Inverted Utopias: Avant-Garde Art in Latin America

This book is the catalogue for a landmark exhibition held at the Houston Museum of Arts which was the first significant step towards a redefinition of the importance of Latin American artists in the history of modern art. The authors defend the theory that, contrary to what happened in Europe where artists wanted to distanciate themselves from the classical tradition in order to find new ways of expression, Latin American modernity is deeply rooted in local traditions and actually stems from them (hence the title of the exhibition: "Inverted Utopias", inverted when compared to the utopia of modernity in the US or Europe). The essays in the book, all brilliantly written (especially the introduction by Houston curator Mari Carmen Ramirez) and very well informed, cover virtually all the important Latin American artists (Berni, Xul Solar, Torres Garcia, Oiticica, etc) and the illustrations, all in color, are of a high quality. A reference for anybody interested in this heretofore neglected part of modern art.