Scope and Content of Collection

The collection comprises 354 letters from 116 correspondents sent to the Argentine art critic Julio Payró between 1937 and 1971. There are 7 letters by Payró: one is a carbon copy, the others are written as answers on the backs of letters received. Two thirds of the correspondents are artists, mostly from Argentina and a few other Southern American countries; some are European-born émigrés to South America. The other third are intellectuals, including art critics and historians, writers, editors, publishers, anthropologists, poets, scholars, journalists, professors, art collectors, sociologists, and the Chilean dancer Ana Itelman.

With rare exceptions, the correspondents are thanking Payró for helping them to get grants for studies in Europe, or financial help to publish their works. Most of them are grateful for Payró's reviews of their works. The artists write to Payró about their struggles in Paris, their work, their hopes, their exhibitions. The group of 40 letters in this collection related to Payro's book Veintidos Pintores, published in 1944, documents his dedication to promoting modern art in Argentina.

Among the most significant letters are those from the painter and poet Eduardo Jonquieres (19), the writer Eduardo Mallea (7), Victoria Ocampo, the founder of the Sur review (9), the Uruguyan writer Juan Carlos Onetti (48), the Argentine artist Luís Seoane (3), the Uruguyan painter Joaquín Torres-García (9), and 23 from the Argentine painter Emilio Pettoruti, whose correspondence of earlier years is also in the Getty Research Library (Special collections accession number 2001.M.18.)

Arrangement note

Arranged alphabetically.