Documents of Latin American and Latino Art

The journalist Silvia Coronil interviews César Rengifo; she begins the conversation by mentioning that this artist had recently been awarded the CONAC [Consejo Nacional de la Cultura, Venezuela] theater prize. Rengifo discusses his views about art [...]

On the basis of unofficial information from the Taller Libre de Arte (TLA), this article reports that the faculty of that institution has been entirely replaced. In order to bring the conflict to an end, the Instituto Nacional de Cultura y Bellas [...]

From the seven chapters of the book Poleo. Categorías del espíritu,written by historian Carlos Silva about the paintings of Héctor Poleo, this text represents the third chapter, “Arte y estilo de Héctor Poleo,” wherein the essayist analyzes [...]

In this text, journalist Sergio Antillano examines the life of his friend and contemporary, artist Héctor Poleo, commenting specifically on his studies at the Academia de Bellas Artes in Caracas and the Academia de San Carlos in Mexico City. [...]

In this essay, curator María Luz Cárdenas provides a brief chronological overview of the work of Venezuelan artist Pedro Morales, placing Morales’s production in a timeframe that spans from 1988 to the mid-nineties. During that period, the [...]

The art critic Víctor Guédez discusses the work of Henry Bermúdez, referring to this Venezuelan visual artist’s recurring themes. Guédez describes the formal elements in his work and analyzes the symbolic values of some of the pieces presented [...]

In this essay, the well-known critic Roberto Guevara discusses the evolution in the Chinese-Venezuelan visual artist Francisco “Chino” Hung’s style. Guevara bases his remarks on a review of the artist’s works from the early 1960s until the [...]

In this essay, researcher Zhelma Portillo catalogues the themes in the work of popular Venezuelan artist Francisco Luna Ostos that are most emblematic, and she also describes some of his creative approaches [...]

The deterioration of the site occupied by the Taller Libre de Arte (TLA) [(in Caracas)] was evident in this [March 4, 1967] news item. The news piece reported on an order to repair the sanitary facilities and electrical system of the workshop and the [...]

The essayist José Balza wrote “Ovalles: La oscura floresta,” which appeared among the texts in the catalogue for the exhibition Lenin Ovalles: Flora Full Oil, held in Caracas at the Museo de Arte La Rinconada in September - October 1989. After [...]

Researcher Félix Hernández wrote this essay entitled “Las capillas en nombre de ‘La Virgen de Coromoto’ y de ‘José Gregorio Hernández’” [Chapels in the name of the Virgin of Coromoto and José Gregorio Hernández’]. It is a multi- [...]

Juan Calzadilla’s essay “Las apariciones de Salvador Valero” was one of stories, declarations, poems, and critical writings compiled by Carlos Contramaestre in the book Salvador Valero published by the Museo de Arte Salvador Valero in 1981. [...]

This essay by Carlos Contramaestre, “Ancestros: tres tallistas populares venezolanos,” was among those published in his book Poética del escalpelo. Contramaestre briefly describes the careers of three traditional artists from the Andean region [...]

Researcher Anita Tapias authors the curatorial essay “El metabolismo simbólico de Mario Abreu,” which appears in the catalogue for Mario Abreu. Venezuela. 24th Bienal de São Paulo, Brazil, 1998. Tapias briefly presents the key aesthetic [...]

This essay “Énder Cepeda: color de familia” by Juan Carlos Palenzuela appeared in Venezuela 98, the magazine published by the Venezuelan Ministry of Foreign Affairs. The critic provides a detailed list of Cepeda’s major themes that include [...]

This critical essay—“Cristianismo y madera”—was written by the curator Eduardo Planchart Licea; it appeared in his book Juan Félix Sánchez. El gigante del Tisure. Planchart discusses the symbolic and aesthetic aspects of using wood in a [...]

Historian José María Salvador wrote the essay “Una obra, una idea, una personalidad” [A Work, An Idea, A Personality], included among the texts for the exhibition catalogue Lo espiritual en el arte. Juan Félix Sánchez, [Spirituality in Art: [...]

