In this book, psychologist Jorge Nunes includes a series of interviews with Venezuelan painter César Rengifo. He delves into numerous aspects, some unpublished, of the life and work of the artist. Of the twenty-eight chapters that compose this book, the chapter that gives name to the book stands out: “El retorno a las raíces” [A Return to Roots]. In this chapter, Nunes delves into Rengifo’s experiences upon his return from Mexico. The artist describes how Mexican muralism influenced his search for an aesthetic of his own, the controversy that his first individual exhibition generated in Venezuela, his criticism of the Escuela de Artes Plásticas y Aplicadas in Caracas, his impressions of the artistic milieu of the time and his opinion of a group of professors, art critics, and artists of the country that exercised a great deal of influence at that time.

In 1980 at the request of the GAN (Galería de Arte Nacional), Venezuelan-Portuguese psychologist, poet, professor, and writer Jorge Nunes (1942?2012) produced this book of interviews on Venezuelan César Rengifo (1915–80), which is one of his last and most complete testimonials. Although the author’s language is replete with poetic metaphors describing Rengifo’s work (with rather naïve and basic analysis), the work is still of historic and documentary interest for the breadth and depth of themes covered during five months of interviews. The interviewer not only captures the testimony of the artist, he also interprets and analyzes what is articulated, between questions, making invaluable revelations about Rengifo’s past. He also has the artist make predictions on the course of national art, expressing his political and social expectations in relation to it. In this sense and based on his experiences, the interviews compel Rengifo to critique his generation, and to reveal his stance as a political activist and his own vision of Venezuela’s historical-aesthetic evolution up to 1980. The affinity between the two adds a critical-analytical tone of great interest to the universe of multiple interpretations of Rengifo’s work and life.

For additional information on Rengifo, see the interview with the artist conducted by the Venezuelan journalist Silvia Coronil, “El arte y la política vistos por César Rengifo. En entrevista exclusiva con ‘Tribuna Popular’” (doc. no. 1172426), where Rengifo speaks of his winning the CONAC prize; as well as Irma Valero’s “César Rengifo: ‘No hay arte sin ideología’” (doc. no. 1141917).