Monday, April 8, 2019

Artist of the day, April 8 (Women in the arts week): Mercedes Pardo, Venezuelan abstract art painter (#661)

Mercedes Clementina Marta del Carmen Pardo Ponte, known as Mercedes Pardo (1921 - 2005) was a Venezuelan abstract art painter.

Mercedes Pardo was one of the most important representatives of abstract art in Venezuela. Her work revolved mainly around painting but also extended to stained glass, enamel on metal, and graphics. Likewise, she created pieces involving architectural integration as well as theatrical sets and wardrobe. During her childhood, she was taught painting by Danish professor Ingeborg Fostberg, and at age thirteen, she began taking courses at the Academy of Fine Arts, which she continued in 1941 and completed in 1944. In 1945, she married Marco Bontá, a stained glass and mural painting professor from Chile, divorcing him shortly thereafter. She traveled to Chile to attend the Santiago Academy of Fine Arts (1947), where she had her first solo show.

In 1949, she was awarded a fellowship by the Government (Ministry of Education), and then moved to Paris to enroll at the École du Louvre, where she studied art history. During this period, she began producing collages and her first abstract works.

In 1952, she returned to Venezuela and participated in the International Exhibition of Abstract Art (Cuatro Muros Gallery, Caracas). Abstractionism began to be recognized in Venezuela during the 1950s, and a climate of renewal for both artistic production and education was supported by Caracas University’s implementation of an artistic integration project and by the return of a generation of artists educated in France. Around 1956, Pardo began producing pieces that could be categorized as pre-informalist given their use of a rich pictorial layer, though her work tended toward a formal exploration of color effects. In 1960, she moved to Paris, where she painted abstract watercolors characterized by their lyrical brushstrokes, drips and blotches that created a highly dynamic artistic space.

In 1962, she became a founding member of the San Antonio de Los Altos Cooperative School in the State of Miranda, known today as the Community School and initiated its craft workshops, where she also gave classes. Working in architecture integration, she produced a number of pieces, including a stained-glass window at the La Hoyada station of the Caracas subway (1983), a mosaic mural at the J. M. de los Ríos Children’s Hospital (Caracas) and the ceiling of La Viña Shopping Center in Valencia (Carabobo State). In 1991, she held her most important anthological exhibition, Abodes of Color at the National Art Gallery. During her final years, she worked and lived in San Antonio de Los Altos (State of Miranda).

© 2019. All images are copyrighted © by The Fundación Alejandro Otero-Mercedes Pardo. Apart from fair dealing for the purpose of private study, research, criticism or review as permitted under the Copyright Act, the use of any image from this site is prohibited unless prior written permission is obtained. All images used for illustrative purposes only.



Ms Mercedes Pardo

1953, Untitled

1958, Búsqueda

1962, composición

1963, Echec Au Deluge

1968, Untitled Ed. VIII XVII

1969, Untitled

1970, La Pesquisa Intrañable

1971, Untitled
1972, Serigrafía

1972, Untitled

1972, Untitled

1973, Un Pequeño Sobresalto

1974, Alguna Cosa en la Memoria

1974, Untitled

1974, Untitled

1976, Alguna Cosa en la Memoria

1976, Sombras Transfiguradas

1976, Untitled

1976, Untitled

1977, Proceso Rosa

1978, COMPOSICIÓN.

1979, Axolotl rosa-rojo

1980, Atardecer

1980, Boom

1981, Enebro

1982, Caballos de San Marco

1983, Armonia en Rojo

1983, Movimiento Intimo

1984,  Rendijas

1985, Así sigue

1985, Capricornio (Capricorn)

1986,  S T

1986, Punto De Encuentro

1986, S T Ed

1986, S T Ed.

1987, Planos Virtuales

1987, Viva Diana

1990, La Vigilia

1991, Impresiones memoriosas

1991, Luna Azul

1991, Untitled AP

1996, Morada de luz

1997, Untitled

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