La rivoluzione siamo noi: Latin American artists in critical dialogue with Joseph Beuys

Abstract

By referring to the aesthetics theory developed by the Argentinian philosopher Rodolfo Kusch, this article aims to question the European models of cultural domination based on artistic canons, which still persist in the narratives of art history. The study of cultural relations between Latin American artists of the 1970s and the German artist Joseph Beuys exemplifies the inadaptability of Western artistic canons in the Latin American contexts. The analysis of Beuys’s artistic dialogue with Argentinian artists, such as Víctor Grippo and Nicolás García Uriburu, examines the matrix of transatlantic cultural relations in which the problem of influence usually concerns Latin Americans playing the role of followers of Western art trends. Criticism of Beuys’s artistic and political positions, which were raised by the Uruguayan Clemente Padín and the Brazilian Paulo Herkenhoff, opens new viewpoints with regards to the interpretation of canonical modern art.