In this interview with Miguel von Dangel by French-Venezuelan painter Luis Pannier (b. 1953), von Dangel reflects on art as a religious activity and on the role of the natural environment of the Americas in his work. In von Dangel’s view, the artist’s purpose is to reveal the sacred and the cryptic; his work is an expression of the sometime conflictive relationship between God and man. Von Dangel criticizes artists who produce facile folkloric work that makes use of African-American or indigenous elements without capturing their sacred essence. He explains that the baroque materiality of his work is an expression of the exuberant nature characteristic of the Americas and of his need to reveal it organically, and of the melting pot of cultures in Latin America. Because von Dangel considers himself to have been uprooted from Europe, he has trouble coming to terms with himself in the heart of the American continent.

This interview by painter Luis Pannier (b. 1953) with German-born Venezuelan artist Miguel von Dangel (b. 1946) was written expressly for the catalogue to the group show Sagrado, Caribe y artes plásticas held at Galería Díaz Mancini in Caracas in 1991. Pannier, the interviewer, also took part in the show. The interview addresses the origin of two aspects key to von Dangel’s work, mainly the role and implication of the religious and of nature in his visual discourse.  Though von Dangel had spoken about those questions in earlier interviews, this one provides more nuances because the interviewer is an artist with whom von Dangel had a certain conceptual affinity. Thus, von Dangel’s explains frankly that the origin of the baroque in his visual language lies in a certain bedazzlement before what a European perceives as the profuse and exuberant natural environment of the Americas. Unsatisfied with mere representation, the artist incorporated living organic elements into his work. Insofar as America encompasses different religions, ideologies, and philosophies that von Dangel reflects on and includes in his visual discourse, his production process is socio-cultural in nature. For the artist, the valorization of matter is a sacred act that connects him to the transcendental facet of the natural environment and to the divine source that generates that environment. That is why the artist is, in von Dangel’s view, a “revealer” of the sacred.

For other critical texts on von Dangel’s work, see Yasmin Monsalve’s “Mi obra ha tenido que luchar contra muchos prejuicios: Un premio nacional visto con la luz de Petare” (ICAA digital archive doc. no. 1102125); Elsa Flores’s “Miguel Von Dangel: La respuesta latinoamericana (I)” (doc. no. 1155150), “Miguel Von Dangel: La respuesta latinoamericana (III)” (doc. no. 1154906), and “Miguel Von Dangel” (doc. no. 1056044); Roberto Montero Castro’s essay “Transfiguraciones de Miguel Von Dangel” (doc. no.1153996), published in 1986; María Luz Cárdenas’s essays “La Batalla de San Romano de Von Dangel (I) (doc. no. 1154028) and “La Batalla de San Romano de Von Dangel (II)” (doc. no. 1154092); Ruth Auerbach’s “Hoy, el paisaje es aquí y ahora” (doc. no. 855314), published in 1996; Víctor Guédez’s “Lo barroco y lo simbólico en la obra de Miguel Von Dangel” (doc. no. 1154124); and interviews by Axel Stein “Interview with Miguel Von Dangel” (doc. no. 1102348), published in 1998, by María Cecília Valera “Entrevista con Miguel Von Dangel” (doc. no. 1154060), and by María Josefa Pérez “Miguel Von Dangel: No creo el cuento de que Reverón era loco” (doc. no. 1154012).