This brief biography of Colombian artist Fabián Rendón by journalist Marisol Cano Busquets and poet Juan Manuel Roca is based on an interview held in Rendón’s studio. The authors consider Rendón a draftsman, printmaker, and a dedicated illustrator of texts, a line of work that he pursued along with his widely known work in the linocut medium. The article includes sections about Rendón’s academic training, his early experience working in graphic art, and the importance of chance to the linocut technique. In the sections on printmaking, Rendón reflects on the literary framework of his drawings. He compares the act of drawing to “a form of exorcism” or confiding. At the end of the article when he discusses his work as an illustrator, Rendón mentions José Antonio Suárez, Darío Villegas, and other illustrators from Medellín with whom he is identified due to a shared “mystique that invites us to devour ourselves.”

This article consists of one of the few interviews given by printmaker Fabián Rendón (1953–2000). It was a main feature in the Magazín Dominical, the Sunday magazine of the newspaper El Espectador, for which Rendón did outstanding illustrations. Another issue of the Magazín (no. 681, June 2, 1996) published “Fabián Rendón: El estilo como ética,” a text on Rendón by poet and art critic Samuel Vásquez (b. 1949). This interview is important to the study of graphic art in Colombia insofar as it articulates the reflections of a figure central to the linocut medium and to illustration. For Rendón, illustration was neither an occasional activity nor a minor art, but a part of his overall artistic project. 

Other printmakers from Medellín who also illustrated texts include José Antonio Suárez Londoño (b. 1955) and Darío Villegas (b. 1961). In intimate and mostly small-format graphic work, they combine the craft of the draftsman with the painstaking work of the printmaker. The work of these artists was actively promoted by local galleries and cultural publications.  

Fabián Rendón studied at the Universidad de Antioquia’s School of Art and at the Taller Libre of the Museo de Zea of Medellín (called the Museo de Antioquia starting in 1978). He was a disciple of Aníbal Gil (b. 1932). His work focused on the linocut because he considered it an ideal medium for experimenting with the textures of his ink drawings. His prints depict fantastic beings and characters. Artist Luis Fernando Uribe (b. 1950) also produced widely in the linocut medium. Rendón founded a studio in Medellín that concentrated on the expressive potential of that technique.

At the time of this interview, Marisol Cano Busquets was the director of the Magazín Dominical, the Sunday magazine of the newspaper El Espectador, and Juan Manuel Roca (b. 1946) was its editorial coordinator. A journalist, Cano Busquets has a degree in social communications. She directed the Magazín Dominical for thirteen years (1984–1997). A poet, journalist, and essayist, Roca holds an honorary degree in literature from the Universidad del Valle. He also received the Premio Nacional de Poesía given by the Colombian Ministerio de Cultura in 2004. Roca has worked on editorial projects with visual artists like José Antonio Suárez and Fabián Rendón, with whom he published the book Cartografía memoria (2003). A weekly publication, the Magazín Dominical, produced by the newspaper Espectador, was known for featuring intellectuals and artists, and was therefore important in the field of cultural journalism.