Reverón, Armando (1889–1954)

Armando Reverón (b. 10 May 1889; d. 18 September 1954), Venezuelan artist. Reverón was a delicate child raised by a foster family in Valencia, near Caracas, and his health was permanently damaged by an attack of typhoid contracted in his youth. His formal education began at home and he received art lessons from his maternal uncle, Ricardo Montilla. In 1908 he went to Caracas and entered the Academy of Fine Arts, where he began painting still lifes. He was expelled from school for participating in a strike against the director, the painter Antonio Herrera Toro. But he returned the following year and in 1911 graduated with distinction as well as with a scholarship to Europe. That same year after his first exhibition, Reverón went to Spain to study at the Academy of San Fernando in Madrid. During his stay in Europe, he became interested in impressionism, pointillism, and the paintings of Francisco Goya. Upon his return to Caracas in 1915, he joined the Fine Arts Circle, a group of landscape painters strongly influenced by the Russian artist Nicolas Ferdinandov, who organized an exhibition of Reverón's work at the Academy of Fine Arts in 1919. Ferdinandov also encouraged Reverón to move to the coastal village of Macuto near Caracas, where the painter constructed a castillete ("little castle") that served as his home for the rest of his life. There he began his seascapes, which capture the bright light of the sun heating the sea.

His work falls into three periods. First, the blue period (1919–1924), featuring street scenes, portraits of common people, urban landscapes, and seascapes. Then the white period (1925–1929), which includes near monochrome white paintings of the sea, portraits of his friends, his Muse Juanita, and life-size rag dolls. Finally, his sepia period (1936–1949), in which his painting of female nudes and seascapes becomes much more transparent. In 1940 he won the first prize at the Official Salon of Venezuelan Art. After 1950 his mental health deteriorated and he entered the Sanatoria San Jorge in 1953, where he died the following year. His work found a much greater audience after his death.

See alsoArt: The Twentieth Century.

BIBLIOGRAPHY

Roldán Esteva Grillet, Siete artistas venezolanos siglo XX: Rafael Monasterios, Armando Reverón, Héctor Poleo, Alejandro Otero, Carlos Cruz Diez, Jesús Soto y Jacobo Borges (1984).

Alfredo Boulton, Mirar a Reverón (1990).

Additional Bibliography

Arráiz Lucca, Rafael. Los oficios de la luz. Caracas: Fondo Editorial 60 Años, Contraloría General de la República, 1998.

Calzadilla, Juan. Voces y demonios de Armando Reverón: Cuentos, anecdotas, pensamientos. Caracas: Alfadil Ediciones, 1990.

Huizi, María Elena. Armando Reverón: guia de estudio. Caracas: Asociacion Civil Proyecto Armando Reveron (PAR), 2005.

Salcedo Miliani, Antonio. Armando Reverón y su época. Mérida: Dirección General de Cultura y Extensión, Universidad de Los Andes; and Caracas: Fundación Museo Armando Reverón, 2000.

                                  BÉlgica RodrÍguez