This is a summary of the conversation that took place when Fausto Panesso interviewed Enrique Grau in 1991, at the time when Grau was living in New York. Grau begins by discussing how he feels about living in Manhattan, and talks in general terms about the role that the city and urban space play in his work. He outlines his daily routine and describes what he is working on in his studio. He speaks about Colombia and says that he misses the landscape of his native country. He ends by referring to the latest art movements, the craft of the painter, and the relationships that exist between art criticism and the artist’s creative work.

This is a summary of the conversation that took place when the journalist Fausto Panesso (b. 1953) interviewed the Colombian painter Enrique Grau (1920–2004) in 1991, during the celebration of the latter’s fifty-year career as an artist. At the time Grau had been living in New York for eight years, working as a sculptor; sculpture was a genre he explored with considerable success in the last two decades of his artistic career. The interview was originally published in the September 1991 issue of Diners magazine; this text is a reproduction of the portions published that same month in El Heraldo in Barranquilla.

In the early 1990s, Grau was one of the best-known artists in Colombia. The fiftieth anniversary of the start of his artistic career was celebrated with many exhibitions and tributes both in his native country and elsewhere. This interview records Grau’s personal point of view on key issues of interest to art historians, such as the anecdotal aspect of painting, the artist’s craft, and art criticism. 

With regard to the first of these, Grau believes that it should not be ignored by the painter despite the critics’ insistence to the contrary, an opinion that is unflaggingly backed up by his own work. He also believes that craft and skill should be an essential part of a painting’s historical and geographical background, as they are in abundance in his own visual artwork. And finally, with regard to art criticism, he agrees that it is useful as long as it is based on strict research that explores a range of interpretations. With regard to art criticism that is published in the daily newspaper, however, he considers it “not worthy of one’s attention.”   

Enrique Grau was born in Cartagena de Indias. He vaulted into the art world at the Primer Salón Nacional [First National Salon] in 1940, where his Mulata cartagenera [Mulatta from Cartagena] received a mention. This led to a grant from the Colombian government that allowed him to study at the Art Students League in New York. Grau perfected his skill and knowledge there, and in Florence, Italy, where he spent a long time during the 1950s. In the 1960s and 1970s, his work was considered to be one of the defining expressions of Colombian modern art.