Damián Bayón reviews Alejandro Otero’s paintings and sculptures in search of what he calls their “dynamic space.” The Argentine critic and historian discusses Otero’s earliest work and the synthesis in his landscapes, then associates his series Las cafeteras with his emerging use of dynamism. The idea is expressed differently in the series Coloritmos, in which Bayón identifies a reserve of dynamism. In Bayón’s opinion, Otero’s “civic” or public sculptures represent an occupation of a changing space, given their separation from the plane and their apparent instability. He ends his review by calling Otero’s work an example of a universal expression that has been translated from the perspective of the Americas.  

In 1975, the Venezuela painter and sculptor Alejandro Otero (1921–90) was invited to the XIII Bienal de São Paulo at a time when he was already involved in two retrospective exhibitions of his work, one at the Galería Adler/Castillo in Caracas, and the other at the University of Texas at Austin. The critic and historian Damián Carlos Bayón (1916–95) wrote about the latter, while engaged as a visiting professor at UT. In his essay, Bayón discusses the concept of “dynamism” and Otero’s interest in Kinetic art, which he embraced in his painting and in his three-dimensional works. The author describes Otero’s experiments in terms of structure, abstraction, and even space, thereby adding depth to the critical and theoretical considerations already in play. In his opinion “dynamism” emerges from the pictorial arrangement of lines and color vibrations and generates real movement in urban space. It is therefore a connecting thread that Bayón uses to show an overall consistency based on elements that are common to all the component parts. In his essay, he presents the 1970s as the time when Otero fully engages with technology—in his “civic” or public sculptures—and when a great deal of attention was being paid to the transformation of energy and movement into images and visual experiences.  

[To read other essays about this artist’s work, see the following material in the ICAA digital archive: by J. R. Guillent Pérez (another member of Los Disidentes) “Realidad e irrealidad. El postigo de Alejandro Otero” (doc. no. 1172158); by Guillermo Meneses “La exposición de Alejandro Otero Rodríguez” (doc. no. 1097092); by Roberto Guevara “La vertical vibrante de Maracay, 1968” (doc. no. 1168201); the essay by François Sego in the catalogue for the exhibition Alejandro Otero (1949) (doc. no. 850732); the article by Héctor Mujica “La nueva plástica venezolana” (doc. no. 850512); the essay by María Elena Ramos “Alejandro Otero: indagar en las estructuras de la realidad” (doc. no. 1167733); the review by Ernesto Guevara “Sólo quisiera ser puntual. El tiempo en la pintura de Alejandro Otero” (doc. no. 1163813); the articles by Juan Calzadilla “Exposiciones en Caracas: Alejandro Otero - Galería Mendoza” (doc. no 1172174), and “Alejandro Otero y la enseñanza del arte” (doc. no. 1167940); the article by Miguel Otero Silva “Sobre unas declaraciones disidentes del pintor Alejandro Otero Rodríguez” (doc. no. 813737); and, finally, the reviews by José Ratto-Ciarlo “En pro y en contra de Alejandro Otero” (doc. no. 850770), and Juan Carlos Palenzuela “Una conciencia de arte latinoamericano” (doc. no. 1163142)].