Who’s Who in Graphic Art was published in Zurich in 1962 by Graphic Press, which was dedicated to reviewing the design and illustration work of 414 international artists from 37 countries through biographies and reproductions. Four years spent selecting from a group of more than fifty thousand works resulted in Who’s Who becoming a fundamental reference for the graphic arts of that time, allowing for an evaluation of the development of the discipline in each region included in the book. This text by Clara Diament Sujo, a Venezuelan art critic and gallery owner of Argentinean origin, constitutes a detailed analysis of the selected works and issues covered. In this sense, it offers examples of the malleability that then existed among some of the subjects of art and design; the graphic quality of some of the greatest artists of the twentieth century is also considered.
The core of the publication is, without a doubt, focused on five Venezuelans: Gert Leufert (1914–1998), native of Italy, Nedo M. F. (1926–2001), Carlos Cruz Diez (b. 1923), Guillero Heiter (1915–1971), and Ernesto Paul Temple, five artists based in Venezuela within the universe of twenty-seven artists that represent Latin America. Gert Leufert authored the critical text on Venezuela. At this time, design in Venezuela had reached the highest quality due to the sustained and reformational work of pioneers, such as Leufert and artists such as Carlos Cruz-Diez, whose work already expressed the essential values of modern art. According to Sujo, some publications dedicated to culture had been [fertile ground] for innovation in this space, and in the 1970s, they served as a reference on an international level. The appearance of CAL magazine in this text is not unwarranted, its artistic direction— under the charge of the aforementioned Nedo M. F.—was revolutionary in the history of design in Venezuela and its pages were the basis for an experiment in arts integration and innovation in design.