Originally written by Humberto Mata as an essay for the exhibition of her most recent production in Del taller de Mercedes Pardo hoy by one of the pioneers of Venezuelan abstraction, Mercedes Pardo (1921–2005), and held at the GAN (Galería de Arte Nacional) in Caracas (from July to August 1978). The text was then republished in the exhibition catalogue of Color: piel, presencia meditada. Mercedes Pardo Exposición antológica, her first retrospective exhibition, held also at the GAN (1979). This show was an expansion on Del taller de Mercedes Pardo hoy that included earlier works too, covering twenty-six years of Pardo’s production (oils, collages, silkscreens, and acrylics, among other techniques).
Mata’s focus is on Pardo's skillful usage of color in her geometric works. Indeed, her chromatic approach is one of the most beaten paths in the literature on her production; nevertheless, Mata makes an important contribution to this discussion by presenting us with his own experience on Pardo’s art. Instead of the more common viewpoints that take the artist’s influences and statements as a starting point, Mata differentiates between what he calls “colores objetivos de por sí” (objective colors by themselves) and “colores objetivables” (colors being objectified), drawing our attention not just to the chromatic approach that appear evidently to our eyes, but especially to the colors that are “hidden” from an immediate (superficial) viewing of Pardo’s work. Mata presents the latter as a “challenge” that Pardo proposes in her works and refers to the playful aspects of this reading of her art. The writer concludes his article by shifting his focus to the most recent work on display and underlines its stripped-down nature in comparison to her previous pictorial proposals. So that the development of Pardo’s production is identified by means of a simplification of both color and form. Mata associates this simplicity with the work of one of the first abstract modernists in Venezuela, Armando Reverón (1889–1954), who also gradually reduced his palette and stylized his figurative forms.
For reviews of Color: piel, presencia meditada. Mercedes Pardo Exposición antológica (1979), see in the ICAA Digital Archive: Virginia París, “Mercedes Pardo y su presencia meditada” (doc. no. 1331347); Manuel Bolívar Graterol, “Ambigüedad y disonancia” (doc. no. 1331331); Maria Josefa Pérez, “Yo siempre era la esposa de Alejandro y no una artista” (doc. no. 1331363); Juan Acha, “Color: Piel, Presencia Meditada de Mercedes Pardo” (doc. no. 1331395); anonymous, “Mercedes Pardo: ‘Presencia Meditada’” (doc. no. 1331411); Elizabeth Schön, “Exposición Antólogica” (doc. no. 1331299); and Roberto Guevara, “Mercedes Pardo: Color Persuasivo” (doc. no. 1331315).