In this essay, the Venezuelan curator Adolfo Wilson discusses the work of the Catalan-born Venezuelan archaeologist and artist José María Cruxent (1911–2005). Wilson attempts to provide Cruxent’s painting with a historical pedigree, presenting it as the logical product of the evolution of art, particularly in terms of the steady elimination of the form. The essay is useful because, in order to create a rational background for Cruxent’s work, it includes an exhaustive review of post-Renaissance works of art that explored new ideas and approaches and gradually eliminated the use of form, even geometrical form. In the author’s opinion, this work is the result of artistic and philosophical processes—that are just as important as Cubism—in which every trace of aesthetic composition or structuring has been eliminated. According to Wilson, Cruxent’s work is even more important, since it respects the principles of Informalism but goes beyond them by excluding not just form but any kind of semantic meaning. The curator sees a certain similarity between Leonardo da Vinci and Cruxent, both of whom were scientists and artists, and whose activities neither conflict nor are subordinate to each other; they merely complemented each other. Wilson is effusive in his praise of Cruxent’s work which he describes as pioneering, revitalizing, brave, challenging, visceral, and impetuous.
Regarding the work of the artist José María Cruxent, see his article “La libertad de crear” [doc. no. 1153727]; the biography written by María Luz Cárdenas “El hombre que sabe leer la tierra” [doc. no. 1153744]; and the essay by Alfredo Boulton “J. M. Cruxent: Obras Recientes” (Caracas: Galería Champs Élysées, 1971), subsequently published by the Sala Mendoza in 1973 [doc. no. 1153711].
