In the second part of this essay, Elsa Flores concludes her critical analysis of the work of visual artist Miguel von Dangel featured in the São Paulo Biennial. Flores examines the underlying premise that the combination of elements in von Dangel’s work is what makes his art “Latin American.” She argues that the accumulation and jumble of elements in von Dangel’s work reflects the “chaos” characteristic of Latin American society and culture. Von Dangel’s work, therefore, breaks with traditional lines between genres and between figuration and abstraction.  His excessively ornate and tangled forms reflect the idea of “the marvelous real,” which reflects the regional accumulative baroque sensibility. Flores concludes that von Dangel’s “Latin American response” to the international art scene partakes of the subcontinental landscape, mestizo culture, and mythology.

El regreso de la cuarta nave [The Return of the Fourth Ship, 1982] was one of the emblematic works by German-born Venezuelan artist Miguel von Dangel (b. 1946) featured in the XVII São Paulo Biennial. In her discussion of those works, Argentinean critic Elsa Flores, who lived in Venezuela for a period, formulates the thesis that von Dangel’s work is a consciously “Latin American” response to the international art scene—an argument she backs up with the artist’s own writing and commentaries.  

In the second part of her essay, Flores analyzes the main characteristics of von Dangel’s poetics. She argues that because of the way the artist combines elements, his discourse is decidedly Latin American. Flores places emphasis on the jumbled nature of von Dangel’s work, to which she applies the notion of “the marvelous real” formulated by Cuban author Alejo Carpentier. Insofar as it is heterogeneous, hybrid, and tremendista, von Dangel’s work illustrates the baroque Latin American spirit.

The second part of this article was published in the Caracas-based newspaper El Nacional on December 11, 1983, under the title “Miguel Von Dangel: La respuesta latinoamericana (I)” (see ICAA digital archive doc. no. 1155150).

For other critical texts on von Dangel’s work, see Yasmin Monsalve, “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, “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, “La Batalla de San Romano de Von Dangel (II)” (doc. no. 1154092), published in 1990; Ruth Auerbach, “Hoy, el paisaje es aquí y ahora”, (doc. no. 855314), published in 1996; Julio Ortega’s essay, “La iridiscencia del ojo de la materia o como leer un objeto artístico procesal” (doc. no. 1155251), published in 1997; and Axel Stein, “Interview with Miguel Von Dangel” (doc. no. 1102348), originally published in English in 1998.