The historian Rafael Páez writes about the artist Armando Barrios in the thirteenth booklet of the collection entitled Pintores Venezolanos. In it we find the text “La nueva figuración” where Páez argues that this pictorial phase, begun in 1953, is indebted to his previous contact with both Cubism and geometric abstraction. In his view, the figurative quality of Barrios’s work is only a pretext as an objective to guide the viewer’s gaze, but is not the real objective of his painting. In his view, how he deals with the elements in generating visual expression was his true objective. Páez concludes that the incidental is here displaced by what he intermediately lists as “geometric figuration” or “figurative abstraction”.

Rafael Páez, who was in charge of writing the thirteen booklet in the series entitled Pintores Venezolanos, discussed the work and life of Armando Barrios (1920−99), making it one of the most extensive and important texts written on this subject. The subtitle, La nueva figuración, is one of the various approaches the author employs for Barrios throughout the booklet. In the several chapters of his monograph, Páez outlines an initial attempt of periodization of Barrios’s painting that in light of the historiography of Venezuelan art could be considered pioneering. In general, the references cited by Páez and used in support of his analysis on the chapters are relevant. In addition, the texts that comprised the monograph were profusely illustrated. However, the captions omitted relevant data regarding the works that were referenced in the illustrations, such as technique or the dimensions.  

[As supplementary reading on the work of Barrios, see in the ICAA digital archive the text by Páez “Tradición sin servilismo” (doc. no. 1157968); by Víctor Guédez, from the book Armando Barrios. Lo permanente, lo novedoso y lo influyente, the texts “La pintura y la música” (doc. no. 1158033) and “La conquista de una síntesis multideterminada” (doc. no. 1158065); and by Roberto Guevara “Armando Barrios. Constantes para no seguir adelante” (doc. no. 1158049). Moreover, see the biographical essay written by the critic Juan Röhl, “Introducción” to the Barrios retrospective (doc. no. 1163701)].