Documents of Latin American and Latino Art

In this lecture, Martí Casanovas distinguishes the activities of the group of artists in the exhibition 1927 from those of other contemporary progressives by arguing that their art seeks to convey humanistic and collective meanings to a broad and [...]

This anonymous writer called his column “Revolution backwards.” In it, he says he does not understand the imitation of the primitive lack of skill, the use of ancient symbols, the decomposition of the line as if trying to imitate the hesitant [...]

This is an attempt by Febronio Ortega, a Mexican correspondent in Europe, to define the particular traits of the ultraist movement launched in Spain during the period following the First World War, and spread to America, (mainly Argentina) as a new [...]

In this text, Ricardo Güiraldes explains what he understands to be poetry: “I don’t believe in poetry that is produced according to a definition. Poetry is everything to which the poet inclines. This vagueness is, it seems to me, preferable over [...]

This text extols the Ultraist aesthetic above that of the current literature; represented by the Rubenists on one side, who “only occupy themselves by organizing and reorganizing ornamental junk […] that they inherited from Góngora,” and “ [...]

Jorge Luis Borges declared that the “newest aesthetic,” Ultraism, is the poetic alternative to “the prevailing Rubenism and Anecdotalism.” He remarked that one of the harbingers of these previous movements’ terminal state is that their own [...]

In this piece, González Lanuza explores the two primary modes through which man can interpret reality: an “analytical” perspective and a “synthetic” perspective. With respect to the first, the author references Impressionism and literature [...]

In this essay, Leopoldo Lugones defines what he understands to be poetry: “love”, “verse”, “rhyme”, “[expression] of beauty”, and at the same time criticizes the Ultraist aesthetic [...]

In this document, a prologue of his book of poems, Fervor of Buenos Aires (1923), Jorge Luis Borges explains certain aspects of the works: due to the book’s title, the possible misinterpretation regarding the verse development; the theme which is [...]

Jorge Luis Borges answer to an opinion poll conducted by the Nosotros [We] journal of writers younger than thirty and trying to determine the existence and qualities of Argentina’s “new literary generation.” The poll consisted of seven [...]