This document is a conversation between curator Ruth Auerbach and Venezuelan artist Eugenio Espinoza (b. 1950) in connection with the individual exhibition, Paramount Pictures (Caracas: Galería Sotavento, 1989). The Galería Sotavento was owned by Auerbach along with Zuleiva Vivas, who was also a curator. During the 1980s, this gallery performed the important work of disseminating and studying contemporary art in Venezuela. This text is a primary source that provides precise clues for understanding the work of Eugenio Espinoza, one of the Venezuelan masters of the 1970s, tied to the language of Conceptual art. Here, Espinoza defines his work based on his reasons and interests. To a certain extent, though never explicitly, the artist’s statements contradict some of the critic’s opinions on his work and influences. The artist states: “I never wanted to be an Abstract Expressionist painter,” reminding the reader that after 1972, he created the Tachones [placing blocks of wood in different contexts], Conceptual art, Polaroids, and installations. In response to Auerbach’s question about which prevails in his work—the painting or the concept—Espinoza states his growing desire to move away from “painting made by hand.” Instead, he prefers to construct his works mentally; that is, to create a concept.
Espinoza is just as precise regarding his influences, citing the United States artists Jasper Johns and Frank Stella. At the same time, he denies the attribution of the grid (which is an element characteristic of his work) to Kazimir Malevich or Piet Mondrian. This is one of the most interesting contributions of this 1989 document: Espinoza’s basic ideas on authorship and appropriation. In addition, we have the overview of the artist’s ethical, aesthetic, and formal thinking that is most relevant to his artistic endeavor. Espinoza refers to the grid as an anonymous object, a symbolic form that pertains to the unconscious; it is not anyone’s property; nobody invented it; it has always existed and has no owner.
Referring to the titles of his works, Espinoza states that they emerge from urban words that, like the grid, pertain to the unconscious and popular culture.