cover image Crosscurrents of Modernism: Four Latin American Pioneers

Crosscurrents of Modernism: Four Latin American Pioneers

Valerie Fletcher. Smithsonian Books, $62 (295pp) ISBN 978-1-56098-205-0

The catalogue to an exhibition at the Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden, this dense volume chronicles the life and art of four Latin American artists--Diego Rivera, Joaquin Torres-Garcia, Wifredo Lam and Roberto Matta--who ``worked during the first half of this century to integrate the visual or formalist aspects of European modernism with Latin American themes,'' writes Fletcher, curator at the Hirshhorn. The artists are profiled biographically by Fletcher in straightforward and informative prose. Following each biographical sketch is a critical--and appreciative--essay about the artist by Oliver Debroise, Adolfo Maslach, Lowery Sims or Octavio Paz, whose lovely poem about Matta also is included. Highlights are Debroise's discussion of Rivera's adoption of Bolshevist ideology and its effect on his artistic identity, and Paz's interpretation of Matta's attraction to Surrealism as ``a strong hot wind of rebellion blowing across this icy and cruel century''; Matta, Paz writes, ``remained faithful to that subversive and generous impulse.'' Each artist also is represented by a number of his color plates, and the entire text is in both English and Spanish. (Sept.)