This letter by Alejandro Otero is in response to the letter (March 31, 1950) sent by his friend, the art critic Alfredo Boulton, where he complained about the group of artists calling themselves Los Disidentes. Specifically, Boulton was opposed to their denouncements and attacks against their art teachers in Caracas, including museum officials, and Venezuelan governmental cultural agencies. In this letter, Otero identifies himself with the group (twelve artists in total) arguing in their favor (despite being awarded scholarship grants by the government), that due to their youth they felt obliged to be authentic by expressing their discontentment in regards to the status quo of the arts in their country. He recognized that these attacks caused a scandal as they were made not only on a personal level but also were anti-establishment in nature, and could have endangered their respective scholarships. Yet they were, nevertheless, willing to take this risk since it was their belief that the factors misleading the young people in Venezuelan came from “excessive ease and comfort.”

This second letter by Alejandro Otero (1921−90) to his friend, the photographer, historian and art critic Alfredo Boulton (1908−95), portrays the will and determination reflected by the Venezuelan artist in regards to the controversy, as the head and principal leader of Los Disidentes. The group formed in Paris in 1950 with the objective to defend the abstract art movement and against the two most outstanding prejudices still existent within the Caracas cultural milieu, the attachment to traditional landscape art and social realism. Justifying himself to his spiritual mentor, Otero displays with exceptional writing skill the boldness of his opinions regarding some of the personalities at the center of the cultural Caracas milieu, knowingly risking his status as a student on scholarship. The letter is a true testament of an avant-garde posture geared radically towards the exaltation of universal artistic values rather than to local values (an attitude that was constant throughout his career). This letter, in addition to another written by Otero (sent April 10, 1948), expresses his indifference to the discussions in Paris by his compatriots about the fate of Latin America [see (doc. no. 850255)].

This letter belongs to the selection compiled by Ariel Jiménez, He vivido por los ojos: correspondencia Alejandro Otero-Alfredo Boulton, 1946-1974, for the Fundación Museo de Alejandro Otero (Caracas: Fundación Alberto Vollmer/Museo Alejandro Otero, 2001), under the auspices of the Alberto Vollmer Foundation.