Alejandro Otero (1921-1990)

Venezuela, Museo de Arte Contemporáneo de Caracas, Alejandro Otero, February, 1985, no. 32, p. 114, illustrated in color 

After having finished the University murals in Caracas and following his great success with his Coloritmo works, Alejandro Otero returned to Europe in 1960. In January, 1961, in a letter from Madrid to his good friend, Alfredo Boulton, he writes, “It has been a great experience to come face to face with the Great Masters, with El Greco, in some of the details of his paintings, I have found that the enigma is still there…I can almost see the colors of my next paintings.” 

Back in his studio in Paris, Otero proceeded to paint a series of 28 monochromatic works, known as the “monochromes”, many of which were left only numbered.  Some occasional titles appear, such as Vers le Blanc (Hacia lo Blanco), En plein dans le Gris (De lleno en el Gris), Matiere Rose (Materia Rosa), and they suggest a journey of approximation towards color.  These titles shed light on the process by which Otero produced these works.  They are abstract not merely as non-representational paintings, but in that they were created from that which was still a mystery for the artist:  the “enigma of paint” that he mentioned in Madrid.  Many betray a semblance of Toledo skies and El Greco’s masterful monochromatic variations. After this series, the artist abandoned painting on canvas.  

Otero said years later, “The process was not easy.  Even with a paintbrush, what came out were Coloritmos.  I would cross them out, erasing them, covering them with written brushstrokes.”   Vers le Blanc, dated March 3, 1961 is among the most luminous and sublime of these.