Alfredo Boulton. Visual poetry. Photographs

For the celebration of its 35th anniversary, the Andean Development Corporation invites the public to the opening of the exhibition Alfredo Boulton. Visual poetry. Photographs.

As part of the celebrations of its 35th anniversary and continuing its work of disseminating the creative activities of the Latin American peoples, the Andean Development Corporation (CAF) joins forces with the Albert Vollmer Foundation to present the exhibition of unpublished photographs of Alfredo Boulton opening at the CAF Art Gallery on December 1 at 7:30 pm.

With this show which expresses the photographic art of Alfredo Boulton (1908-1995), CAF pays homage to this outstanding Venezuelan intellectual, recognized in the country as art historian and critic.

This event is another of the many offerings organized by the CAF cultural and community development department, with a view to strengthening the development and integrated education of human beings through artistic creativity and expression, as well as contributing to the dissemination and projection of regional talent and identity.

Alfredo Boulton. Visual poetry presents a set of photographic works taken by the artist during his travels around Ibero-America. These images record Boulton´s singular approach, which reflects, subtly and evocatively, universal truths that reveal the ethnic, geographical and cultural idiosyncrasies of Latin America with a deeply poetic vision.

This compendium has been made possible by the Foundation Albert Vollmer, which has agreed to the exhibition of part of the collection that forms part of its collection.

On Alfred Boulton

Looking beyond my eyes was the favorite expression of Alfredo Boulton, born on June 16, 1908 in Caracas. It was only in 1920, during a short trip to Europe, when his interest in photography began and he took his first photograph in Paris: Monceau Park.

He studied in the San Pablo College of Caracas until 1922 when he moved to Switzerland to continue his studies in a boarding school in Lausanne. Destined by his father to enter the commercial activities of the family, Boulton traveled to England where he studied commerce until 1927. The following year he was introduced to the work of Daguerre, Nadar and Man Ray, especially the latter photographer who had a marked influence on his work.

Back in Venezuela he worked again in the Boulton companies, and began his first period of photographic production formed by the parallel existence of the surrealist experiments and the simple pictures of the valley of Caracas. In 1930 he began his series on The Cemetery of the Sons of God in Caracas. In 1932 he took the photographs of Francisco Narváez working with his models for the fountain in Carabobo Park.

In 1933, he began work in Caracas as art critic in the pages of El Universal newspaper. In 1935 he founded the El Ingenioso Hidalgo newspaper with Arturo Uslar Pietri, Pedro Sotillo and Julián Padrón. In 1938 he held his first individual exhibition at the Ateneo de Caracas, where he showed 35 photographs including portraits, landscapes and nudes. Later, in 1939 his photographic work was characterized by his study of Venezuelan geography. This iconographic project began with his work on the Andes. In 1940 he published his first work on the national landscape Images of Western Venezuela.

The recognitions he obtained include: the First National Prize for Literature, mention essay, from the National Institute of Cultural and Fine Arts (1969-1971), and the National Photographic Prize (1991).

The most important exhibitions of his work were: New York Museum of Modern Art (1946); Planchart Room, Caracas (1948); Natural Science Museum, Caracas (1950); Venezuelan Writers´ Association, Caracas (1952); Venezuelan-French Cultural Institute, Caracas (1955); Musée de l´Homme, Paris (1978); Caracas Contemporary Art Museum (1989), and the Eugenio Mendoza Foundation, Caracas (1982).

After publishing his last work Photographs in September 1995, he died in Caracas on November 27.