Documents of Latin American and Latino Art

In this essay Oswaldo Vigas discusses his early days as a painter in Venezuela in the 1940s, recalling the first time he was awarded a prize, and the art movements that influenced his work. He also mentions his travels, studies, and companions. He [...]

In Marta Traba’s criticism of the Venezuelan painter Oswaldo Vigas, she deems him one of the group of artists she calls “the remains” The critic uses that category to group Latin American artists who have remained faithful to their artistic [...]

In this text, Miguel von Dangel criticizes the stance taken by the Venezuelan painter Oswaldo Vigas regarding the exhibition by Robert  Rauschenberg at the Museo de Arte Contemporáneo de Caracas, which Vigas finds contradictory and “chauvinist [...]

The journalist Lenelina Delgado interviews the Venezuelan painter Oswaldo Vigas on the occasion of the exhibition of the latter’s tapestries at the MBA (Museo de Bellas Artes) in Caracas. During the course of the conversation, they discuss how the [...]

In this interview, Oswaldo Vigas gives his opinion about young art in Venezuela, based on his participation as a juror in the 2nd Bienal del Dibujo y del Grabado. The Venezuelan painter states that he hates the word “search” because he believes [...]

This anonymous article provides a brief review of the exhibition schedule that the Venezuelan artist, curator, and museologist, Miguel Arroyo, who at the time was the director of the Museo de Bellas Artes de Caracas, is organizing. The curator’ [...]

This anonymous text provides a detailed review of the rooms and halls of the Museo de Bellas Artes (Caracas) containing the works of the XVIII Salón Oficial de Arte Venezolano (1957). The works, according to the author, were grouped in the space by [...]

In this interview published in a catalogue of the Museo de Bellas Artes in Caracas, the painter Oswaldo Vigas relates the development of his interest in tapestry and his beginnings in this technique starting in 1971 under the patronage of Ana Teresa [...]

This short newspaper review about the prizegiving at the XIII Salón de Arte Venezolano (1952) names the winners (one of whom was the young Carlos Cruz-Diez), the members of the jury, and the dignitaries who presented the awards (the Venezuelan [...]

Journalist Joaquín Gabaldon Márquez praises the work La bruja [The Witch] by Oswaldo Vigas, suggesting it is imbued with profound intellectual meaning. He states that the work does not seek to reproduce nature, nor achieve pure abstraction; [...]

In this article, Juan Liscano delivers a positive critique of the painter Oswaldo Vigas’ “reiteration” of subjects with Latin American and Venezuelan roots in the face of the rising importance of “technological art.” In the same vein, [...]

In this article, Venezuelan critic Víctor Guédez analyzes a series of paradoxes that are present in the work of the artist Oswaldo Vigas that fluctuate between the motivations pursued by the artist, the viewer’s reactions, its thematic meaning, [...]

In this text, Venezuelan painter Oswaldo Vigas once again expresses his opposition to the notion of “research” in art. He believes that experimentation is part and parcel of science and, as such, irrelevant to creative processes. Indeed, it tends [...]

In this article Damián Bayón questions the general state of the art world and the place occupied by Latin American artists within it. He defines the preeminent art trends of the time and then analyzes the way in which Latin American [...]

In this interview, journalist María Cristina Sanhueza takes up the opinion of J. R. Guillent Pérez regarding the assertions of Oswaldo Vigas, which question the contribution of Los Disidentes [The Dissidents] (Paris, 1950) to Venezuelan art. After [...]

This proclamation criticizes the precarious state of the Taller Libre de Arte (TLA) and demands the intervention of Venezuelans cultural institutions to revitalize what was once the heart of the national artistic avant-garde. The authors complain [...]

In this article, the Venezuelan critic Roberto Montero Castro talks about the question of “identity” in art, the role of professional art criticism in Venezuela, and the underlying inspiration for the work of Oswaldo Vigas, with whom he discusses [...]

In this text, Colombian writer Armando Romero proposes a revision to the career of Oswaldo Vigas, from his beginnings in Venezuelan painting (in 1942) through the end of the 1970s. His first assessment of the work—in relationship to his Latin [...]

In this interview by journalist Paco Benmaman, Venezuelan painter Oswaldo Vigas takes a stance on international artistic tendencies. In recounting his own past, he comments on the differences between the Taller Libre de Arte (TLA) and the Los [...]

In 1962, Venezuelan writer Graciela Schael interviewed Oswaldo Vigas during a retrospective exhibition organized by the Ateneo de Valencia [in the State of Carabobo]. At the beginning of the conversation, Vigas states that the social function of [...]

“Luis Navarro” (possibly a pseudonym of the author) meticulously describes the participation of each one of the artists involved in the arts integration project led by architect Carlos Raúl Villanueva at the Ciudad Universitaria of Caracas. [...]

Journalist Emilio Santana reports the opinions of Oswaldo Vigas on the topics of abstraction and figuration, as well as the conflict between both trends that had been at the center of the arts scene in Venezuela. Vigas stands up for overcoming the [...]

Journalist Luis Buitrago interviews painter Oswaldo Vigas on the occasion of his exhibition of tapestries at the Museo de Bellas Artes de Caracas. In Vigas’s view, the works in this show sum up his pictorial development and demonstrate the range of [...]

Juan Calzadilla starts this critical text with a general commentary on the concept of “painting” when it is limited to the artist’s self-expression based on discovering a personal language, with the resulting isolation from the environment. He [...]

In this 1978 critique, Roberto Guevara, focusing on Latin American art, proposes further thinking about the value of the creative act, as opposed to contemporary art theory and this artist’s own objectives. The writer points out the development of [...]

Lucila Velásquez begins this interview with a reflection on the role that experimentation plays in the creative process, especially that of an artist such as Oswaldo Vigas, the Venezuelan painter. Velásquez discards the experimental dimension of an [...]

Venezuelan critic Roberto Montero Castro here examines some of the opinions arising from the declarations made by Oswaldo Vigas. The author laments the “tono parroquial” [parochial tone] of the replies to the Venezuelan painter, because they do [...]

The critic Carlos Silva discusses his ideas about the contemporary artist’s responsibilities, citing the Venezuelan painter Oswaldo Vigas as an example. Referring to Nietzsche’s idea that, in art, “form and content” are one and the same, [...]

This text is an interview of the architect Carlos Celis Cepero by the journalist A. Feltra. During their dialogue, the architect expresses his disagreement with the criticisms raised in Venezuela by the painter Oswaldo Vigas about Carlos Raúl [...]

Adopting a different tone from the one he used in his previous article (“El regreso a lo funcional y a lo decorativo”), Miguel Otero Silva assures his readers he has nothing against new trends in art; but he objects to the assumption that [...]

This newspaper review describes certain aspects of the XIII Salón Oficial de Arte Venezolano. It notes that there was “an open, liberal eclecticism” with various mediums (painting, sculpture, and ceramics) shown side by side. This [...]