This was a speech given by the Venezuelan humorist, caricaturist and journalist, Leoncio Martínez (Leo) (1888–1941) on September 4, 1912. The occasion for Leoncio Martínez’s speech was the opening of El Círculo de Bellas Artes [The Fine Arts Circle], where he stated the ideas and purposes of the new association formed by young Venezuelan artists and intellectuals. In addition to setting forth an outline of his aesthetic and ethical thinking, Martínez was presenting propaganda to the group—as he would later state, himself. In the tone of an avant-garde manifesto, he emphasized and justified the nationalistic nature of such “ideas y propósitos” [ideas and purposes]. The journalist pointed out factors related to the advantages of unions and the precarious situation in which artists were finding themselves at the time. Given these circumstances, he stated, there were reasons for the appearance of a group like El Círculo de Bellas Artes de Caracas.

This speech by the Venezuelan humorist, caricaturist and journalist, Leoncio (Leo) Martínez (1888–1941) is highly important as a document that represents the feelings of many young Venezuelan intellectuals in the early twentieth century. This was the time when the dictatorship of the politician, General Juan Vicente Gómez, began to crack down, in a process that would continue through 1935. The creation of El Círculo de Bellas Artes—following a protest that broke out in1909 against the training methods of Antonio Herrera Toro, director of the Academia de Bellas Artes [Academy of Fine Arts] of Caracas—represented a milestone in the history of Venezuelan art. It was from the Círculo that the first movement in Venezuelan painting arose, a landscape school that marked the dawn of the modern visual arts in Venezuela. That is why this document is important. Although the speech was tinged with literary turns and sallies of humor typical of the author’s style, the words he spoke were expressed in the tone of an art manifesto. For example, he announces: “Declaramos instalado el Círculo de Bellas Artes y unida nuestra vida a la del Arte y de la Patria; para ambos nuestras energías; para ambos nuestro amor” [We declare that we have established the Círculo de Bellas Artes and we have joined our lives to that of Art and Country; to both, our energies; to both, our love]. He goes on to state: “Nuestra asociación no tiene reglamentos o estatutos, ni junta directiva” [Our association has neither regulations, nor bylaws, nor a board of directors]. Martínez took this stance in defense of a national imaginary, of an art that would be sincere and “Venezuelan,” the expression of a national soul. Among the painters who were founders of the Círculo were: Manuel Cabré,  Pablo Wenceslao Hernández, Antonio Edmundo Monsanto, Próspero Martínez and Marcelo Vidal. Subsequently, they were joined by Federico Brandt, Armando Reverón, Rafael Monasterios and Bernardo Monsanto. The writers and critics who revolved around Círculo activities included: Enrique Planchart, Rómulo Gallegos, Jesús Semprum and César Zumeta.