Edited by Ariel Jiménez

One of Venezuela's foremost cultural and aesthetic observers of the twentieth century, the art critic, cultural historian, and photographer Alfredo Boulton (1908–1995) was a highly influential figure in the development of modernist art and discourse in his country. His diverse contributions serve as points of departure in Alfredo Boulton and His Contemporaries: Critical Dialogues in Venezuelan Art, 1912–1974, an anthology of manifestos, correspondence, and critical writings by notable Latin American intellectuals of Boulton's time, including critics Mariano Picón-Salas, Angel Rama, and Marta Traba; architect Carlos Raúl Villanueva; and artists Jesús Rafael Soto, Alejandro Otero, and Gego (Gertrude Goldschmidt).

This selection of writings by figures whose works and ideas shaped the face of contemporary Venezuela traces the country's struggle toward modernity and an autonomous identity on the international cultural scene. Accompanying the historical texts are newly written critical and explanatory essays by editor Ariel Jiménez and eight other contemporary scholars: Hugo Achugar, Rafael Castillo Zapata, Roldán Esteva-Grillet, Marco Negrón, Luis Pérez-Oramas, Sandra Pinardi, Elías Pino Iturrieta, and Maciá Pintó.

This volume is part of an ongoing series published by The Museum of Modern Art's International Program in order to make crucial art-historical writings from regions outside the United States available in English. The other volumes in the series are Primary Documents: A Sourcebook for Eastern and Central European Art since the 1950s (2002); Listen, Here, Now! Argentine Art of the 1960s: Writings of the Avant-Garde (2004); and Modern Swedish Design: Three Founding Texts (2008).

The publication was generously sponsored by The International Council of The Museum of Modern Art. Additional support was provided by Mercantil Servicios Financieros (Venezuela), Ignacio and Luis Alfonso Oberto, The Reed Foundation, Juan Ignacio Parra, the Alberto Vollmer Foundation Inc., Jean Hartley Boulton, Estrellita B. Brodsky, Harry Mannil, Gonzalo Parodi, Patricia Phelps de Cisneros, Byron Meyer, and William L. Bernhard.

Related Event:

Critical Dialogues in Venezuelan Art, 1912–1974

To celebrate MoMA's publication Alfredo Boulton and His Contemporaries: Critical Dialogues in Venezuelan Art, 1912–1974, on September 25, 2008, Luis Pérez-Oramas, The Estrellita Brodsky Curator of Latin American Art at MoMA, moderated a panel discussion on Venezuelan art and architecture of that time period.

The panel brought together Hugo Achugar, poet, essayist, and professor of Spanish at the University of Miami; Carlos Brillembourg, architect; Sofia Vollmer de Maduro of the Alberto Vollmer Foundation in Caracas; and Edward Sullivan, professor of fine arts at New York University, to provide an overview of Venezuelan art, architecture, and cultural history in relation to the period addressed by the publication and the writings of Alfredo Boulton and his contemporaries.

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The program was supported by The International Council of The Museum of Modern Art.