by Carlos Cruz-Diez

Agpa portfolios: Latin American graphic at the end of the 20th century.
Selection of 50 prints and multiples, with an abstract and geometric trend. (1971 - 2000).

Carlos Cruz-Diez Chromo-Interference from AGPA 78: Pan American Graphic Arts 1978

Screenprint from a portfolio of 11 screenprints (one with embossing), seven etchings (three with aquatint, one with embossing), six lithographs (one with etching), five linoleum cuts (one with embossing), one engraving, and one intaglio with embossing

Publisher Cartón y Papel de México, S. A., Mexico City
Edition 100
Credit Gift of Cartón y Papel de México, S. A.

Agpa portfolios: Latin American Graphics at the end of the 20th century

The history of the AGPA portfolios –Artes Gráficas Panamericanas– began in 1971 when Cartón y Papel de México commissioned ten young Mexican artists to make an engraving of their own. The following year, with the incorporation of the company's subsidiaries in Colombia and Venezuela, the program grew in scope and importance: Cartón de Colombia S.A. expanded the objective of the program and requested graphic work from various Latin American artists, thus creating the first AGPA portfolio in Colombia.

Again, in 1973, the company invited different Latin American artists, and some from Spain, who had not yet been summoned. Thus, and thanks to this dynamic, in the course of a few years, the collection that initially consisted of Mexican work extended its portfolio to all of Latin America, the United States, and to several European countries -France, Belgium, Spain, and Italy- within from a broad geographical vision where the Pan-American did not exclude the international. Alejandro Otero, Omar Rayo, Luis Díaz, Wilfredo Lam, Liliana Porter, and Lydia Okumura are just some examples of the geographic context in question. The program was called Pan American Graphic Arts and it would come to represent the vitality of printmaking on the continent and beyond.

Portfolios AGPA: Gráfica Latinoamericana at the end of the 20th century presents a selection of 50 etchings and multiples, with an abstract and geometric tendency, that were part of these portfolios throughout all their editions (1971–2000). Through the different authors and techniques, he realizes form, and in particular geometry, as a language that was common in Latin America to the point of succeeding magical realism as a kind of lingua franca in the continent but also as a space. of experimentation and shared dialogue.

It is not by chance that artists such as Fanny Sanín, José María Yturralde, and Luis Díaz are also among its ranks. This selection, which offers a first approach to the artistic production of Latin America, accentuates the dialogue with the continent, with the rest of the world, and with the region. However, the AGPA collection does not make a unique allusion to the MAMM - Colombia, and to its history, it also highlights the collection of other Colombian and foreign institutions with which this Museum shares the collection of AGPA portfolios - such as MoMa (USA) - MAM in Mexico among others.

The varied production of artists from different generations since the 70s puts into perspective the abundance of creative manifestations that graphic work provides. Artists who have marked a significant trajectory in the arts scene, national and international, and who have made use of practically all engraving techniques, from woodcut to screen printing, through the mechanical reproduction of objects in 3 dimensions, stand out. and of so many others.

Regarding the relevance of the AGPA portfolios in Colombia, it is one of the most constant and valuable cultural companies in the country. In annual folders, the company has not only disseminated the work of numerous Colombian artists of practically all current generations, making their engravings reach specialized sites in the country and abroad and to private collectors, but it has also allowed the knowledge of many artists foreigners, especially from Latin America ”. Efforts by the private sector for the dissemination of art while recovering the plural nature of engraving and the AGPA program.

The portfolios constitute a broad panorama that allows us to understand, among others, the variety and complexity of contemporary Latin American engraving and the effect of systematic efforts to produce and present art in the region. Links between Colombian artists and the international scene over three decades.