In the five centuries since the historic encounter between the civilizations of the Old and New Worlds, Latin America has spawned a rich and varied range of artistic expression. This diversity is precisely the challenge the late Marta Traba had to face in writing Art of Latin America 1900-1980, a comprehensive look at artists and artistic currents in the southern part of our hemisphere.

One of Latin America's most prolific and eloquent art critics, Traba discusses Diego Rivera, Rufino Tamayo, Roberto Matta, Fernando Botero, and more than 1,000 other artists in this text. She completed the work shortly before her 1983 death in a plane crash.

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Rich in insights, Art of Latin America, 1900-1980 is an invaluable volume for all students of Latin America. One of the book's strengths is Marta Traba's conviction that an art critic cannot write in a vacuum. She describes how economic, political and social forces influenced the evolution of modern art in Latin America.

Thus, the Mexican Muralist Movement not only grew out of the values of the Mexican Revolution but also reflected a new attitude toward art stirred by modernist winds blowing in from Europe. At the time of the Muralist Movement, countries such as Argentina, Brazil, and Mexico that had welcomed considerable numbers of European immigrants became centers of lively experimentation in matters of form.

In contrast, countries with larger Indian populations and which were less receptive to immigration - Colombia, Ecuador and Peru, for example - were more receptive to the political influence of Muralism, with its emphasis on indigenous peoples.

Marta Traba was particularly well suited for this analysis of Latin American art. Born in Argentina in 1930, she studied art history in Buenos Aires, Paris, and Rome. At age 23, she went to Colombia, where she initiated her career as a critic and writer in all fields of arts and letters. By the time she came to the United States in 1979 to lecture by invitation at some of the nation's top universities, she stood at the forefront of art criticism in Latin America and the Caribbean.

In his foreword to this book, former President of Colombia Belisario Betancur writes, "This valuable study represents a valiant effort to present a view of Latin American art as a coherent whole, rather than a disjointed summary of artistic achievement in the individual countries of the areas....

Making her way through the thicket of the area's social disturbances, cultural conflicts, abundant needs, and scanty satisfactions, Marta Traba comes somewhat closer to the utopian goal of assigning an identity to Latin American art."