Ángel Vivas Arias writes about his exhibition on body action in Objetos encontrados e intervención gestual, presented at the Museo de Arte Contemporáneo de Caracas Sofía Imber (October 1980). Reinforcing his penchant for the object as an element of artistic expression, Vivas Arias refines the different pictorial ideas that he had been developing as a language within the field of visual art. In his view, it is focused on what he considers to be the greatest work of art: nature. The artist follows by defining the gestural intervention guidelines to his approach, reaffirming the value that the object plays. He concludes by reflecting on the symbolic component under which he has based both his work and his philosophy of life.  

With a career that mainly explored painting, assemblage, and performance, the Venezuelan artist Ángel Vivas Arias (1949−86) investigated the spiritual and aesthetic essence of nature. He used his own body as a “work of art” within a gestural discourse that valued, in addition to the attributes of chance, “a state of pure consciousness and meditation” attained through art. From this perspective, Vivas Arias proposes a vision that points to the most important moment of his career, revealing aspects of his personality that helps build an analytical view of his work.

Likewise, this document stands out for its testimonial value, in that it was written in the form of a self-study or interview. This factor is critical in determining the approach that leads Arias Vivas to explore the vulnerability of his human nature. He thereby explores other facets beyond those that define, more broadly, his artistic identity. This text was published in the exhibition catalogue of Objetos encontrados e intervención gestual that took place in October 1980 at the Museo de Arte Contemporáneo de Caracas Sofía Imber.

[For another text on the artist, see in the ICAA digital archive by curator Katherine Chacón “Un incesante viajero que al final descubre el enigma” (doc. no. 1169366)].