Documents of Latin American and Latino Art

There are five chapters in La Pintura de Héctor Poleo, Simón Noriega’s book about the Venezuelan artist. The one chosen here is chapter III, “El surrealismo de Poleo.” Section 4—“¿Reinterpretación o Mímesis?”—presents Poleo’s [...]

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 his prologue to the catalogue for a show of the Taller Libre de Arte (TLA), Luis Berroterán asserts that the Liceo Fermín Toro played an important role in the origin of the TLA. He explains that the members of the TLA aspire to work with other [...]

The anonymous author of the prologue to this exhibition catalogue places emphasis on the need for the Taller Libre de Arte (TLA) to prepare high school students—especially those enrolled in the Liceo Fermín Toro—to become a source of aesthetic [...]

In this catalogue text, critic and essayist José Ratto-Ciarlo praises César Rengifo for his multifaceted work in painting; Rengifo was not only a painter, but also a playwright, journalist, and political activist. Ratto-Ciarlo analyzes the profound [...]

In Bernardo Chataing’s preface, he explains that the Taller Libre de Arte (TLA) invited young painters to participate in its exhibition, which would hold them responsible for creating new art forms. In turn, this would generate multiple trends. The [...]

In his article, Manuel Trujillo states that Mario Abreu is a passionate painter that knows what is happening in contemporary art because he has been to Paris. Nevertheless, his youth and geographic location have not allowed him to evolve beyond [...]

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 [...]

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 [...]

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 [...]

The art critic Alberto Junyent reviews the second exhibition of works by the Venezuelan painter Héctor Poleo at the Galerie Drouant in Paris in 1966. In his essay, Junyent formally reviews the collection of works as a whole from an aesthetic and [...]

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 essay, the visual artist Manuel Quintana Castillo suggests that early twentieth century art represents the demise of the art that preceded it. He explains that modern art promotes communication, encourages personal choice as the basis of [...]

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 “ [...]

Poet Guillermo Alfredo Cook asserts that, insofar as Gabriel Bracho’s work has rendered painting literary, it has mistaken the essence of art, reducing it to political slogans and ideological propaganda. He describes Bracho’s painting as a [...]

The person who wrote the text for this catalogue was the curator José María Salvador. He begins his approach to the Venezuelan public figure César Rengifo by praising the many facets that made up his life and work. In addition to being a visual [...]

In this book, psychologist Jorge Nunes includes a series of interviews with Venezuelan painter César Rengifo. He delves into numerous aspects, some unpublished, of the life and work of the artist. Of the twenty-eight chapters that compose this book [...]

This interview conducted by Irma Valero begins by highlighting aspects of the work of Venezuelan artist César Rengifo. In referring to his Amalivaca mural, the work entitled Nacimiento de América located in the Diego Ibarra Plaza in the Caracas [...]

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 [...]

In this essay, the Venezuelan writer Rafael Arraiz Lucca reviews the main aesthetic principles that underlie the work of Manuel Quintana Castillo as well as the techniques and processes that characterize the artist. In this regard, Arraiz Lucca [...]

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 [...]

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 [...]

The Argentinean essayist Manuel García Hernández—a close friend of Gabriel Bracho—reviews the 1951 exhibition of the artist’s work at the Salón Peuser, which he deems “one of the most brilliant galleries” in Buenos Aires. Hernández [...]

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 [...]

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 the prologue to the catalogue, Alirio Oramas explains that the TLA (Taller Libre de Arte) is honoring the Mexican painter José Clemente Orozco for his magnificent mural paintings, which reflect the history and the soul of the Aztecs through a [...]

This essay was written by Alfredo Boulton (1908–95), the Venezuelan historian and art critic. It appeared in the catalogue for the exhibition of works by the painter Héctor Poleo at the Museo de Bellas Artes de Caracas (1974). In his essay, [...]

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 [...]

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 [...]

The painter Alirio Oramas, a founding member of the Taller Libre de Arte, publishes details of his plan to reorganize the TLA. He presented the plan to Dr. Carlos Gottberg at the Instituto Nacional de Cultura y Bellas Artes (INCIBA) a year and a half [...]

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 [...]

Written by the exhibiting group [which, by all indications, appears to the Buenos Aires movement known as Madí], the prologue to this catalogue is a manifesto of principles that briefly and superficially reviews the thematic changes that have [...]

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 [...]

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 [...]

“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 [...]

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 [...]

In this chapter of his book, art historian and critic Simón Noriega provides the most extensive and exacting analysis of the life and work of painter Héctor Poleo available in Venezuela at the time. The text is crucial to understanding the [...]

In this essay, Manuel Quintana Castillo identifies the formal assumptions upon which the Cubist aesthetic was constructed, and explains how Cubism influenced movements such as Futurism and Constructivism based on an intrinsic interest in geometry. In [...]

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 [...]

In this critical essay, historian Francisco Da Antonio discusses the indebtedness of artist Héctor Poleo to Mexican muralism in terms of form and pictorial technique. He also explores the way in which Poleo’s work differs from the aesthetic- [...]

In her essay in the catalogue for the exhibition Poleo desconocido (1997), Bélgica Rodríguez outlines her curatorial ideas. She speaks highly of the Venezuelan painter and his mystic, ethical, aesthetic, and existential qualities, all of which are [...]

Art critic Marta Traba authored the essay “Historia abierta,” which was included among the texts for the exhibition América: Mirada interior. Figari, Reverón, Santa María, in Bogotá, July 4 through August 18, 1985, published by the Banco de [...]

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 his essay—published in the catalogue for the exhibition of works by the Venezuelan painter Héctor Poleo at the Museo de Arte Contemporáneo de Caracas—the historian and art critic Alfredo Boulton identifies three periods in the artist’s [...]

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 [...]

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 [...]

The art historian and critic Juan Calzadilla includes his impressions of the material shown in an exhibition space in the plaza Bolívar de Caracas, along with a set of reviews and critical texts collected under the title: La figura y el lugar, an [...]

The introductory text in the catalogue of the Héctor Poleo exhibition was written by Miguel Otero Silva. In it he presents a chronology on the work of the Venezuelan artist that focuses on how the artist interprets the human drama through his [...]

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 [...]

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 [...]