Venezuela for kids

Venezuela is a country of notable artists and great writers, some of whom are word renowned.

Caracas has several art museums. First among all is the Sofía Imber Museum of Contemporary Art. It is one of the best museums in Latin America.

The Caracas Museum of Fine Arts (Museo de Bellas Artes de Caracas) was founded in 1939. It contains a large collection of Latin American and Venezuelan art. Next to the MBA is the National Gallery of Art (Galería Nacional de Arte) dedicated exclusively to Venezuelan art.

In Ciudad Bolívar, is the Jesús Soto Museum. It gathers the majestic work of this great Venezuelan kinetic artists, together with works by European artists.

Venezuela is a country of great painters. Arturo Michelena, Cristóbal Rojas and Martín Tovar y Tovar stand among the leading artist of the XIX Century.

Armando Reverón can be considered one of the great painters of the XX century. He studied in Madrid and in Paris. Upon his return to Venezuela, he began a process of un-learning that led him to finding a personal style that defined him and made him famous. Human figures somehow ghostly, sea and landscapes where light, on generally ocher backgrounds, are treated in an original manner.

Manuel Cabré and Pedro Angel González succeeded in depicting the many tones of the magic mountain of Caracas, El Avila.

Among Venezuela’s contemporary artists three of them deserve special mention: Alejandro Otero, Jesús Soto and Carlos Cruz Diez.

Venezuelan artists have excelled admirably also in sculpture. Among them, Marisol, whose work “The Last Supper” is in New York’s Metropolitan Museum.

Literature

Venezuela’s literature has produced some outstanding writers. A special reference should be made of Rómulo Gallegos, author of Doña Bárbara, Cantaclaro, El Forastero, La Trepadora, Pobre Negro, Canaima, Reinaldo Solar, and Sobre la Misma Tierra. Savagery against civilization, the civil wars, the power of the jungle and the mirage of prairies, the advent of petroleum, man and his struggle or enchantment with nature, are all central themes to Gallegos’ writings.

Other Venezuelan novelists are Enrique Bernardo Núñez, Arturo Uslar Pietri, Guillermo Meneses, and Salvador Garmendia.

In the field of the essay, the most notable and profound 20th Century Venezuelan writer is Mariano Picón Salas.

He is the autor of “ Regreso de Tres Mundos”; “Europa-América”, Preguntas a la Esfinge de la Cultura; Miranda; Pedro Claver, El Santo de los Esclavos; De la Conquista a la Independencia and of countless essays in which culture and history are interpreted.

Perfoming Arts

In the field of the performing arts Venezuela has produced some outstanding dancers, musicians, movie directors and theater groups.

Caracas has five professional symphonic orchestras, among them: Orquesta Sinfónica Venezuela, Orquesta Simón Bolívar, Orquesta Sinfónica Municipal, Filarmónica de Caracas and Mariscal de Ayacucho plus several high quality youth and children orchestras. The Teatro Teresa Carreno is the most important performing arts center of the country presenting opera, ballet, classical and popular concerts and drama .

The states’ capitals also have their own orchestras, often of great artistic quality, such as the Orquesta Sinfónica de Maracaibo.

In the field of musical composition and direction a number of Venezuelan talents have obtained international recognition during recent years.

Likewise, the Venezuelan dance movement has produced outstanding companies, such as the Ballet Nacional de Caracas, Ballet Nuevo Mundo, Ballet Contemporáneo, Danzahoy, and Contradanza.

During the 1970’s, Venezuela witnessed a cinematographic boom that has led to the production of movies of a notable artistic and technical quality.