On the basis of unofficial information from the Taller Libre de Arte (TLA), this article reports that the faculty of that institution has been entirely replaced. In order to bring the conflict to an end, the Instituto Nacional de Cultura y Bellas Artes (INCIBA) gave the outgoing director of the TLA, Celso Pérez, a grant to study art in France, Italy, and Spain. Painter Daniel González—the director of the INCIBA’s Department of Photography and winner of the Premio Nacional de Pintura—was named director of the TLA. The article explains how, with the passage of time and especially after the onset, in 1952, of the dictatorship under Marcos Pérez Jiménez, the purpose of the Taller was lost. The organization then struggled with a series of technical and administrative problems that at the time the article was written, had yet to be overcome. Finally, the article urges the INCIBA to provide the public with information about the changes to be implemented at the Taller Libre de Arte. 

This article is riddled with inconsistencies and inaccuracies, and based on rumor; it comes from an unofficial source (“an employee at the art center”). It states, for instance, that “the Taller Libre de Arte was created in 1946,” when it was actually created in 1948, “in order to help provide talented people with training they had never before had access to.” The text formulates ideas that it does not back up and gives rise to confusion (“In previous years, classes began on September 15, but...”). All of this illustrates the crisis and conflict surrounding the TLA. Due to the context in which the article appeared, it seems to mark the disbanding of the Taller Libre de Arte four years after its inception in 1952. Indeed, classes were suspended for a number of months while repairs were being made to the building and new teachers were being selected. By the time those projects had been completed, the INCIBA had replaced the TLA. 

For additional texts on the Taller Libre de Arte, see the prologue by Bernardo Chataing published on the occasion of the TLA’s first group show, “Texto presentación” [doc. no. 1101666]; and the prologue where the TLA collective declares its interest in creative invention and freedom, “Exposición de cuadros abstractos 1948: El movimiento moderno de abstracción ? invención – concreción” [doc. no. 1101635].