The critic and curator Francisco Da Antonio salutes the Venezuelan folk painter Bárbaro Rivas and reintroduces him with biographical details and an explanation of the circumstances involved in the production of some of his works. The critic mentions the original mystery concerning his authenticity, his acknowledgment by critics, artists, and the public, and the valuable message in his religious, landscape, and portrait work. In his review, Da Antonio approves of the painter’s Figurative style in an avant-garde world, and discusses techniques and collectors.  

Among Venezuelan critics, Francisco Da Antonio (b. 1930) enjoys the distinction of having known the one-of-a-kind folk painter Bárbaro Rivas (1893–1967), and spent time with him and promoted him. In this essay, written in honor of the first centenary of the painter’s birth, Da Antonio writes in great detail about how he met him and gained his trust, especially after the critic came out as a painter. This essay excels in several areas, as in its wealth of biographical information about Rivas (his various jobs, his family, where he lived, his moves, and so on), and the descriptions of a number of his works. Religious or profane subjects are featured, indicating approximate dates when works were produced, his work in collections, his use of techniques (collage), and his development of a series. The essay mentions the story about the public’s and the critics’ original doubt concerning his existence, and the suspicion that the works were by the person who supposedly discovered them, or even the mistrust raised by the photograph of those present when Rivas was buried in 1967, a group that includes the famous landscape painter Manuel Cabré, the ex-director of the Museo de Bellas Artes. Despite the careful press documentation and the precise technical details about the artist’s main works, Da Antonio endorses content over the formalism that flooded Venezuela as a result of the explosion of the avant-gardes of the 1950s and 1960s. Da Antonio’s essay paints an emotional picture of the painter; it is the most powerful attempt so far to bring Rivas to national attention. The catalogue for Imágenes y revelaciones, produced by the GAN (Galería de Arte Nacional), contributes other essays by Anita Tapias, Willian Niño, and Miguel von Dangel.

[To read more essays about this artist by the critic Francisco Da Antonio, see the following material in the ICAA digital archive: “Bárbaro Rivas: apunte para un retrato [1956]” (doc. no. 1101933), and “Introducción: del arte ingenuo al arte popular” (doc. no. 1164485)].