Venezuelan poet Ida Gramcko presents the last exhibition of the term and final exhibition of CEGRA (Centro de Enseñanza Gráfica, Caracas) [Center for Graphic Studies, Caracas]. In her text, she underscored the fundamental concept that drives graphic education: “no es lo mismo conocer y recorrer todas las técnicas, saber la historia del grabado o de la pintura, que vislumbrar (…) que todo lo adquirido ha de ir al encuentro de alguna singularidad plástica”. [Knowing the techniques, knowing the history of engraving or painting, is not the same thing as realizing (…) that everything one learns must serve the creation of a unique art.] Gramcko describes the work of each student, and points out that some of them do not espouse with pleasant attitudes. In conclusion, she states that this is the final exhibition of [CEGRA]: it will become the Instituto Superior de Arte.  

This text by Venezuelan poet Ida Gramcko (1925–1994) marks the end of an era in Venezuelan graphic arts education, and it is dedicated to the last exhibition of the term and the final exhibition of CEGRA (Centro de Enseñanza Gráfica). The institution graduated six classes over thirteen years; it marked an important stage in the history of graphic education in Venezuela, as the Venezuelan critic and artist Juan Calzadilla (b. 1931) points out in the CEGRA catalogue Promoción 1979/1981 (Caracas: CONAC, 1981). It was the first attempt to institutionalize graphic education in an autonomous manner. Gramcko’s text covers the end [of that era], as Calzadilla had written about its beginning. She celebrates the talents of the students and their willingness to confront challenges. Today [this text] can also be read as praising the innovative spirit of those who created this workshop-school. Gramcko stated: “Creo que los expositores de la última promoción del CEGRA (. . .) han aprendido la dura lección de que no es fácil crear, de que no es suficiente volcar contenidos parciales o particulares ya que la obra no es un vertedero de la subjetividad”. [I believe that the exhibitors in this final CEGRA class (. . . ) have learned the hard lesson that it is not easy to create, that it is not sufficient to reject biased or individual concepts, as art is not a dump of subjectivity. Although Gramcko refers to the work by the students, it is possible to read (between the lines) [and discern an appreciation for] the reformist and forward-thinking vision of a model school that was closing its doors. CEGRA was closed in 1990 so that it could become part of the Instituto Superior de Arte, IUESAPAR (Instituto de Estudios Superiores de Artes Plásticas Armando Reverón, Caracas, created in 1991), which itself later became part of the Universidad Nacional Experimental de las Artes (UNIARTES, Caracas, created in 2008).

For other critical texts on CEGRA, see the ICAA digital archive, by Roberto Guevara, “El CEGRA 5 (cinco) años después,” [CEGRA Five Years Later] (doc. no. 1153429)]