This interview is an important document because it records the opinions expressed by the Colombian artist Aníbal Gil Villa (b. 1932) concerning the Twelfth São Paulo Biennial, the landmark international contemporary art event that began in 1951, and because it allowed the artist to talk about his muralist period in the early years of his career. Oscar Ladmann, the honorary Colombian consul in São Paulo, invited an artist from the Antioquia region of Colombia to attend the opening of the Brazilian Biennial; therefore, Gil Villa was present as an observer. In his remarks on the prizewinning work by the Belgian artist Jean-Michel Folon (1934−2005), Gil refers to a couple of quotes drawn from international publications—Le Nouvel Observateur and Graphis—that he translated.
At the exhibition at the Centro Coltejer in Medellín in 1973, Aníbal Gil exhibited large prints that were inspired by his own personal experience and alluded to his motherless childhood, the Colombian Violence, rural peasants, and imprisoned or solitary men.
In his earliest phase (before his first trip to Europe), Gil produced landscapes and studies of the human body; he has explored these subjects throughout his career, in murals and watercolors. In 1952 to 1953, at the Escuela de Artes Plásticas at the Instituto de Bellas Artes in Medellín, he took classes from the painter Rafael Sáenz (1910−98), and from art instructors such as Fernando Botero (b. 1932), Rodrigo Callejas (b. 1937), and Augusto Rendón (b. 1933). Gil complemented the training he received in his native city by reading books that were available to him during his stay in Italy, including Universalismo constructivo by the Uruguayan artist Joaquín Torres García (1874−1949) and the Treatise on Landscape Painting by André Lhote (1885−1962). These books taught Gil about the value of symbols and introduced him to “psychological space,” as reported by the Colombian art historian Santiago Londoño Vélez (b. 1955) in his book Aníbal Gil (2009). In 1954 Gil went to Europe to study al fresco mural painting in Florence, Italy. During his second phase he began exploring printmaking, which he appreciated for its growing popularity and aesthetic power, and especially for its potential in terms of expressing a message, its versatility as a medium for artistic expression, and the speed and economy it offered in reaching a variety of different audiences. In the article, Gil reports that he will be taking part in the II Bienal Americana de Artes Gráficas in Cali (1973), where he exhibited his works ¿Quiere Ud. la paz? (1972) and Pequeño Homenaje (1973).
Aníbal Gil is considered a pioneer in the field of printmaking in Medellín for a number of reasons. He founded the Taller de Grabado at the Instituto de Artes Plásticas at the Universidad de Antioquia in 1964 with the help of the Colombian sculptor Rodrigo Arenas Betancourt (1939–95), who was the director of the Instituto at the time. He also created the position of drawing professor at the Universidad Nacional at Medellín, and organized the first exhibition of works by students of printmaking at the Universidad de Antioquia’s Instituto de Artes Plásticas at the Museo de Zea in 1968. The academy played a very important role in the development of the graphic arts in Medellín, which was distinct from what happened in Cali, where international events such as the American Biennials of Graphic Arts were organized. This encouraged the launch of graphic art shops founded by Colombian and international artists, such as the Grabas group, the Taller Cuadrante, and the Taller Corporación Prográfica de Cali. Aníbal Gil was a teacher of teachers. His students included the Colombian artists Saturnino Ramírez (1946−2002) and Fabián Rendón (1953−2000), and painters and printmakers who belonged to the 1970s generation of artists in the city of Medellín.