Table Of ContentA
Guide to the
N.
ART
OF LATIN AMERICA
UNIVERSITY
OF FLORIDA
LIBRARIES
ARCH&
FINEARTS
LIBRARY
A
Guide
to the
ART
OF LATIN AMERICA
Edited by Robert C. Smith
AND
Elizabeth Wilder
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Washington 1948
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ARCH4
FINEARTS
LIBRARY
HISPANIC FOUNDATION
THE LIBRARY OF CONGRESS
Latin ^American Series
For sale by the Superintendent of Documents, U. S. Government Printing Office
Washington 25, D. C. - Price $1.50.
TABLE OF CONTENTS
Foreword
Introduction: The Literature on Latin American Art . . 1
Argentina, page 5. Bolivia, 9. Brazil, 10. Chile, 12.
Colombia, 14. Costa Rica, 16. Cuba, 16. Dominican
Republic, 18. Ecuador, 19. El Salvador, 21. Guate-
mala, 21. Haiti, 23. Honduras, 23. Mexico, 24. Nica-
ragua, 31. Panama, 31. Paraguay, 32. Peru, 32. Puerto
Rico, 35. Uruguay, 35. Venezuela, 37.
Bibliography of Latin American Art 39
Noteon theArrangementoftheBibliography,page39.
Notes on the Style, 40. Symbols of the Libraries, 42.
GeneralWorks,44.The Colonial Period,101.The Nine-
teenth Century, 261. The Contemporary Period, 321.
Digitized by the Internet Archive
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http://www.archive.org/details/guidetoartoflatiOOsmit
:
FOREWORD
THE
Guide to the Art of Latin America has been prepared as a
part of the program of the Interdepartmental Committee on
Scientific and Cultural Cooperation of the Department ofState.
It is a pioneer work, designed to bring together the scattered material
published up to 1942 on thisimportantsubject. For material appearing
after this date, the section on art in the annual Handbook of Latin
American Studies should be consulted.
It is quite possible, even probable, that some significant items have
been inadvertentlyomitted, but the editors have made a prolonged and
earnest effort to locate all relevant publications. Most of the Latin
American countries were visited during this search. Together with the
Archive of Hispanic Culture in the Libraryof Congress the Guide makes
possible for the first time in the United States the serious study of the
complicated and interesting history of the development of the fine and
folk arts in the other American republics.
The editors have enjoyed competent and friendly assistance from a
distinguished group of specialists who have consented to serve as Ad-
visory Editors, whose names are recorded here in grateful appreciation
Rodrigo Melo Franco de Andrade, Angel Guido, Guillermo Hernandez
de Alba, Leicester B. Holland, Jose Gabriel Navarro, Martin S. Noel,
and Manuel Toussaint. In addition, Mario Buschiazzoof BuenosAires
has made available his great store of bibliographical knowledge on these
problems, and Miss Jean Richmond has faithfully performed the task
of preparing the manuscript for the press.
To the two editors a special debt is owed, for they not only conceived
the plan for this basic bibliography but over a period of years steadily
labored toward its completion, even though they had several other
responsibilities.
Luther H. Evans,
Librarian of Congress.
INTRODUCTION
IS a startling fact that no single work deals comprehensively with
IT
the history of art in the Latin American co—untries. Not only is
there no definitive treatment of the subject there is not even a
text-book available, nor a summary of any scope. The best attempt to
showthe developmentofLatin American artcontinuouslyfromthe time
—
of the European conquests to the present Louis Gillet's section in the
—
Histoire de Vart of Andre Michel succeeds through touching only the
highest spots of a complicated history and through omitting whole
regions and periods.
