Documents of Latin American and Latino Art

In this essay, the critic Roberto Guevara discusses the Cuban-born Venezuelan painter Rolando Dorrego’s career and latest work. Guevara begins with a review of the art movement of the early 1970s (in which Dorrego was an active participant), which [...]

In this essay, Roberto Guevara gives an overview of Gego’s career, [based on a selection of works that are] on display at the São Paulo Biennial. Guevara describes how Gego’s work has evolved from her early sculptures in the 1950s to her latest [...]

Roberto Guevara reviewed Gego’s Reticulárea (1969) when it was first installed at the Museo de Bellas Artes [Museum of Fine Arts] in Caracas. He mentions the artist’s use of space within the Reticulárea, which acquires a new environmental [...]

This text written by the art critic Roberto Guevara is the preface to the catalogue for the exhibition Pinturas, which exhibited work by the French artist Marcel Floris, who had been living in Caracas since 1950. The exhibition was held at the Museo [...]

Here, Roberto Guevara presents the objectives of the First Camille Pissarro Biennial (Centro Cultural Consolidado, Caracas, 1992). The event was organized to strengthen the ties between Venezuela and France as well as stimulate the development of [...]

This essay by the critic and curator Roberto Guevara appeared in the catalogue for the exhibition 10 pintores venezolanos de la nueva figuración. In his opinion, figuration has gone down the same cyclical and unstable path as all the other [...]

In this critical article, published in the exhibition catalogue, Roberto Guevara discusses some of the works shown at the Primera Bienal de Artes Visuales Christian Dior (Museo de Arte Contemporáneo de Caracas, 1989), and sheds light on the [...]

The Venezuelan critic Roberto Guevara introduces the exhibition of works by the first group of artists to have graduated from CEGRA (Centro de Enseñanza Gráfica, Caracas). In his article, Guevara discusses art instruction and describes CEGRA as an [...]

In this critical essay, Roberto Guevara reviews Elsa Gramcko’s geometric abstraction work. Guevara discusses the importance of the abstract movement (to which he belongs) in Venezuela in the 1950s, which he sees as a new and vigorous expression of [...]

In this text, the Venezuelan art critic Roberto Guevara analyzes the visual art of Spanish-born artist Ángel Luque. He relates the new chromatic experimentations made by the artist to works by such artists as Herbin, Manessier, Picasso, and the [...]

In “Armando Barrios,” his essay about the Venezuelan artist, the critic Roberto Guevara reviews Armando Barrios. Retrospectiva, the exhibition presented at the Galería de Arte Nacional from 1977 through 1978. Guevara reviews the exhibition and [...]

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 “ [...]

In this review, Roberto Guevara discusses the exhibition Más duquesas y majas de la calle Carabobo, pinturas, dibujos, collages y acuarelas de Diego Barboza (Caracas: Galería Félix, 1987). Guevara explains that Barboza has returned to painting and [...]

This essay by Roberto Guevara was published in the catalogue for Re-presentaciones: foto-grafías y acupinturas (Caracas: Fundación Eugenio Mendoza, 1981), the exhibition of works by the Venezuelan geographer and conceptual artist Claudio Perna. [...]

This article by the critic Roberto Guevara is about 1 x 9: color de la serigrafía, the exhibition of works by the artist Mercedes Pardo at the Museo de Bellas Artes in Caracas. Guevara skims through the painter’s various earlier phases, and then [...]

In this essay, the Venezuelan critic Roberto Guevara not only addresses the Pop art work of the Venezuelan-North American sculptor Marisol [Escobar] but also the varied characteristics of her personality. Guevara examines the underlying true [...]

In this article, the critic Roberto Guevara discusses the origins and emergence of new languages in contemporary art, which he groups under the heading of “conceptual art.” He mentions a number of examples, such as happenings, installations, and [...]

The critic Roberto Guevara discusses the exhibition presented at the Galería Conkright in Caracas, paying particular attention to the room devoted to Carlos Cruz-Diez and his Colores aditivos (Additive Colors). The article concentrates mainly [...]

The critic Roberto Guevara reviews the career of the Venezuelan ceramicist Noemí Márquez from a perspective that underscores her strategies in terms of the environment. Using this idea as his organizing principle, Guevara addresses each stage in [...]

In this article, the critic Roberto Guevara reflects on Venezuelan artist Mary Brandt’s work on account of the posthumous exhibition organized by the GAN (Galería de Arte Nacional) in Caracas. For Guevara, painting by this artist “experienced [...]

Critic Roberto Guevara presents an exhibition on CEGRA (Centro de Enseñanza Gráfica, Caracas), five years after its creation, analyzing the evolution of CEGRA in response to the state of arts education in Venezuela. He also states that at its start [...]

In this essay, published in the catalogue for the first edition of the Bienal Barro de América (1992), the art critic Roberto Guevara discusses the concept of being uprooted and what that means in terms of a Venezuelan event that seeks to establish [...]

In his critical review, Roberto Guevara addresses the roles of “process” and experimentation in the painter Ismael Mundaray’s work. Guevara evaluates Mundaray’s expressive resources and discusses the dynamic that allows the artist’s [...]

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 [...]

