Documents of Latin American and Latino Art

In this short text, the poet Pablo Neruda writes about Nemesio Antúnez, recalling when they met and the friendship they developed over time. He identifies the different stages of this painter-printmaker’s career by referring to the [...]

In this brief essay Gaspar Galaz discusses a series of landmark events that took place in the 1980s and 1990s. In his opinion this period was characterized by an economic boom in Chile (fueled by neoliberal policies) and by conceptual approaches to [...]

In this article Pablo Oyarzún provides a critical review of the art produced over the course of three decades. He notes the lack of a tradition that could bear witness to and interpret art production in Chile. From the early twentieth century& [...]

This text is a letter from the painter, muralist, printmaker, and architect by training Nemesio Antúnez to his son Pablo. It is written in the first person, in an innovative narrative style that was in vogue in Chile at the time. In this sort [...]

In this essay Antonio Romera discusses the collection of works by Chilean artists that was sent to the Primera Bienal Americana de Arte in Argentina. He states that the roots of current Chilean painting in the 1960s can be traced back to three [...]

The artist Roser Bru provides a first-person account of the founding of Taller 99, specifically at the time when Nemesio Antúnez first started teaching. When he was unable to start a workshop at the Escuela de Artes Aplicadas in Santiago, [...]

Pedro Millar interviews Nemesio Antúnez, and they discuss printmaking based on their personal and group experience. The conversation touches on what prompted Antúnez’s interest in printmaking, the years he spent in the United [...]

In his essay about the vast subject of art criticism in Chile from 1950 to 1973, Patricio Muñoz Zárate highlights the field’s defining moments, milestones, and notable personalities. In a series of subchapters, he sheds light on [...]

This essay by Mario Soro was one of the chapters in the catalogue for the exhibition Chile 100 años (Chile 100 Years) covering the second period, 1950–73, titled “Entre modernidad y utopía” (Between Modernity and [...]

In this text, Frederico de Morais emphasizes the importance—and to a certain extent the impotence—of a greater union among Latin American countries. In the beginning of the passage, he states that Brazil was no longer able to ignore the [...]

This essay by Alberto Madrid is the research on the evolution of Chilean engraving at the Escuela de Bellas Artes de Viña del Mar. For this the author utilized references of national geographic elements associated with printmaking, which [...]

In this article Damián Bayón questions the general state of the art world and the place occupied by Latin American artists within it. He defines the preeminent art trends of the time and then analyzes the way in which Latin American [...]

   In her essay “Sobre arte y política(s): contraoficialidad, poder y lenguajes,” written for the exhibition catalogue Cirugía plástica (Plastic Surgery), Nelly Richard reflects on the socio-political and [...]

This essay is representative of the debate over art that divided Chile in the mid-twentieth century, pitting the figurative values of painting against modern painting and abstract art. That division was reflected in the art produced by two different [...]

The author offers a critical, manifesto-style review of the situation in the field of Latin American art and, especially, culture. Alberto Pérez describes himself as an “American,” “Hispanic American,” “Indian [...]

In this essay, Enrique Lihn writes about the first period in Nemesio Antúnez’s career as an artist, ignoring what people usually say about his work in order to discuss “energetic contrasts.” It was during that early period ( [...]