By the time the Venezuelan painter and critic Perán Erminy (1929–2018) wrote this text, in 1965, Pedro Briceño (b. 1931) was no longer a promising young Venezuelan artist working in sculpture, as stated by Juan Calzadilla some years earlier, (“Los hierros de Pedro Briceño,” Museo de Bellas Artes, 1959). Indeed, he was an accomplished artist. Erminy deems him very important, since he has worked for a long time and has done high quality, abundant work within the world of twentieth-century Venezuelan sculpture, work even comparable to that of Francisco Narváez. Although, step by step, a new generation has arisen to revive abstract sculpture in Venezuela, Erminy believes that none has reached the level of assurance and mastery of Briceño. The artist’s development has taken place without any abrupt change or rupture, and he has steadily produced work on his own systematic, rigorous, and demanding schedule.
At the critical level, this is an important text, since it reflects the generalized opinion about the scarce stimuli that were provided for sculpture. The critic avails himself of the work created by one artist to represent the discouraging field that is Venezuelan mid-twentieth century sculpture. The reason for the criticism is the lack of support (grants and awards), which have inexplicably been denied to Briceño throughout his creative life as an artist. This has even come to affect the aesthetics of the work he creates, since much of the straightforwardness and simplicity found in his work derives from the low-cost materials to which the artist has been limited.