Latin American artists in their studios

Latin American Artists in their Studios is a fascinating introduction to the magical and mysterious world of fifteen giants of Latin American art in the second half of the twentieth century: Jacobo Borges, Fernando Botero, Claudio Bravo, Augustin Cardenas, Leonora Carrington, Sergio de Castro, Gunther Gerzso, Matta, Armando Morales, Antonio Segui, Jesus Rafael Soto, Fernando de Szyszlo, Rufino Tamayo, Francisco Toledo, and Cordelia Urueta. Many of these artists have remained in Latin America, others are scattered throughout the world. Some are in Paris, Claudio Bravo lives in a magnificent villa in Tangiers, Botero shuttles between houses and studios in New York, Paris, Pietrasanta and Bogota. What they all have in common, as Carlos Fuentes points out in his brilliant introduction, is a shared culture descended from Indian, African and European sources, a culture that extends from the Rio Grande to Patagonia, but that now spills over to the United States and also sails back to recognize Spain. Even if these painters and sculptors have attempted to remove themselves from the nationalist boundaries often imposed on the Latin American creator, they all share a way of looking at Western culture. They also all yearn for a universality that embraces their Mediterranean, Greek and Roman, Jewish and Arab heritages, enriching these with the Indian, Black African, and mulatto experiences of form and color, light and shadow, the bliss and horror of the Americas. Marie-Pierre Colle travelled wherever these artists have their studios and, with a particularly discerning eye, inspired a team of photographers to search out the most telling details of their life and work. Her text is based on astonishingly revealing interviews that substitute art criticism with explanations from the artists themselves. Her questions are as sharp as her eye; the result is a priceless record of the creative process and of a highly respected segment of contemporary art history.