In this poetic essay, the Venezuelan painter and art critic Carlos Contramaestre (1933–96) describes his visit to the versatile Venezuelan peasant artisan Juan Félix Sánchez (1900–97). On the way, Contramaestre travels across one of the bleak plateaus in the state of Mérida. This is perhaps one of the first important articles in what is now an extensive archive of newspaper pieces about the Andean artist. Alongside his art career—which began with his involvement in the avant-garde El Techo de la Ballena group (Caracas, 1961–67)—Contramaestre devoted himself to discovering and promoting a number of artists who operated outside of academic circles, such as Emerio Darío Lunar, Salvador Valero, Antonio José Fernández “el Hombre del Anillo,” Josefa Sulbarán, Gonzalo Eraso, and Juan Félix Sánchez. He wrote several newspaper articles and exhibition catalogue essays about the latter. Setting aside the fact that Sánchez had been weaving traditional blankets since he was a young man, Contramaestre focuses on his architectural and sculptural work at El Tisure. He provides precise details about the start of construction at the Sanctuary of Our Lady of Coromoto (the Patron Saint of Venezuela) and the Venerable José Gregorio Hernández (1864–1919), its consecration in 1965, and its transformation into a pilgrimage destination for surrounding villages. He also refers to the creation of the Stations of the Cross (1968) made of wood-carved figures inspired by the Passion of Christ. Contramaestre draws on European references for his appraisal of the artist, mentioning the poetry of the Comte de Lautréamont, and the architecture of Antoni Gaudí and Ferdinand Cheval. But above all, Contramaestre identifies this traditional artist’s two fundamental influences as the syncretic legacy of the Christian faith and the Timoto–Cuica tradition, and the magical nature of the environment and its enchanted legends.
This essay was originally published as an offprint by the journal of the Asociación de Profesores de la Universidad de los Andes, Mérida and, shortly afterwards, in “Papel Literario,” the newspaper column in El Nacional, in 1979. It was subsequently included in Contramaestre’s posthumous book, Poética del escalpelo (Caracas: CONAC, 2000), pp. 163-68; 177-78.