This interview with Miguel von Dangel, conducted by Aurora Blyde, examines the artist’s career from its beginnings to date, making reference to his chief exhibitions and his most important works. Von Dangel believes it is an artist’s duty to understand, reformulate, and question the image of a society.  In reviewing his artistic production, the painter and sculptor speaks about the principal characteristics that define his work: continual reflection on society; “barroquismo” [baroque style] understood as a dialectic between the sacred and profane, the fusion of history and geography; and nature as an analogy for creation, a new interpretation of landscape and the incorporation of the anthropological American universe.

This interview by journalist Aurora Blyde with the Venezuelan painter and sculptor of German origin, Miguel von Dangel (n. 1946) was conducted for the show Miguel von Dangel Exposición antológica 1963 – 1993 [Miguel von Dangel Retrospective Exhibition 1963-1993] (Caracas: Galería de Arte Nacional, 1994) and included in the exhibition catalogue. It offers an overview of his work and career. At the same time, it offers [the artist’s] reflections on his work, his drive, motivation, and concerns during each of his phases [of work], the distance created by time elapsed allows him to make connections, and link recurring and continuous themes in his discourse. Blyde displays an extensive knowledge of von Dangel’s work and conducts the interview along a chronological perspective which marks each of his transformations; at the same, she contextualizes his work within historic moments in Venezuela that coincidence with von Dangel’s work. In this manner she reinforces von Dangel’s idea of the artist as “the maximum-minimum common denominator of a society” who should assume great responsibility within society through exhaustive reflection. He reiterates: “the everyday and the transcendent are the same thing.”

[For other critical texts on his work, see in the ICAA digital archive: by Yasmin Monsalve

 “Mi obra ha tenido que luchar contra muchos prejuicios: Un premio nacional visto con la luz de Petare” [My work has had to fight against many prejudices: A national prizewinner seen with the light of Petare] (doc. no. 1102125); by Elsa Flores, both “Miguel von Dangel: La respuesta latinoamericana (I)” [Miguel von Dangel: the Latin American Response] (doc. no. 1155150) and “Miguel von Dangel: La respuesta latinoamericana (III)” [Miguel von Dangel: the Latin American Response (III)] (doc. no. 1154906) and “Miguel von Dangel” (doc. no. 1056044); by Roberto Montero Castro “Transfiguraciones de Miguel von Dangel” [Transfigurations of Miguel von Dangel] (doc. no.1153996); the essays by María Luz Cárdenas “La Batalla de San Romano de von Dangel (I) [The Battle of San Romano by von Dangel] (doc. no. 1154028) and “La Batalla de San Romano de von Dangel (II)” [The Battle of San Romano by von Dangel (II)] (doc. no. 1154092); by Ruth Auerbach “Hoy, el paisaje es aquí y ahora” [Today, Landscape is Here and Now] (doc. no. 855314); by  Enrique Viloria “Miguel Von Dangel: La conservación del paisaje americano” [Miguel von Dangel: The Preservation of American Landscape] (doc. no. 1154827); and by Lourdes Blanco “Miguel von Dangel” (doc. no. 1097326); the following interviews by Axel Stein “Interview with Miguel von Dangel” (doc. no. 1102348); “Entrevista con Miguel von Dangel” [Interview with Miguel von Dangel] (doc. no. 1154060); as well as María Josefa Pérez’s “Miguel von Dangel: No creo el cuento de que Reverón era loco” [Miguel von Dangel: I do not believe the tale that Reverón was crazy] (doc. no. 1154012); and finally, the article by Víctor Guédez “Lo barroco y lo simbólico en la obra de Miguel von Dangel” [The Baroque and the Symbolic in the Work of Miguel von Dangel] (doc. no. 1154124)].