Documents of Latin American and Latino Art

In this short essay, critic Walter Engel attempts to demonstrate that, due to the maturity, breadth, and social content of its painting, Latin America will become a new center for art on a par with Paris. Engel—an Austrian critic who lived in [...]

In this article, the art critic Walter Engel, an Austrian based in Colombia, wrote an overview of how various contemporary artists represent the human figure. To Engel, regarding this genre, in concept “no period or country may claim [it] for [...]

In this article, artist and critic Jorge Moreno Clavijo contemplates the question of whether Colombian art is at its height or in a state of decline. To answer that question, he calls on artists Erwin Kraus, Gonzalo Ariza, Alipio Jaramillo, Luis [...]

In this text, Polish art critic Casimiro Eiger praises Luis Alberto Acuña’s art. He specifically mentions the artist’s use of color, the monumentality of his painting, the severity of his sculptural volumes, and his controversial approach to [...]

In this text, Austrian-born critic Walter Engel, who lived in Colombia, discusses the life and work of Luis Alberto Acuña, a Colombian artist who was also a historian, critic, and advocate of Colombian art. In terms of Acuña’s advocacy work, [...]

This is a critical review of the exhibition of works by the Colombian artist Luis Alberto Acuña that was presented in Paris. The art critic Maximiliano Grillo begins by praising the French government for the art initiatives it has championed, and [...]

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 [...]

The critic and art historian Álvaro Medina presents an overview and analysis of Colombian sculpture of the 1930s. This is the third chapter of his book El arte colombiano de los años veinte y treinta, which as suggested by its title, provides an [...]

This catalogue was published by the Banco de la República of Colombia in February 1963 in conjunction with the exhibition of twenty-three paintings from the bank’s Biblioteca Luis Ángel Arango art collection. The exhibition was held in the [...]

This document is the catalogue to the Salón de Arte Moderno held in the exhibition hall of the Biblioteca Luis Ángel Arango in November 1957. In addition to an introduction, the catalogue contains a list with basic information (style, dimension, [...]

In this article, Walter Engel, an Austrian critic who lived in Colombia, reviews the group exhibition held on the occasion of the opening of “El Caballito” gallery in Bogotá in 1956. Engel asserts that the opening of the gallery represents a [...]

Published in the catalogue to the exhibition commemorating the fiftieth anniversary of the Primer Salón de Arte Moderno, this text by Sylvia Juliana Suárez presents the idea, process and results of a curatorial and editorial project formulated by [...]

The text by the art historian and critic, Álvaro Medina, published in the Semanario Cultural [Weekly Arts Section] of the newspaper, El Pueblo in the city of Cali, is the introduction to Graficario de la lucha popular en Colombia [Graphic Portfolio [...]

Art critic Marta Traba assesses the work on exhibition at the Salón de Arte Moderno [Salon of Modern Art] that took place at the Biblioteca Luis Ángel Arango of the Banco de la República de Colombia. Traba claims that this event was the best [...]

In the introduction to his book “Nueve artistas colombianos” [Nine Colombian Artists], poet and art critic Jorge Zalamea explains the objectives of the publication, and discusses the Colombian art scene of the early forties. Zalamea starts out [...]

The Colombian art critic Roberto Suárez begins his essay by stating that modern civilization is in a “twilight” period. He criticizes the rapid artistic, social, and technical changes of the modern era, and describes Futurism, Cubism, and [...]

In the book Problemas sociales en las artes plásticas [Social Problems in the Visual Arts], the critic Walter Engel reviews different periods in the universal history of art, discussing how some cultures and artists depict social issues?such as [...]

In this article, critic Germán Rubiano Caballero introduces a group of Colombian artists born in the first half of the twentieth century. To place these artists in the international context of Western art history, Rubiano Caballero associates them [...]

In his introduction to the book Luis Alberto Acuña: estudio biográfico y crítico, the Ukrainian art historian, critic, and nationalized Colombian, Juan Friede, sets out to clarify his own view of the meaning of art criticism. He believes that the [...]

This text presents the exhibition Dibujantes y grabadores colombianos held at theMuseo de Arte at the Universidad Nacional de Colombia in May 1975. Historian Álvaro Medina asserts that the exhibition brings together figurative artists representative [...]

This article reads like an indictment of the IX Salón Anual de Artistas Colombianos held in August 1952 at the Biblioteca Nacional in Bogota. Critic Luis Vidales Jaramillo voices a resounding personal judgment of some of the works exhibited and of [...]

This article published in the “Lecturas Dominicales” or Sunday Readings section of the Colombian newspaper El Tiempo (April 1962) evidences the polemic surrounding abstract and figurative art in Colombia at the time. In the introduction to the [...]

In this article, poet and critic Luis Vidales expresses his position on the debate surrounding abstract and figurative art, a polemic central to Colombian art at the time. First, Vidales argues that certain concepts have been poorly defined in [...]

In the introduction to the book Procesos del arte en Colombia [Processes of Art in Colombia] (1978), Colombian historian Álvaro Medina asserts that Andrés de Santamaría was well ahead of his time in Colombian art; it was thanks to his influence [...]

In this text, Austrian historian and critic Walter Engel, who lived in Colombia starting in 1938, discusses the suspension of the Salón Anual de Artistas Colombianos from 1947 to 1949. He observes that during that period “historic” events took [...]

This is the second part of the article “Primeras etapas de la abstracción en Colombia II” [First Stages of Abstraction in Colombia II] that critic María Elvira Iriarte published in issue 23 of the Revista Arte en Colombia. In this text, she [...]

Upon his return from Europe, Colombian artist Luis Alberto Acuña Tapia was interviewed for the magazine El Gráfico. In the conversation, Acuña describes his journey through Germany, France, Italy, and Spain. He criticizes the first for its “cold [...]

The author of this document claims that Colombian painting has no past. According to the Argentine critic Marta Traba, the visual arts produced in Colombia from the late nineteenth century through the mid-twentieth century are of no interest [...]

[This document includes] a four-page brochure whose first page reads: “Universidad Nacional de Colombia/ Museo Nacional/ Exposición de pintura/ contemporánea/ octubre 1948.” The other three pages contain the names of the artists participating [...]

In these two supplements, Viennese historian and critic Walter Engel describes exhibitions and artists that in his view shaped the modern art scene in Colombia from 1934 to 1957. Engel distinguishes two distinct periods: 1934 to 1951, and 1952 to [...]

In June 1960, the exhibition, 3000 años de arte colombiano [3000 Years of Colombian Art], was held in Miami and Washington. The journal Lámpara [Lamp] (Bogotá, published 1952–85) printed a supplement with writings by the curators who performed [...]