The deterioration of the site occupied by the Taller Libre de Arte (TLA) [(in Caracas)] was evident in this [March 4, 1967] news item. The news piece reported on an order to repair the sanitary facilities and electrical system of the workshop and the spaces as necessary. The readers learned that the order was issued by Mr. Consalvi, [president] of the Instituto Nacional de Cultura y Bellas Artes (INCIBA) and that once remodeled, the workshop would resume its activities. Moreover, conversations about improving the organization would be started based on reports drafted by alumni about its needs (including the shortage of work materials). Also transcribed in this article is a letter written to the INCIBA and signed by TLA students concerned about the future of the institution. In their letter, they declared their support for any initiative to reorganize the workshop, along with their hope that the basic concept of the TLA would be maintained.

One of the people interviewed, Celso Pérez, then director of the Taller Libre de Arte (TLA), was a founding member of La Barraca de Maripérez, together with Raúl Infante, Pedro León Zapata, Perán Erminy, Sergio González, Enrique Sardá, and Alirio Oramas. The fact is that La Barraca de Mariperez was organized by artists thrown out of the Caracas art school Escuela de Artes Plásticas y Aplicadas in 1945 as a result of a strike. These artists proposed that they keep on training artists independently, and some of them threw in their lot with the TLA (Zapata, Erminy, González, Sardá, and Oramas). The article points out the physical, administrative, and financial deterioration of the TLA along with its technical deficiencies. On occasion, these faults had been pointed out by instructors and students and even admitted by the administration. It is noteworthy that the statements made about the TLA at the time confirmed that it had become an academic center, which turned its original purpose on its head. The article also gave the TLA address on Avenida Andrés Bello, where it had been located for the previous four years. For more information on the TLA, see the ICAA digital archive: the (untitled) text introducing the Taller, written by Rafael Pineda (doc. no. 1101650">1101650); two prefaces, both “Texto presentación,” by Bernardo Chataing, on the first TLA collective (doc. no. 1101666), and “Texto presentación 3 Salón de jóvenes pintores del Taller Libre de Arte,” by Luis Berroterán (doc. no. 1063067). Another untitled article by Rafael Pineda is [“Llegó el momento de ordenar el lenguaje universal (…)”] (doc. no. 1101650">1101650); and finally, there is an article that reports the closure of the TLA and replacement by another institution, the INCIBA: “Han sido destituidos todos los profesores del Taller Libre de Arte” (doc. no. 1172267)].