Documents of Latin American and Latino Art

In this critical text, Theon Spanudis proposes the creative participation of the public in the formation of art that he calls “transrational,” which he explains, entails certain modifications to the notions of “time,” “subject,” and “ [...]

In this essay, Hélio Oiticica discusses the concept of the “open work,” an approach to art that ignores the boundaries and the actual physical existence of the object. In this case, the object does not exist as something endowed with its own [...]

This document, written in 1977 by the Colombian artist Alicia Barney, is a mimeographed copy of the introduction to the installation Diario-objeto [Diary-Object] (1978) shown at the exhibition held at the Extensión Cultural [Cultural Extension] [...]

In this essay, as he discusses the collection of objects created by Armando Reverón, the Venezuelan writer José Balza considers different socio-political ideas about the role played by objects in society and their function as cultural building [...]

In this essay, Hélio Oiticica discusses the ruptures to be created by a new objectual perspective in Brazilian art that he uses to define his concept of “super-sensory” experience. He is referring to art installations of an (inner) libertarian [...]

In this text, critic Mário Pedrosa asserts that contemporary artistic production must be understood in relation to notions like “plane” and “space” developed after the disintegration of naturalist vision, notions that operate in a more [...]

Geraldo de Barros presents an exhibition of a series of paintings by Brazilian painter and draftsman Nelson Leirner. His text discusses transformations in painting due to the Industrial Revolution and the new social reality that has taken shape [...]

This text is part of El gran solipsismo, Juan Luis Martínez. Obra visual (Santiago: Editorial Puntángeles, 2002), the collection of essays written by the researcher José de Nordenflycht. The author considers the work in question [...]

In this essay, Hélio Oiticica reviews Lygia Pape’s career, which has been skyrocketing ever since her Livro da criação, produced in 1960. Oiticica notes that Pape’s work is increasingly concerned with sensory experience, a trend that has been [...]

In this article, published in A & D magazine, the artist and art critic Waldemar Cordeiro expresses his support for the autonomy and universality of art. In his opinion, a work of art is a real object in the real world. It is not the expression [...]

In this essay, Hélio Oiticica discusses the nature of the “object” in contemporary art. He begins by analyzing the development of the object in modern art, though he considers it to be an extreme version of form. In his opinion, the object [...]

In this essay, written in a critical-poetic style, Hélio Oiticica examines the connections between words and objects in Rubens Gerchman’s work, and calls them “objeto-ideograma” [object-ideogram]. These works seek to hold a dialogue about [...]