The critic Roberto Guevara suggests that the contrast in the Czech-born Venezuelan artist Marietta Berman’s two- and three-dimensional pieces appropriates space in her highly personal work. Guevara notes that the two-dimensional pieces in the [...]

Roberto Guevara reviews the work that Gego presented at the exhibition, Gego: Esculturas. 1957–1967 [Gego: Sculpture, 1957–1967] (Caracas: Galería Conkright, 1967). Guevara states that the exhibition is clear and convincing proof of the [...]

The synopsis and the annotations in English are coming soon.                                However, our bilingual readers can click on “Español” to access this information in Spanish [...]

Roberto Guevara’s review of Gego’s Reticulárea (1969) was written a year after the work was created and originally installed. Guevara calls it the most complete installation in Venezuelan visual art up to that point (1970) because the open [...]

The basis of curator Roberto Guevara’s critical discussion of the exhibition Figuración / Fabulación is an analysis of, among other things, the origin of the term “Latin America” and the search for a regional identity. Guevara states that his [...]

In this essay, the well-known critic Roberto Guevara discusses the works by the Venezuelan artist Julio Pacheco Rivas exhibited at the Galería Estudio Actual (Caracas, 1978–79). Guevara explains this artist’s lifelong interest in painting [...]

In this article, the well-known critic Roberto Guevara explains the connection between Jesús Rafael Soto’s visual art and a number of scientific theories. Guevara goes on to discuss certain fundamental concepts in Soto’s vast body of work, such [...]

This essay by Roberto Guevara was published in the catalogue for the exhibition of works by Adrián Pujol at the Galería de Arte Nacional de Caracas in November 1995. Guevara analyzes Pujol’s work, and discusses the Majorca-born Venezuelan painter [...]

In this article, the critic Roberto Guevara reviews the works presented by the artist Mario Abreu at the exhibition Objetos Mágicos (Museo de Bellas Artes de Caracas, 1965). Guevara states that Abreu’s magical objects are among the most important [...]

In this interview, Roberto Guevara addresses the entire art life of Jesús Rafael Soto, from his first artistic experience until the time he became an established visual artist. The dialogue explains the concepts, movements, and artists that guided [...]

The Venezuelan critic Roberto Guevara discusses Vertical vibrante—the work by the Venezuelan painter and sculptor Alejandro Otero—which he considers to be a seminal achievement in the Venezuelan visual arts. Guevara ponders the different stages [...]

In this article, the critic Roberto Guevara reviews Nenias, the exhibition of works by the artist and graphic designer Gerd Leufert, who lived in Venezuela, at the Museo de Bellas Artes de Caracas. Guevara salutes the originality of Leufert’s work [...]

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 [...]

In this article, the critic Roberto Guevara discusses the early days of the Venezuelan graphic arts, explaining that graphic artists were self-taught, and recalling the recent past of this particular technique. Guevara analyzes the importance of the [...]

In this text, Roberto Guevara provides a brief critical overview of Venezuelan artist Mateo Manaure’s artistic development. In Manaure’s case, Guevara explains, it is difficult to apply the idea that all aspects of an artist must be taken into [...]

The critic Roberto Guevara comments on Mateo Manaure’s pinturas sobremontaje. In the critic’s opinion, this series represents one of the artist’s most noteworthy contributions, after his achievements in the field of geometric abstract art, [...]

In this essay, the critic Roberto Guevara reviews the Venezuelan painter Mateo Manaure’s career, referring to his different stages and radical changes. Guevara discusses Manaure’s abstract, surrealist, and informalist works over the course of [...]

In this article for El Nacional’s Artes Plásticas section, art critic Roberto Guevara analyzes both paintings and screenprints by modernist artist Mercedes Pardo. His view is introduced with a reflection on the ongoing “search for [...]

Art critic Roberto Guevara states in El Nacional that Venezuelan plastic arts are facing “one of the most difficult periods of their history.” According to him, there is, in spite of their talent, a lack of “creative determination& [...]

Roberto Guevara reviews what are described as the first and second stages in Corina Briceño’s career as an artist. Guevara begins by contextualizing her generation; he mentions that she is committed to reclaiming “a new humanism” expressed [...]

This article—which appeared in the catalogue for Relieves en el espacio (Caracas: Galería Estudio Actual, 1970), the exhibition of works by the Italian graphic designer Nedo—discusses the last twenty years of the latter’s career as a painter. [...]

In this essay, Roberto Guevara begins reviewing the work of the sculptor Marisol [Escobar] by discussing her career as a visual artist. He focuses mainly on the iconographic aspect of her work and explains that, thanks to this feature, she has [...]

In his article, “Para estar con Gego” [To Be with Gego], Roberto Guevara discusses the Venezuelan artist’s creative discipline and describes the originality of her works, which are in a constant state of growth and development. Guevara mentions [...]

In this essay, Roberto Guevara discusses Gaudí Esté’s visual art, acknowledging the importance of the Venezuelan sculptor’s relationship with wood, her material of choice. Guevara sees similarities between her carvings and Russian “matryoshka [...]

Venezuelan critic Roberto Guevara comments on the underlying concept of the Venezuelan representation at the XII São Paulo Biennial in 1973; it consisted of a collective work by Margot Römer, Ana María Mazzei, William Stone, Rolando Dorrego, and [...]

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 [...]