CENTRO DE ARTE Y COMUNICACIÓN.

A considerable run of over 550 of the center’s newsletters, artists’ pageworks, and press releases mailed to a Belgian artist & poet.

Loose sheets, as issued, in letter & A4 formats, all folded horizontally for mailing, housed in two clamshell CAYC archival boxes. Buenos Aires: 1972-77.

A remarkable collection of the celebrated CAYC “gacetillas de trabajo,” representing more than half of the mailings that were distributed worldwide by the avant-garde art institution based in Buenos Aires. These mailings were printed off at breakneck speed to announce to a global audience a seemingly endless series of exhibitions, seminars, lectures, and surveys concerning Latin-American art movements and architecture in the 1970’s. Events taking place in Belgium, France, England, Italy, Iceland, Hungary, Czechoslovakia, Brazil, Spain, Denmark, Venezuela, Japan, Liechtenstein, United States, Peru, etc., are documented in our collection. There is no European or American parallel to the ambitions of CAYC’s mailing program. This collection was assembled by the Dutch artist and visual poet Hans Clavin (1946-2016), who edited the magazine Subvers and produced a number of artists’ books. In addition to the gacetillas, Clavin gathered exhibition and event announcements from institutions in Belgium and Italy related to CAYC.

The Centro de Arte y Comunicación was founded in Buenos Aires by curator, professor, and author Jorge Glusberg (1932-2012) in 1968 with a declared remit to circulate news about the Argentine and South American artistic avant-gardes to counter European and American hegemony and foster international partnerships between artists. Taking inspiration from the Institute of Contemporary Arts in London and Experiments in Art and Technology (E.A.T.), Glusberg envisioned CAYC as a cultural institution that would promote Argentina’s contemporary art scene, as well as address art and its relationship with the complex and occasionally troubling socio-political climate in the country. These gacetillas are scarce and in the trade most often offered in small groups; the present collection comprehensively chronicles the center’s busiest years of international organizing.

María José Herrera and Mariana Marchesi in their essay on the CAYC Files website explain the bold design and the truly global reach of the CAYC mailings: “In 1970, the CAYC opened its own premises in Buenos Aires, in the historic art gallery district where the Di Tella was also located, and consolidated its reputation by producing a newsletter, a powerful instrument designed to communicate, promote, and educate. The initials ‘GT’ were printed on the upper righthand corner of each page with a consecutive number and the date. These initials, presumably meaning ‘gacetillas de trabajo’ [work newsletters], indicate that the newsletter was not intended as a medium for one-way communication, but sought to involve readers by asking them participate in surveys or discussions about current art and social issues…Exhibitions, productions, symposiums, seminars, manifestos, art projects, and artworks came to life in the 900-plus editions, which were printed on thin paper so that several could fit in an envelope. Meticulous logistics ensured that they were mailed to every continent free of charge from 1970 to 1974. Later on, readers were asked to pay a subscription fee to cover the production and mailing costs. Each newsletter, with its distinctive design, included the CAYC’s logo printed in sans-serif font and a border that made it look like a computer card with the upper righthand corner sliced off. The lower lefthand corner was also sliced off, providing a sense of perspective and giving the impression of volume, an illusion that was probably meant to suggest a file full of content, a ‘sculptural’ newsletter…”

The artists involved or mentioned in the mailings present here includes: Eleanor Antin, Angelo de Aquino, Gabor Attalai, John Baldessari, Alvaro Barrios, Jacques Bedel, Luis F. Benedit, Donald Burgy, Jorge Caraballo, Don Celender, Christo, Delia Cugat, Jaime Davidovich, Agnes Denes, Mirtha Dermisache, Antonio Dias, Hans J. Dietrich, Felipe Ehrenberg, Herve Fischer, Ken Friedman, Hamish Fulton, Nicolas Garcia Uriburu, Jochen Gerz, Carlos Ginzburg, Jorge Gonzalez Mir, Victor Grippo, Guerrilla Art Action Group, Dick Higgins, Richard Kostelanetz, Joseph Kosuth, Sol LeWitt, Lea Lublin, Oscar C. Mara, Dora Maurer, Mario Merz, Gerald Minkoff, Maurizio Nannucci, Clemente Padin, Luis Pazos, Alberto Pellegrino, Geza Perneczky, Otto Piene, Julio Plaza, Alfredo Portillos, Hector Puppo, Juan Carlos Romero, Ed Ruscha, Richard Serra, Regina Silveira, Jiro Takamatsu, Mirta Tocci, Endre Tot, Horst Tress, Janos Urban, Jiri Valoch, Regina Vater, Edgardo Antonio Vigo, Lawrence Weiner, Horacio Zabala, Daniel Zelaya, etc., etc.

All of the mailings are in fine condition. They are stored in two clamshell boxes with printed CAYC labels affixed. A complete list of the gacetillas is available on request.

|| The CAYC Files website, a joint initiative of the Institute for Studies on Latin American Art and the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, is a crucial resource for understanding the CAYC’s significance and the importance of their “gacetillas de trabajo.”

Our description is greatly informed by the essay “The Centro de Arte y Comunicación: Its History” on the CAYC Files website (accessed 19 August 2026).