From 1994 to 1999, Venezuelan artist Alirio Palacios (b. 1944) produced wood engravings—a technique he learned while studying in China from 1962 to 1965—and experimented with a cement plate printing technique that Eugenio Montejo called “concretografías” (see “Alirio Palacios, magia y maestría del grabado,” 1999, ICAA digital archive doc. no. 1154602). This text by Venezuelan curator Josefina Núñez discusses those experiences. Núñez’s perspective is firsthand since she studied metal engraving techniques with Palacios at the Centro de Enseñanza Gráfica (CEGRA). The text contains many quotes from the artist (reflections and anecdotes) taken from a conversation with the curator that took place the same year as the exhibition. Núñez places emphasis on Palacios’s experience with wood engravings, which she divides into periods to facilitate ultimate understanding of each piece and phase. Núñez reflects on Palacios’s career, education, and experiences in both the East and the West, discussing his wood engravings from the nineties (each one a unique work), his metal sheets akin to sculptures, and the concretografías, or prints and plates that operate as objects to exhibit. Palacios, like other Venezuelan printmakers of his generation, explored the possibilities of printmaking, a technique which, from its inception, was intended for the reproduction and, hence, democratization and communication of images. For them, printmaking cannot only be used to make a unique print as plates can be turned into sculptural objects.
For further reading, see Igor Molina’s text on Palacio’s training entitled “Alirio Palacios: El arte de la violencia” (ICAA digital doc. no. 1155701); Lenelina Delgado’s article “Alirio Palacios: El estado tiene la responsabilidad del futuro del Centro de Diseño” (doc. no. 1155596); Olga González’s texts “Mezzotintas de Alirio Palacios: El final del aprendizaje gráfico” (doc. no. 1156997) and “Regresa a sus país uno de los grabadores más importantes de América Latina” (doc. no. 1155203); Yasmín Monsalve’s essay “Soy un gran aliado de mi país: Alirio Palacios expone xilografías en la Freites “(doc. no. 1155733); Edith Guzmán’s interview with the artist entitled “Alirio Palacios se propone rescatar el grabado milenario de China” (doc. no. 1155809); and Alberto Valero’s “La fecundación de un aprendizaje: Alirio Palacios en Varsovia” (doc. no. 1155717).