Documents of Latin American and Latino Art

The sculptor Pedro Briceño writes this critique about Iván Petrovszky, the Venezuelan painter of Hungarian descent. The text is introduced with a general appreciation of his artistic personality, highlighting, among other things, the seriousness of [...]

In this article, the curator Bélgica Rodríguez reviews the career of the Venezuelan sculptor and draftsman Felipe Herrera, from his early training in the late 1960s to his most recent work, produced in 1996. After sketching a broad overview of the [...]

Alirio Rodríguez discusses where contemporary man stands in terms of the evolution of the technology of his time, and how that evolution affects the visual arts. The Venezuelan artist provides a general description of the connection between human [...]

The critic Juan Calzadilla introduces the architect Domingo Álvarez in the catalogue for the exhibition Salón Confrontación 68, based on the architect’s participation in that event, held in the spaces of the Ateneo de Caracas. After recounting [...]

This catalogue includes the writings of five Venezuelan researchers and critics who studied the works of the exhibiting artists at Confrontación 68 (Ateneo de Caracas, 1968). Juan Calzadilla introduces the architect Domingo Álvarez, and mentions [...]

The critic Juan Calzadilla analyzes the matter of drawing in [the context of the] Venezuelan art scene during the end of the seventies and the early eighties. The author introduces the text reflecting on the rise of this technique as a skill [...]

In connection with the exhibition Antología del desarraigo (1992), the curator Katherine Chacón writes about the career of the Venezuelan mixed-media artist, Ángel Vivas Arias. The writer highlights the duality of mysticism and nature evident [...]

Ángel Vivas Arias writes about his exhibition on body action in Objetos encontrados e intervención gestual, presented at the Museo de Arte Contemporáneo de Caracas Sofía Imber (October 1980). Reinforcing his penchant for the object as an element [...]

The critic Carlos Silva wrote a study of the work of the Venezuelan sculptor Edgar Guinand, pointing out two fundamental periods in his life in art. The first is defined by the writer in the visual arts context that follows the Latin American Post- [...]

In this text, Alirio Rodríguez presents his vision of what he deems the most important forces in creative expression in Latin America in the second half of the 20th century, mainly technological discourse and humanistic art. In defense of the [...]

The historian Alfredo Armas Alfonzo studies mid-twentieth century Venezuelan art (between 1940 and 1958) through the survey of the first nineteen years of art salons in the country. Following his analysis of the sociocultural context that certain [...]

Curator María Elena Ramos writes about the Venezuelan artist and graphic designer Patricia van Dalen, in relation to Color Fragmentado [Fragmented Color], an exhibition at the Sala Trasnocho Arte Contacto (Caracas, 2008). The text establishes an [...]

María Luz Cárdenas interviews the ceramicist Seka Severin about her exhibition Seka: Forma, textura, color at the Museo de Arte Contemporáneo de Caracas, 1982. Cárdenas begins the interview by asking Severin about her art training and her [...]

In March 1983, members of the Research Department of the Museo de Bellas Artes in Caracas interviewed the painter Ivan Petrovszky about his exhibition at the Art Museum of the Americas in Washington, DC (that same year). By way of introduction, the [...]

In this text, researcher Roldán Esteva-Grillet writes about the history of drawing in Venezuela from the pre-Hispanic era through the end of the 20th century. He begins by describing the practice of drawing in ancient indigenous cultures in [...]

Curator María Luz Cárdenas writes about the work of Asdrúbal Colmenárez for the Transposición [Transposition] exhibition (Caracas: MAC, 1998). The author explains the themes explored by the artist in this show, highlighting his break with the [...]

The art critic and researcher Eliseo Sierra reviews a decade of the life and art of the Venezuelan painter Susana Amundaraín, from her beginnings in the 1980s through 1992. After reviewing the art world at the time she began to produce art, the [...]

The Venezuelan artist Asdrúbal Colmenárez wrote about his own installation, Preludio 7, fuga siete, on exhibition at the Galería de Arte Nacional (1991). He presents the objective of the installation, which is intended to raise viewer awareness of [...]

On the occasion of the publication of the book Mene Digital (1993), financed by the IBM Corporation of Venezuela, Pierre Restany writes on the work of the Venezuelan artist Rolando Peña. The French critic begins with a reflection on Neoprimitivism, [...]

Curator Lourdes Blanco presents the career of ceramic artist Seka Severin. The author analyzes her position on Eastern ceramic traditions and Western sculptural languages, affirming that Seka breaches the limits of both traditions, which allows for a [...]

In this text, critic José María Salvador examines Paul Klose’s career from his first abstract works, produced in the late fifties, to his most recent exhibition, held in 1992. Salvador identifies three distinct stylistic approaches in the work of [...]

This curatorial text by William Niño Araque analyzes the exhibition Max Pedemonte: Muros, templos y ciudadelas (Caracas: Fundación Galería de Arte Nacional, 1994), presenting the work of the sculptor Max Pedemonte. The text is based on an earlier [...]

The writer José Balza comments on the exhibition Todo el Museo para Zapata (Caracas: Museo de Arte Contemporáneo, 1975), artwork by Pedro León Zapata. After analyzing the popularity achieved in Venezuela as a caricaturist by the painter and [...]

In this article, Juan Calzadilla protests against the indifference shown by national critics to the caricatures of Pedro León Zapata. The author explains why he thinks Zapata’s drawings should be considered works of art in the drawing and graphic [...]

The historian Roldán Esteva-Grillet explains how the work of the Venezuelan landscape painter Rafael Monasterios changed in 1938 when he returned to his birthplace in the state of Lara. The article briefly discusses the time Monasterios spent in the [...]

