In this essay Luis Pérez-Oramas comments on the contradictions in the history of Venezuelan abstract-kinetic art as a history of “shadows,” or rather, a “resistance to shadows.” In this context, such shadows are understood as something latent beneath the work of art that cannot be seen but are destined to be revealed. This particular perspective is supported by the works of Otero and Gego, singular representatives of Venezuelan abstraction, not so much because they are “…kinetic artists strictly…[but]…because they are critical counter-figures of kinetic art,” as Oramas explains. The text is accompanied by illustrations of works by Alejandro Otero, Gego, Soto, Cruz-Diez and other important Venezuelan artists.
