ABSTRACT
This chapter explains the canonical change by tracing the local construction of geometric abstraction as the dominant narrative of Latin American art through the writings of Brazilian art critic Frederico Morais. As this examination of the development of Morais's notion of vontade construtiva (constructive will) reveals, a desire to escape a Eurocentric view of Latin American art as inferior and derivative led to the adoption of a theory originally based on Brazilian art to define art from the larger region as modern and abstract. Although the exhibition catalogue was intended to answer the identity question posed by the earlier symposium by defining Latin American geometric abstraction as a shared regional identity, its individual contributions largely stymied this project. In 1982, Morais published a monograph on Mathias Goeritz based on interviews conducted in 1979 and trips to see, in loco, the artworks he analyzed.
