This article was published in El Nacional to announce the opening of the exhibition by Venezuelan abstract artist Mercedes Pardo, Obra Grafica de Mercedes Pardo (that remained on view until February 19, 1995). The text of this press article was republished ipsis litteris in the El Globo in December 1994 [see ICAA Digital Archive (doc. no. 1331085">1331085)], and again in El Nacional in February 1995 (doc. no. 1331069">1331069). None of the three articles is signed, and their analysis of Pardo’s work comes from a press release or a catalogue essay for the show. The exhibition was held at Galería de los Espacios Cálidos; such an exhibition space was part of the Ateneo de Caracas, an institution founded in 1931 and one of the first centers in the country to engage in the promotion of culture, well beyond the visual arts. The Galería was part of Ateneo’s fourth facility, a building inaugurated in 1983 that also featured theater and conference rooms as well as a library and was located in the so-called Circuito de los Museos in Caracas. The Ateneo lost its state funding and its spaces to other political priorities in 2009. Pardo’s 1995 exhibition was organized in that space in collaboration with the GAN, also located near Plaza Morelos in Caracas.
The key argument of the text is that Pardo’s production experienced two “transcendental changes”; first, her abandonment of figuration to experiment with abstraction and, secondly, her preference for acrylic pigments over oil in her later works. The identification of these two changes as crucial to understand Pardo’s work mirroring the importance of both color and form in her art production. The author expands that acrylic pigments allow Pardo to generate more “homogenous” and “stable” chromaticism, resulting in colored forms that appear more clearly defined to the eye of the spectator. This attention to their definition and morphology contributes to Pardo’s “constructive language,” the choice of graphic arts fits the same purpose of precision in the delineation of forms. The article quotes Pardo’s self-definition as a “colorist,” an attitude that goes well beyond her graphic production. Moreover, color is at the kernel of her research throughout a long career, both in terms of approaches to abstraction and technique. Pardo’s Informalism and lyrical works (in other words, her works that delve into the non-geometric side of abstraction) harmoniously coexist with more geometric phases, one of the strictest approaches to geometrical abstraction, hard-edge, included. Alongside her search for what she calls her “abstract language” the painter also studied the effects that different supports, materials, and techniques contributed to her evolving discourse. Her focusing on forms and color is equally present in small- and large-scale works (oil and acrylic paintings, set designs and collages).
For other reviews of this exhibition, see anonymous, “Todo el color para Mercedes Pardo” (doc. no. 1331069">1331069), or “El color es mi búsqueda infinita” (doc. no. 1331085">1331085). For further detail on Pardo’s usage of silkscreens, consult Alejandro Otero, “Mercedes Pardo: color de la serigrafía” (doc. no. 1143176); Margarita D’Amico, “Mercedes Pardo: 1 x 9” (doc. no. 1155959); and Roberto Guevara, “Color y módulos en Mercedes Pardo” (doc. no. 1155991). For further detail on the artist as shown in her key retrospective Mercedes Pardo: Moradas del Color, see Gloria Carnevali, “El Espacio en la pintura de Mercedes Pardo” (doc. no. 1102285); María Fernanda Palacios, “Pintura y vida” (doc. no. 1102253); and Miriam Freilich, “El arte es revelación, no producción” (doc. no. 1325266).
