In 1963, Guillermo F. Pardo de Leygonier published this article in El Universal expressing his initial hesitations on writing about the work of his niece, the modernist artist Mercedes Pardo. Indeed, he fears that his critical ideas on art would be understood as partial due to his kinship with the painter. This text stems from the group exhibition of contemporary art Venezuela del paisaje a la expresión plástica, seen by the author as an unequivocal proof of her art skills and success. Pardo de Leygonier supports his own observations by stressing both the artist’s national and international achievements. In this regard, he quotes H. Bourg’s review of Pardo’s work for the cultural journal Les lettres françaises where—by means of Pardo’s creativity—there is a rebuttal of Venezuelan criticism questioning the originality and innovation of contemporary art.

This 1963 article discusses the innovative elements found in Mercedes Pardo’s (1921–2005) art production. The viewpoint involves her uncle, Guillermo F. Pardo de Leygonier, who was Attaché Culturel of the Venezuelan Embassy in Paris. Most of the article revolves around H. Bourg’s review in the cultural journal Les lettres françaises. Pardo de Leygonier highlights a comment on the importance of both “order” and “mystery of colored contributions” in her work. The quote works as a prompt to put into question the Venezuelan art system of the time, and especially the emphasis on avant-garde discourses and innovation for its own sake. Although the introduction of the French article mentions Pardo’s success in the group show Venezuela del paisaje a la expresión plástica, the exhibition is not analyzed in the text. This show included ten contemporary Venezuelan artists, and was first presented in Le Havre, at the Musée Maison de la Culture, traveling to Geneva, held at the Musée Rath (August 1963), and finally to Madrid at the Museo de Arte Contemporáneo (October 1963).

The centrality of order and color expressed by both texts is a common narrative in the study of Pardo’s work. In fact, these two aspects coexist in the structural role that chromaticism plays in her art. While Pardo took the first steps in abstraction with a non-geometric perspective as a background, she also alternated periods of non-geometric and geometric artworks. Alongside her experimentations of form within abstraction, the Venezuelan painter fervently studied the effects that different supports, materials, and techniques contributed to her visual discourse. Moreover, her understanding of form and color is equally present in her small- and large-scale works, in her oil and acrylic paintings, in her set designs and collages.

For further detail on her art discourse as shown in the key retrospective Mercedes Pardo: moradas del color, see in the ICAA Digital Archive: 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).