The fact that no such book exists is indeed the principal justification
for this bibliography. The reader must search among a multitude of
articles and rare publications for the scattered information which will
give a picture of the whole. Many items included here may seem out-
side the subject; but Latin American art is an undeveloped field, and
we must look to authors writing on other matters for information and
suggestions. For example, there is not one book or article which deals
thoroughly with the colonial art of Bolivia, although Bolivia in that
period produced some of the most original and interesting work of the
whole Spanish American empire. In such a situation, any publication
which contains good photographs or exact descriptions, or which can
shed light on any aspect of colonial life in Bolivia, is valuable. In this
larger sense, there is a good dea—l of information av—ailable in print, and
the size of this bibliography already selective has surprised the
editors. Naturallythe principle ofselection hasvaried foreach country
with the material available in the field ofart, and such collateral reading
has been admitted more sparingly in the case of countries like Mexico
and the Argentine which offer richer bibliographies of art.
There is perhaps one good reason why we have no general study of
Latin American art as a whole. The term "Latin America" refers to
twenty independent republics, each with its own cultural history, tradi-
tions, and national development. Although their histories have been
parallel, these countries have diverged more and more into distinct and
individual channels. Thus painting in modern Argentina is quite
another matter from that of Mexico or Brazil. It is true that in the
colonial period the term Spanish-American can be used literally and
generally; thereisacertaincontinuityin thewaythe Europeantradition
was adopted throughout the whole Spanish empire, and even in Brazil.
Also in the period of the wars ofindependence, and all through the nine-
teenth century the new countries shared similar spasms of growth,
imitating Europe, andexploringwith diffidence their heritage ofpopular
art. However, a "History of Latin American Art", like a history of
1
2 • A GUIDE TO THE ART OF LATIN AMERICA
European art, can be fruitful onlyifitexplores the local variationswhich
have led to the national arts of the various countries. Whether this
art is interpreted as a consistent whole, or as a group of related but in-
dependent cultures, depends largely upon whether one approaches it
from the diversified present or from the common heritage of the past.
Principally for this reason, the bibliography has been subdivided first
transversely, by periods, instead of by countries. We have found it
more common for books to deal with modern painting, including artists
from Guatemala, Colombia, Peru and Mexico, than with Guatemalan
painting alone, throughout the four centuries of its history. Modern
national boundaries are not descriptive of colonial geography, anyway:
it would be artificial to separate the Jesuit architecture of the Parana
region, although itnowfallswithin the territoriesof Paraguay, Uruguay,
Argentina and Brazil. However, to meet the need for national bibli-
ographies, the editors have prepared summaries, noting foreach country
the material most valuable in their opinion. These are intended as
guides, carrying selection further by emphasizing the most important
and fundamental works. It will be found that they give incidentally a
picture of the activity and the attitude of the historians and critics in
each country.
* * *
There remain for discussion here a certain number of works which,
although not all-inclusive, are so comprehensive, or so general in scope,
that they do not belong with any particular country or period. Fore-
most among them is Gillet's study mentioned above (item 10). Miguel
Sola's Historia del arte hispano-americano (item 619), which deals only
with the colonial period, stands out as the best general text in the field.
Various other writers have given us, through a series of publications,
the equivalent of a continuous treatment of the colonial period. Thus
the writings of Mario J. Buschiazzo cover almost every regional type of
architecture in the colonial period and include some material on colonial
sculpture and painting (see Index). Jose Gabriel Navarro, although
Ecuadorean architecture is his point of departure,—extends his inquiries
throughout the Americas. In a different mood interpreters rather
—
than historians the two Argentine writers, Martin S. Noel and Angel
Guido, generalize about the fusion of Spanish and indigenous style to
produce the particular American style of the Andes which they term the
"Eurindian".
For the serious student, who wishes to go beyond the conclusions of
others, a variety of source material is available in print. Angulo
tniguez's five volumes ofPianos demonumentosarquitectonicosdeAmerica
y Filipinas (item 625) publishes drawings for Spanish colonial build-
ings from the Archivo General de Indias at Seville. With the series
of similar publications by Pedro Torres Lanzas and by Jose Torre
Revello, these constitute an invaluable collection of documents (see
