Published in 1961 for Shell magazine, this essay written by “Luis Navarro” is today considered one of the most complete texts [on this subject] written up to that time, including on Venezuelan and foreign artists. Unlike Guillermo Meneses and Juan Calzadilla—whose similar essays (1957 and 1966, respectively) solely focused on foreign artists—the author contextualizes the Venezuelans along with the corresponding foreign arts. Using a very literary style (which at times comes close to lyricism), [the author] achieves an authoritative criticism of all these works. He does not hesitate to praise those that he likes nor vehemently criticize those whom he does not. He finds the abstract movement confusing, the movement to which most of the works pertain. He brands Pedro León Castro’s “técnica mexicanizante” [Mexican technique] as false; he describes Héctor Poleo as “inefable” [ineffable], Oswaldo Vigas as “individualista” [individualist]; and Jean Arp’s Pastor de Nubes [Shepherd of Clouds] as “rechoncho” [squat]. He describes Mateo Manaure’s stained glass, in the Paraninfo, as “falsos” [false]; to him, Narváez’s figures suffer from “elefantiasis general” [Elephantiasis] and lack expression; Víctor Valera’s murals are disconcerting for their “falta de unidad formal” [lack of formal unity]. He also criticizes the “ostracismo artístico” [artistic ostracism] from which Alejandro Colina suffers, which is manifest in the exclusion of his work María Lionza from the university facility. He considers [the work] to be the ideological symbol of the “rebelde bravo pueblo" [brave rebellious people]. He highlights Jesús Rafael Soto and his work “estable” [stable], located in an open space within the School of Architecture. This work is not usually mentioned in other evaluations of these works; this demonstrates the considerable lack of knowledge that even now characterizes the better part of Venezuelan critics, including within prestigious publications such as Shell.
[For complementary readings on this topic, see the ICAA digital archive: “La síntesis de las Artes” [Synthesis of the Arts] by the architect Villanueva (doc. no. 864335); “Los Artistas Extranjeros de la Ciudad Universitaria de Caracas” [The Foreign Artists of the Ciudad Universitaria of Caracas] by Guillermo Meneses (doc. no. 1060120); “Ciudades Universitarias México y Caracas” [Ciudades Universitarias: Mexico and Caracas] by Guillermo de Torre (doc. no. 1172362); the essay in English, “Villanueva and the Uses of Arts: The Integration of Painting and Sculpture in His Architecture Constitutes a Unique Achievement of Our Period,” by Sibyl Moholy-Nagy (doc. no. 1172346); the essay “Ciudad Universitaria de Caracas: Una Síntesis de las Artes Plásticas” [Ciudad Universitaria of Caracas: A Synthesis of the Visual Arts] by Antonio Muiño Loureda (doc. no. 864275); the essay “Un sueño hecho realidad” [A Dream Made Reality] by Víctor Vasarely (doc. no. 1172298); and finally, “Una Ciudad de todas las artes en Venezuela” [A City of All the Arts in Venezuela] by Sir John Rothenstein (doc. no. 864294)].