This essay devoted to Armando Barrios, written by the Venezuelan art critic Juan Röhl, highlights the biography of the Venezuelan artist and provides additional enlightening information about his personality. In commenting on his studies, how he [...]

In this text, essayist José Balza places the early work of Marco Miliani in the context of the stimulating artistic and intellectual scene in Venezuela in the fifties and sixties. Balza cites writers and art critics who have followed Miliani’s [...]

Art critic Perán Erminy begins his essay by etymologically relating the first and last name of the Venezuelan painter Marco Miliani with aspects of his art, permitting him to construct an interpretative model based on metaphors and symbolism. [...]

In this critical article, Roberto Guevara reviews the retrospective exhibition of works by the Venezuelan visual artist Antonio Moya at the Museo de la Rinconada [Museo de Artes Visuales Alejandro Otero] in 1990. Guevara begins by recalling the “ [...]

This essay by curator and critic Axel Stein was one of the texts featured in the catalogue to Carlos Sosa. Pinturas, an exhibition of work by Venezuelan artist Carlos Sosa (b. 1950). Stein begins with the early stage of Sosa’s production, when [...]

The critic Juan Calzadilla wrote one of the introductory essays for the exhibition Armando Barrios: Retrospectiva (Caracas: Galería de Arte Nacional, 1977). He discusses the painter’s evolution and the artistic language he consistently uses to [...]

Curator Juan Calzadilla begins his essay on the Venezuelan painter known as “Pájaro” [Juan Vicente Hernández] by pointing out the similarity between some, though not all, aspects of his work and orthodox Surrealism. Calzadilla comments on the [...]

In this text, the critic Francisco Da Antonio reviews an exhibition of drawings by the Venezuelan painter Pascual Navarro held at Galería XX2 in Caracas. The review questions the intrinsic nature of a retrospective exhibition that does not include [...]

In this essay, the art critic Denys Chevalier presents the reasons why he finds the aesthetics of Héctor Poleo’s work similar to those of Symbolism. According to Chevalier, during that period of the Venezuelan painter’s artwork (late 1960s to [...]

Entitled “Pascual Navarro: de la abstracción a la figuración,” this essay by researcher Cruz Barceló (b.1953) was featured in the catalogue to the show Pascual Navarro. Imágenes y percepciones de un tiempo. Exposición antológica 1945-1965, [...]

“Francisco Bugallo: la pintura revisitada”—the essay about the Venezuelan painter Francisco Bugallo—was written by the curator Katherine Chacón and published in the magazine Imagen, no. 100-74, Caracas, in February 1991. Chacón discusses [...]

Historian Rafael Páez wrote this essay, which he dedicated to painter Alirio Oramas; it was included in the first volume of the collection entitled “Pintores Venezolanos.” The text “El Expansionismo” is taken from this first book. Páez [...]

This essay was written by the critic Víctor Guédez for Alirio Oramas: del misterio a las revelaciones. Exposición antológica, 1946-2005, the exhibition of works by the Venezuelan visual artist Alirio Oramas. In his essay “La signología esoté [...]

The researcher Félix Suazo wrote one of the essays published in the catalogue for Alirio Oramas. Del misterio a las revelaciones. Exposición antológica, 1946-2005, the exhibition of works by the Venezuelan visual artist Alirio Oramas. In his essay [...]

In his introduction to the catalogue Metamorfosis encontrada: Exposición individual de Mauro Mejías, critic Víctor Guédez considers the psychological, aesthetic, and formal aspects of the work by Mauro Mejías on exhibition. In Guédez’s view, [...]

This text, entitled “Lazo o la nueva ética,” by researcher Ruth Auerbach was featured in the catalogue for Antonio Lazo: Sentimiento, Convicción, Vivencias, an exhibition of work by Venezuelan painter Antonio Lazo (b. 1943). At the beginning of [...]

