In this text, Bélgica Rodríguez describes the creation of the Taller de Artistas Gráficos Asociados (TAGA). She explains that it was conceived as a workspace where printmakers could produce their projects. Rodríguez mentions those responsible for getting the effort underway and for its early sponsorship, as well as the workshop’s aims, aspirations, and bylaws. She explains that TAGA acted as a gathering place and workspace for the artist members, who hoped to build a market for authored graphic work. These artists, she explains, joined efforts to purchase the necessary equipment, which was costly, and to provide a space suited to training printers. The article asserts the importance of distributing copies at institutions and cultural centers, as well as registering an inventory of artists' proofs produced by TAGA members.   

The Taller de Artistas Gráficos Asociados (TAGA) represented a continuation of the Taller de Luisa Zuloaga de Palacios (la Nena), a watershed in the history of Venezuelan graphic art and a gathering point for artists during the sixties. TAGA also drew sustenance from the rich experience at the Centro de Enseñanza Gráfica (CEGRA). Indeed, the printing project, as the critic Bélgica Rodriguez remarks, was only possible if a graduate of CEGRA could be hired to operate it (see “El CEGRA 5 (cinco) años después” by critic Roberto Guevara (1933–1998), ICAA digital archive doc. no. 1153429). TAGA, like the Taller de Palacios before it, was informal in terms of rules, aims, and objectives. The organization represented a mature stage in the history of graphic art in Venezuela.

Because this article by Venezuelan critic Bélgica Rodríguez (b. 1941) was published soon after TAGA was launched, it does not list all the people involved in the project; however, it does mention Luisa Palacios. Unlike other articles from the time, this one does not distinguish between founding and non-founding members.

For another critical essay on TAGA, see “La gráfica venezolana y el TAGA” by Roberto Montero Castro (doc. no. 1081178).