The work of the 1960s Caracas-based art collective El Techo de la Ballena (The Roof of the Whale) was called ""subversive"" and ""art terrorism"" and seen as a threat to Venezuela's national image as an emerging industrial power. This volume details the historical and social contexts that shaped the collective, exploring how its anti-art aesthetic highlighted the shortcomings of the country's newfound oil wealth and transition to democracy. Every element used by these radicalized artists in their avant-garde exhibitions ...
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The work of the 1960s Caracas-based art collective El Techo de la Ballena (The Roof of the Whale) was called ""subversive"" and ""art terrorism"" and seen as a threat to Venezuela's national image as an emerging industrial power. This volume details the historical and social contexts that shaped the collective, exploring how its anti-art aesthetic highlighted the shortcomings of the country's newfound oil wealth and transition to democracy. Every element used by these radicalized artists in their avant-garde exhibitions?from Informalist canvases to torn book pages and kitsch objects to cattle carcasses and scatological content?issued a critique of Venezuela's petroleum-driven capitalism and the profound inequality left in its wake. Embracing chaos, the artists contradicted the country's politically sanctioned view of modernity, which championed constant progress in the visual arts and favored geometric abstraction and kinetic art. El Techo's was a backward?a retrograde?modernity, argues Mar???a Gaztambide, discussing how its artists turned against the norm by incorporating anachronistic postures, primeval symbols, colonial Latin American print culture, and ""guerilla"" art tactics. Artists in this group tested limits to provoke what they saw as a numbed local public through shocking displays of criticism and frustration. Today, as Venezuela undergoes another dramatic series of sociopolitical changes, El Techo de la Ballena serves as a reminder of the power of art in resisting the status quo and effecting change in society.
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Add this copy of El Techo De La Ballena: Retro-Modernity in Venezuela to cart. $34.39, very good condition, Sold by Dotcom liquidators / dc1 rated 4.0 out of 5 stars, ships from Fort Worth, TX, UNITED STATES, published 2019 by University Press of Florida.
Add this copy of El Techo De La Ballena: Retro-Modernity in Venezuela to cart. $72.85, good condition, Sold by Bonita rated 4.0 out of 5 stars, ships from Newport Coast, CA, UNITED STATES, published 2019 by University of Florida Press.
Add this copy of El Techo De La Ballena: Retro-Modernity in Venezuela to cart. $112.38, new condition, Sold by Bonita rated 4.0 out of 5 stars, ships from Newport Coast, CA, UNITED STATES, published 2019 by University of Florida Press.
