in the sculpture of the Madí. He also points out that the base has become an integral part of the sculpture, whether a rotating one as submitted [...]

This article points out that Madí art, which agrees with the general mood of integration being encouraged by scientific advances, is a style that embraces all disciplines and, furthermore, proposes the need to communicate by means of a language that [...]

Written by the exhibiting group [which, by all indications, appears to the Buenos Aires movement known as Madí], the prologue to this catalogue is a manifesto of principles that briefly and superficially reviews the thematic changes that have [...]

Aldo Pellegrini’s text displays the arguments of those who point out that abstract art does not correspond with the spirit of the times because it is a dehumanized art. His defense proposes that abstraction expresses the change experimented on by [...]

In this critical article, Blanca Stábile reviews the works by Gyula Kosice that were exhibited at the Galería Bonino in September 1953. In her analysis of these particular works, Stábile not only places them within the parameters of Madí art, [...]

This article discusses the differences of opinion regarding abstract and nonfigurative art. It mentions that, although the members of Kosice’s group had originally identified themselves as nonfigurative artists because that seemed to express [...]

This article states that Madí has become a style—as can be seen in the drawings, paintings, sculptures, and architecture that are shown in the catalogue—among the plethora of lines and surfaces, liberated planes and colors, articulated [...]

Juan Bay here identifies the periods during which he was producing Planar and Non-Figurative art. He explains that, after he settled in Argentina, he began working in the style of the Madí group in about 1952 [...]

In this essay, Sarandy Cabrera focuses on modern art’s quest for originality when he criticizes the artists of the Madí group, blaming them for introducing a cold, mathematical, and cerebral kind of art. However,Cabrera also points out that, [...]

The article proposes the incorporation of new architectural vocabulary into urban planning and composition. In another section it calls for a design revision of housing from a mobile and spatial point of view, while criticizing all symbolism derived [...]

This article outlines the chronological evolution of Argentine concrete art and corrects certain inaccuracies in another of the author’s articles that was published in number 33/34 during the first period of Ver y Estimar [To See and Ponder] [...]

This article discusses the emergence of new groups of nonfigurative artists. It mentions three distinct strains: the independent artists, the Concrete artists, and the Madís. All three were represented in the Primer Salón de Arte no Figurativo [ [...]

The article focuses on the question of prose and narrative. The author states that there are no engimas in the Madí narrative, neither does it evoke daily life with its tribulation and sentimentality, but instead evokes enduring allusions that [...]

This article was written by the art critic, Blanca Stábile, to clarify the chronological data she included in an article entitled “Para una historia del arte concreto en la Argentina” [For a History of Concrete Art in Argentina]. The article [...]

This article analyzes the issue of superimposition as regards forms, colors, and hues. In terms of form, Rothfuss refers to three types of superimposition: total, partial, and the type that occurs when one item slides over another [...]

This is a text in which Córdova Iturburu explains the particularities of non-figurative art; especially regarding the problems aroused by the absence of a subject matter (religious, political, social, or natural). In addition, the article notes the [...]

The article highlights the importance assigned non-figurative art, not only at the Venice Biennial but also in the Salon de Realités Nouvelles in Paris, two exhibitions where Argentina was represented. In addition, it refers to the first non- [...]

In this sarcastic review, Alberto Jochamowitz reports on the Arte Madí exhibition at the Colette Allende gallery in Paris, that included works by the Peruvian visual artist and poet Jorge Eduardo Eielson. Jochamowitz mocks the avant-garde [...]