This article appeared in El Nacional, and refers to the 1960 XXI Salón Oficial de Arte held in the Venezuelan capital city. It focuses on the Premio Puebla de Bolívar awarded to Mercedes Pardo. The abstract modernist artist is interviewed in this article which takes advantage of a definition: an “abstract expressionist or perhaps Informal-ist” artist. During the dialogue, she discusses her preference for “free forms” despite a brief geometric phase she underwent and provides her personal perception on art own terms. Pardo is prompted to share her opinions on the Premio Nacional de Pintura, the Salón Oficial de Arte, and the jury who awarded the prizes, hinting at an ongoing controversy regarding the jury. She expresses her support for the jury and shares her sincere appreciation of Venezuelan kinetic artist Jesús Rafael Soto, winner of both the Premio Nacional de Pintura and the Premio Virgilio Corao awarded by the XXI Salón Oficial de Arte.

This “anonymous” article published in El Nacional focuses on the winner of one of the prizes awarded at the 1960 XXI Salón Oficial de Arte Venezolano. Mercedes Pardo received the Premio Puebla de Bolívar—a second one coming from the same event since she had won in 1944 the Premio José Loreto Arismendi in the Salón’s fifth edition. Pardo had also received a Mención Honorífica at its third edition (1942). While in the 1940s she was at the very early stages of her career (and still grounded in figuration), the 1960 recognition represented the first one since her 1950 shift to abstraction. The photograph that accompanies the article identifies the “anonymous” interviewer as Laura Mirande.

In the interview, Mirande mentions her “abstract expressionist or perhaps Informal-ist tendency,” in reference to the 1950s and 1960s status of Pardo’s production regarding her research within the realm of lyrical, non-geometric abstraction. Pardo herself claims that geometric abstraction was a brief phase since “free forms” are closer to her nature. An insight as such is important for the development of Pardo’s art view, and it is particularly valuable considering that her 1960s experimental research would lead her back to geometric abstraction from the 1970s onward. Whether Pardo’s abstraction is geometric or not, a constant in her work is at stake. She is a believer in art as a way to express both “vivencia y actitud,” so that color and form can express “the concept of the world” by themselves. The dialogue turns to the Salón as an institution, the awarding of the prizes as well as the committee that selected the winners. Pardo is questioned about the winner of the Premio Nacional de Pintura, Jesús Rafael Soto (1923–2005), and she puts in the same footing his innovative, “evolved” vision to that one conceived by the Venezuelan pioneer of modernism, Armando Reverón (1889–1954).

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).