Documents of Latin American and Latino Art

This short article, published in the newspaper El Nacional, informs its readers in Caracas that the painter Carlos Cruz-Diez (who, at the time, was employed at the newspaper as an illustrator and layout artist) had been appointed to a professorship [...]

In this essay, Tomás Maldonado discusses modern art—and modern life—and claims that both offer an “institutionalized” kind of art education. His definition therefore includes “the education of the artist,” & [...]

Signed by Nicaraguan poet José Coronel Urtecho (1906–1994) and eight other writers, including Joaquín Pasos Argüello (1914–1947) and Pablo Antonio Cuadra (1912–2002), this document is the first manifesto of the Anti-Academia Nicaragüense [...]

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 [...]

Diego Rivera states that he is completely within his rights to respond to statements made by students at the School of Architecture against him. In spite of the threats received from students, he has no intention of retracting or withdrawing a single [...]

The Venezuelan painter Alejandro Otero (1921–90) evaluates the performance of his country’s Official Institutes and Academies, and the acknowledgements these entities confer. He sees these institutions and their structures as custodians and [...]

Antonio Berni analyzes the educational system and technical instruction and discusses the creation of an art academy in Rosario; he relates those general matters to the specific characteristics of Rosario [...]

Antonio Berni writes about the creation of a fine arts academy in Rosario as a means for furthering the arts there; he analyzes the political and artistic disputes surrounding such a possibility [...]

Mario Canale criticizes a campaign organized as much by institutions dedicated to arts education, such as the Mutualidad de Estudiantes de Bellas Artes [Society of Fine Arts Students], as by Communist activists under the influence of David Alfaro [...]

This article summarizes the protest initiated against the authorities by the students at the Escuela de Bellas Artes Prilidiano Pueyrredón [Prilidiano Pueyrredón National School of Fine Arts] in Buenos Aires, Argentina. It argues that the [...]

The third treinta-treintista manifesto is a flyer written in opposition to the Escuela Nacional de Bellas Artes, its instruction methods, and the works produced at the school. Subdivided into eight points, the group’s statement describes the basic [...]

In the second treinta-treintista manifesto, the group declares the reason for its dispute. It states that the struggle between independent painters and the academics intensified when the presidency changed hands, since certain conservative teachers [...]

Based on the works exhibited in the show organized by the Sociedad Estímulo de Bellas Artes [Society to Entice the Fine Arts] in Buenos Aires (1926), Yamba’s article negatively assesses the academic arts’ education [...]

Kenneth Kemble writes about the collective art exhibition at Galería Bonino (Buenos Aires) by artists Martha Peluffo, Jorge de la Vega, Juan C. Badaracco, and Rómulo Macció. He introduces them as the new academy of good taste, [...]

Kenneth Kemble writes that the Palanza Award was a disappointment because those who were invited to participate, the great majority of them, showed works of a lesser quality; also, he believes that a shift in the public’s aesthetic taste has taken [...]

Luis Felipe Noé studies the Premio Palanza [Palanza Prize] submissions, opting for the work by Santiago Cogorno, given its existential abstraction. Standing out among his assessments are: the depletion of Luis Seoane’s painting in poster-making, [...]

This article covers the discussion that took place in the Mexican House of Representatives regarding the university and the fine arts departments. After the debate, the Departamento de Bellas Artes [Fine Arts Department] was separated from the [...]

This article is a short notice from a newspaper announcing that the Academia Nacional de Bellas Artes was then manufacturing excellent paints for watercolors, pastels, oils, and tempera. The announcement came about due to a rise in prices for [...]

A pillar commemorating independence was planned to celebrate the centennial of Mexican independence. The jury for the competition was composed of three teachers from the Academy: Manuel Iturbe, architect; Arnulfo Domínguez Bello, sculptor; and [...]

For the author, the purpose of artistic movements, the so-called “revolutionary” movements, was to suppress academies in order to achieve aesthetic freedom and open up the horizon toward plurality. It is the author’s opinion that in Mexico, [...]

This article calls attention to the agitation produced by the work of Mexican painter David Alfaro Siqueiros among Argentinean artists. It warns about the possibility of an attempt against his works by reactionary painters, although it does not name [...]

The manifesto proposes a reform program for visual-arts education by following the plank of David Alfaro Siqueiros. It also suggests the merger of the schools, so that they might be incorporated into the university system, as well as the end of non- [...]

Mario Canale relates events that occurred at the National School for Decorative Arts; they concern the interaction between professors of drawing and a group of students, under the supposed influence of David Alfaro Siqueiros, who protested over the [...]

The Argentinean painter Antonio Berni harshly criticizes the artists linked aesthetically to Horacio Butler (the Paris Group as widely known in Argentina) as well as those linked to Atilio Chiappori (Fernando Fader, among others). Berni believes them [...]

This text expresses the disagreement of the young Argentinean generation regarding a note that Alejandro Bustillo (1889-1982) sent to the Professional Council of Architecture, in which he proposed a regulation of the profession. It poses a critical [...]