The researcher Teresa Soutiño offers in this 1995 essay a short historical summary of the life and work of Mary Brandt and comments on the themes in the drawings included in the exhibition Pinturas, dibujos y grabados 1950–1985. Soutiño states [...]

The curator Jesús Fuenmayor introduces Inmobilia (Sala Mendoza, Caracas, 1997), the exhibition of works by the Venezuelan photographer Luis Molina Pantin. Fuenmayor uses the idea of a “frame” as a metaphor in his review of the artist’s [...]

The curator and gallery owner Ruth Auerbach wrote this article about the career of Alexander Apóstol in 1996. After providing a general idea of the work of the Venezuelan photographer and artist, the writer analyzes the experimental nature of his [...]

This text by curator Ruth Auerbach introduces Venezuelan artist and photographer Mauricio Lupini on the occasion of the 1995 exhibition Mauricio Lupini V-6.811.042, held at the Sala Mendoza in Caracas. Auerbach reflects on two specific points: the [...]

In this essay, María Luz Cárdenas discusses the career of the Venezuelan cultural affairs promoter and teacher Manuel Espinoza whom, in the former’s opinion, is an accomplished artist who is well-known in Venezuelan visual art circles, both [...]

Bélgica Rodríguez discusses the formal content in Ramón Vásquez Brito’s seascape painting. She explains that it is necessary to consider as a whole the visual and pictorial elements that Vásquez Brito uses—space, color, line, form, rhythm, [...]

The journalist Yasmín Monsalve interviews the Venezuelan artist Teresa Gabaldón at the latter’s solo exhibition Efímeras (Caracas, 1995). They discuss Gabaldón’s reasons for her conceptual focus on flowers. The artist explains that her [...]

The researcher Yuraima Granado C. and the curator Gladys Yunes interview Julio Pacheco Rivas about Una ciudad, his exhibition of paintings that, he explains, was conceived specifically as an installation for the Sala 1 del Museo de Bellas Artes ( [...]

In his text, Damián Bayón points out the fact that Venezuelan artist Julio Pacheco Rivas makes use of linear perspective to paint large architectonic constructions that house systems of signs organized in a hierarchy of values in the style of the [...]

In his critique, Roberto Guevara reflects on the history of landscape (as a pictorial genre in Venezuela) and the role played within it by Venezuelan painter and graphic designer José Antonio Quintero. After evaluating the distinct stages of this [...]

In this article, critic Roberto Montero Castro presents some details on the Proyecto Manhattan [Manhattan Project] of Venezuelan-Colombian artist José Campos Biscardi, whose objective was to emphasize the presence of man in the city. [Castro] [...]

After introducing her text with a brief comment on the evolution of Ramón Vásquez Brito’s painting, journalist and photographer Sara Maneiro Montiel cites fragments of a conversation between the artist and the staff of the Papel Literario section [...]

Providing a study of the work and career of Venezuelan artist Teresa Gabaldón, art critic Roberto Guevara highlights her strong academic education and her knowledge of painting and drawing techniques. He emphasizes two great periods in her work; the [...]

In his essay in the catalogue for the exhibition Teresa Gabaldón. Dibujos at the Galería Minotauro in Caracas (November, 1985), the curator William Niño Araque reviews the Venezuelan artist and teacher’s work. He introduces the reader to the [...]

In this text, critic Víctor Guédez reflects on the visual, psychological, and symbolic components of Teresa Gabaldón’s painting from the nineties. The artist employs the flower theme as a means of addressing concerns, feelings, and symbols— [...]

Curator María Elena Ramos interviews Antonieta Sosa in the framework of the exhibition of her installation Cas(a)anto at the Museo de Bellas Artes, Caracas. Ramos introduces the dialogue with a brief description of the concept of “self-monitoring [...]

Juan Calzadilla discusses the work of the painter José Campos Biscardi, explaining how hard it was for him to be acknowledged in the Venezuelan art world because he was originally from Colombia. The author attributes it to the fact that Campos [...]

In his critique, Roberto Guevara reflects on the work of Venezuelan artist José Antonio Quintero, for his show at the Sala Mendoza (Caracas 1981). He states the painter voluntarily takes up the challenge of reevaluating the characteristics of urban [...]

In this essay Mara Comerlati discusses Colinas, árboles y valles, the exhibition of works by José Antonio Quintero at the Sala Mendoza (Caracas, 1981). In this series of drawings and paintings inspired by his observations of the countryside in the [...]

In this article, Roberto Guevara critiques the landscape work of Adrián Pujol, establishing conceptual links between his first works and the new representational proposal of the neo-landscape artist. Guevara highlights Pujol’s use of apparent and [...]

The journalist Maritza Jiménez interviews the Venezuelan printmaker and illustrator Adrián Pujol on the occasion of the latter’s exhibition at the Sala Ipostel (Caracas, 1981). During the conversation, they discuss Pujol’s conceptual and formal [...]

Venezuelan writer José Balza reflects on the work of Venezuelan artist and cultural manager Manuel Espinoza. The author asserts that Espinoza’s work in the landscape genre produced over the course of his long career has had a marked tendency to [...]

This text by Juan Calzadilla quotes ideas stated by the Venezuelan painter José Antonio Quintero about his own work. In his comments, the artist highlights the fact that his landscapes (whether realistic or imaginary scenes) are personal stories of [...]

Within the framework of the Exposición Antológica 1975/1995 [Retrospective Exhibition 1975–1995] of Venezuelan painter Adrián Pujol, historian Axel Stein establishes connections between the landscapes of the artist and the other renowned artists [...]

In this text, Marta Traba discusses painter José Campos Biscardi’s solo show Campos (Galería Living Art, Caracas, 1973) as well as his participation in different art salons in Venezuela in 1972 and 1973, asserting that his work has grown more [...]