This essay by the researcher Zuleiva Vivas appeared in the catalogue for Antonio Lazo. Sentimiento, Convicción, Vivencias, the exhibition of works by the Venezuelan painter. In her essay—“La percepción de lo sensible ausente”—Vivas provides [...]

María Ramírez Ribes wrote the essay “La formulación de Antonio Lazo,” which was included in her book La imagen, el color y la forma. In her critical text, Ramírez Ribes reviews the 1991 exhibition of the Venezuelan painter Antonio Lazo’s [...]

Of the three chapters in the book by researcher Víctor Guédez on the Venezuelan artist Armando Barrios. Lo permanente, lo novedoso y lo influyente, chapter three, “Lo influyente,” is discussed here. Under subtitle five (“La conquista de una s [...]

This text, entitled “Lo permanente,” is the first of three chapters in Víctor Guédez’s book Armando Barrios: Lo permanente, lo novedoso y lo influyente on Venezuelan artist Armando Barrios. In the section “La pintura y la música,” Gué [...]

Historian Rafael Páez writes the thirteenth installment about the collection on Venezuelan painters, which is dedicated to Armando Barrios. The text “Tradición sin servilismo” [Tradition without Servility] was taken from this installment, [...]

The historian Rafael Páez writes about the artist Armando Barrios in the thirteenth booklet of the collection entitled Pintores Venezolanos. In it we find the text “La nueva figuración” where Páez argues that this pictorial phase, begun in [...]

The writer José Fabbiani Ruiz discusses the exhibition organized by the painter Pascual Navarro at the Clan de Madrid bookstore in 1956. After praising the painter’s work, Fabbiani Ruiz explains that the exhibition presents Abstract geometric [...]

This essay by Roberto Guevara entitled “Los objetos mágicos: la iniciación en una nueva era” was featured in the catalogue to the exhibition Mario Abreu. Pinturas y objetos. Exposición Antológica 1990, held at the Galería Municipal de Arte [...]

Drawn from the content of the three chapters in the book by Manuel Quintana Castillo Cuadernos de pintura, this selection, the text “Reflexiones sobre el constructivismo,” can be found in Chapter III. In it, the essay writer informs us that it [...]

Drawn from the content of three chapters in Manuel Quintana Castillo’s book Cuadernos de pintura, this selection, the text “América y el arte” can be found in Chapter III. In it, the writer sets forth the dispute between those who believe in [...]

Drawn from the content of three chapters in Manuel Quintana Castillo’s book Cuadernos de pintura, this selection, the text “Expresionismo y abstracción” can be found in Chapter III. In it, the writer states that since the achievements of [...]

This essay by Víctor Guédez entitled “Manuel Quintana Castillo: Una visión retrospectiva” was featured in the catalogue for the exhibition La piel del tiempo: Manuel Quintana Castillo, held at the Fundación Galería de Arte Nacional in 2002. [...]

“Manuel Quintana Castillo. Visible/Legible” by Juan Carlos Palenzuela is the introduction to the exhibition catalogue for Manuel Quintana Castillo: Bañarse en el mismo río, which toured internationally. The text begins with an account of the [...]

The essay “Anotaciones para los fragmentos de un muro escrito” by art historian and critic Juan Calzadilla was featured in the catalogue to the show Fuera de juego. Exposición antológica. Manuel Quintana Castillo held at the Fundación Museo [...]

In this critical essay, Juan Calzadilla discusses the independent, caustic attitude of the visual artist Manuel Quintana Castillo vis-à-vis the controversy that raged between abstract and figurative artists in the 1950s. According to Calzadilla, the [...]

The visual artist Carlos Contramaestre begins his essay by describing the emblematic role that Cúpira, the work by Manuel Quintana Castillo (1928?2016), played in the evolution of Venezuelan art. He then discusses the artist’s studies, his first [...]

In this text, historian José María Salvador discusses Pinturas topológicas/Superficies activas, asolo show of work by Manuel Quintana Castillo held at Galería Altamira in Caracas in 1993. Salvador focuses on the aesthetic, technical, and [...]