There are two very interesting aspects of this article by Venezuelan critic and poet Enrique Planchart Loynaz (1894–1953). First, it references artists that were just beginning to mature; Reverón had not yet begun what Alfredo Boulton referred to as his “white period” (1924–37), which would begin years later—the landscapes that were most admired by critics and the public belong to this period—and so at this moment, Reverón had not yet become known as one of the great artists of the modern Venezuelan arts. Second, Planchart’s text is representative of the first critiques focused on the visual arts in Venezuela, of which Planchart was undoubtedly one of the pioneers. Two decades after the beginning of the twentieth century, one may observe how the critical discourse is based on associations and analogies of the arts with emotions and sensations, and even some ethical critiques, traces of the characteristics inherent in the nineteenth-century sensibility. The subjects, color, and forms are associated with particular moods or pictorial climates. Nevertheless, in Reverón’s case, Planchart observes features that would later become part of his distinctive language; among them, the chief importance of light and its effect on an object, which Planchart describes as “an environment full of pulverized light,”or the presence of the medium, when he refers to “the fabrics reveal their making.”Planchart signed and dated his article: “Caracas, January 7, 1920.”
The Círculo de Bellas Artes group began to dissolve between 1918 and 1920 and at the same time the individual work of the “Masters of the Círculo de Bellas Artes” began to consolidate. An exhibition of the work of Manuel Cabré also occurred in 1920, in addition to the show that featured the work of Monasterios and Reverón.
For more on the work of Rafael Monasterios, see the review by Carlos Augusto León “Monasterios, cantor de la tierra” [doc. no. 1171863].