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Ensayo del lote
“Reverón has made himself—with more propriety than the pigeons and the sea grape trees of the spa—into the first tourist attraction in Macuto,” observed Mariano Picón-Salas of the public’s fascination with the artist and his coastal estate, named El Castillete, at the end of the 1930s (in Armando Reverón, exh. cat., The Museum of Modern Art, New York, 2007, p. 138). Reverón had settled permanently in the fishing village of Macuto with his model and companion Juanita Ríos in 1922, retreating from the intensifying military dictatorship in Caracas and in search of the freedoms of a simpler, bohemian life. As he expanded El Castillete from a hut to a sprawling walled compound, his work evolved out of a Symbolist “blue period” (1919-24) into the extraordinary landscapes and figure paintings of the “white period” of the later 1920s and 1930s, to which the present work belongs.
This portrait pays homage to Alfredo Boulton (1908-95), a pioneering critic and historian of modern art in Venezuela who built a national canon stretching from the country’s pre-Hispanic and colonial periods through the twentieth century. He championed contemporary Venezuelan artists at home and abroad, among them Los Disidentes (including Alejandro Otero and Jesús Rafael Soto), the sculptor Francisco Narváez, and Reverón, whom he supported throughout his career. Boulton owned a house in Macuto, and he and his sister-in-law, Luisa Phelps, belonged to the ranks of Caracas society that came to visit Reverón at El Castillete. Boulton made a remarkable series of photographs of Reverón painting a portrait of Phelps in 1934; in December of that year, he curated a solo exhibition of Reverón’s work for the Ateneo de Caracas.
“I have made no more than ten portraits of men,” Reverón stated near the end of his career. “All are women or else portraits of myself” (“Through His Own Eyes,” in Armando Reverón, op. cit., p. 227). Without question, Retrato de Alfredo Boulton stands as a testament to the singular and enduring relationship that developed between the artist and his longtime patron. Reverón portrays his subject against the Macuto landscape, framing him tightly against the branches and foliage of trees. Fashionably dressed, the young Boulton sits with his legs crossed, his expression contemplative as he gazes into the distance.
“Boulton used to say that Reverón was one of the four great figures of the nationality of his country, along with [Francisco de] Miranda, [Andrés] Bello and [Simón] Bolívar,” recalled critic and curator Luis Pérez Oramas. “His emblematic work was the construction of a reading of the work of Reverón: a genius-like and innocent artist, who reflects Boulton’s desire for a country in its twofold aspect of unexplained intuition and an undeniable modern ‘achievement’” (“Alfredo Boulton: Humanist and Fable-Maker of Venezuela,” Art Nexus 23, January-March 1997).
Abby McEwen, Assistant Professor, University of Maryland, College Park
This portrait pays homage to Alfredo Boulton (1908-95), a pioneering critic and historian of modern art in Venezuela who built a national canon stretching from the country’s pre-Hispanic and colonial periods through the twentieth century. He championed contemporary Venezuelan artists at home and abroad, among them Los Disidentes (including Alejandro Otero and Jesús Rafael Soto), the sculptor Francisco Narváez, and Reverón, whom he supported throughout his career. Boulton owned a house in Macuto, and he and his sister-in-law, Luisa Phelps, belonged to the ranks of Caracas society that came to visit Reverón at El Castillete. Boulton made a remarkable series of photographs of Reverón painting a portrait of Phelps in 1934; in December of that year, he curated a solo exhibition of Reverón’s work for the Ateneo de Caracas.
“I have made no more than ten portraits of men,” Reverón stated near the end of his career. “All are women or else portraits of myself” (“Through His Own Eyes,” in Armando Reverón, op. cit., p. 227). Without question, Retrato de Alfredo Boulton stands as a testament to the singular and enduring relationship that developed between the artist and his longtime patron. Reverón portrays his subject against the Macuto landscape, framing him tightly against the branches and foliage of trees. Fashionably dressed, the young Boulton sits with his legs crossed, his expression contemplative as he gazes into the distance.
“Boulton used to say that Reverón was one of the four great figures of the nationality of his country, along with [Francisco de] Miranda, [Andrés] Bello and [Simón] Bolívar,” recalled critic and curator Luis Pérez Oramas. “His emblematic work was the construction of a reading of the work of Reverón: a genius-like and innocent artist, who reflects Boulton’s desire for a country in its twofold aspect of unexplained intuition and an undeniable modern ‘achievement’” (“Alfredo Boulton: Humanist and Fable-Maker of Venezuela,” Art Nexus 23, January-March 1997).
Abby McEwen, Assistant Professor, University of Maryland, College Park