The social commentator Santos López interviews Luis Adrián León (alias “Carúpano”) and, during the course of their conversation, discusses the latter’s prints. The author briefly reviews this Venezuelan artist’s creative process, touching on the source of his subject matter, his interest in engraving and printing, his experience as a professor and—most of all—the iconography that distinguishes his works. López discusses the Eros auspicioso exhibition and the formal characteristics that define Carúpano’s work, such as his search for form, volume, space, and the power of the sculptural touch. López gives the artist time to talk about the recognition that Venezuelan engravers receive when they are in other countries.      

When the Venezuelan visual artist Luis Adrián León (Carúpano) (b. 1949) had his one-man show—Eros auspicioso—at the Galería Ángel Boscán, at the Universidad Central de Venezuela (1985), the social commentator and poet Santos López (b. 1955) reviewed the exhibition and wrote this article, which includes a good description of Carúpano’s visual art. 

The author describes the works in thematic and technical terms, and includes biographical notes and anecdotes that increase the viewer’s appreciation of the show. For example, he provides details about the poems and writers’ names that Carúpano uses to identify his exhibitions and works. López also allows him to talk at length about his creative process and his personal views on engraving and printmaking, as a technique or as a commercial venture. He also mentions the bias against printmaking that surfaces at Salons, fueled by the fact that a print can be duplicated many times over. The artist also mentions the enriching effect of his role as a teacher. 

This article is therefore—together with Humberto Mata’s essay written in 1985 for the catalogue for the same exhibition, titled “El luminoso” [doc. no. 1165772]—a first-hand account that provides details about Carúpano’s creative process, which is essential material for gaining a better understanding of this artist’s body of work.