Sin titulo (Untitled)

A pioneer of Venezuelan abstraction, Mercedes Pardo built her practice through an exploration of chromatic effects within abstract forms. In her mature work, she emphasized the power and vibrancy of color, carefully calibrated through tonal values. Sin título exhibits this quintessential style, conveyed through the juxtaposition of white, cut-out shapes and the fields of saturated color that surround them: oranges and reds with accents of dark blues, greens, and black. The starkness of the white shapes and ground contrasts with the warmth and intensity of the colored shapes, creating a dynamic optical effect. Pardo embodies the influence and wave of abstraction that catalyzed Venezuela’s art scene in the 1950s, stimulated by the modernization of Caracas and the influence of the international avant-garde.

Text credit: Produced in collaboration with the University of Maryland Department of Art History & Archaeology and by Gemma Kim