In this text, the Antilles-born writer Boeli van Leeuwen studies the sculpture of Cornelis Zitman, the Venezuelan artist of Dutch origin, offering a narrative description of the walkthrough that extends from the entrance of La Trinidad Hacienda to the artist’s workshop, and also describes in detail the different sculptures that he finds along the way. He analyzes in minute detail the symbolism of the figures created by Zitman, which highlight the suffering of the indigenous people of South America and the sexuality of their women, as is reflected in works such as L’inconnue (Mujer en hamaca) and Mujer sentada. The writer concludes with a short biographical sketch of the artist and a critique of all the authors who have written about his work, whom he describes as “banal.”

In 1988, the Museo de Bellas Artes, Caracas, held an exhibition of work that the Venezuelan sculptor of Dutch origin, Cornelis Zitman (1926?2016), had shown the year before at the XIX São Paulo Biennial while representing Venezuela. The catalogue text for the exhibition is a first-person narrative of the visit made by the Antilles-born writer and poet Boeli van Leeuwen [Willem Cornelis Jacobus Leeuwen (1922–2007)] to Zitman’s home and workshop. He describes in a lyrical manner all the sensations that emerge as he contemplates the artist’s sculptures. Van Leeuwen believes that no text yet written has truly captured the emotion that Zitman seeks to express in his work. He openly criticizes Marta Traba’s text (Zitman, exhibition catalogue; Caracas: Museo de Arte Contemporáneo of Caracas, 1976), which had been published twelve years before during his retrospective exhibition at the MACC. He considers Traba’s view of the sensuality of Zitman’s work to be “banal.” In van Leeuwen’s opinion, the eroticism of the women in Zitman’s work goes far beyond mere physical description, as they do not belong in the cold museums of Europe, nor in the halls of the “new rich” in Caracas, but in the plazas of the people of the interior of the country and the “ranchos” [squalid homes in the hills] of Caracas.

The text does not make any contributions with regard to the level of artistic or technical content. Instead it comments on the sensory perceptions that emanate from Zitman’s sculptures, such as femininity, sensuality, maternity, and in general, its reflection of the indigenous culture.