Mercedes Pardo
Mercedes Pardo developed an original vocabulary through mastery of color and geometric form. Her artistic career captures the spirit of experimentation characterizing the generation of Venezuelan artists, among them Carlos Cruz-Diez and Alejandro Otero, who lived and worked in Paris in the mid-century and brought geometric abstraction to the forefront of the international art scene. Pardo was a leading figure in Venezuela’s Informalist school of the early 1960s, an international movement paralleling American Abstract Expressionism.
A sophisticated awareness of composition, rhythmic repetition, and formal harmony pervades Pardo’s oeuvre, as she explores the relationships between geometric shapes, colors, and the picture plane. Working primarily in painting, Pardo moved seamlessly between two and three dimensions, also producing theater sets, stained glass, and mosaic murals. Her use of color and form sets up a dynamic tension between flatness and the illusion of space.
Born in Caracas, Venezuela in 1921, Pardo attended the Academy of Fine Arts in Venezuela and the Santiago Academy of Fine Arts in Chile. In 1949, she moved to Paris to study at the École du Louvre. In 1951, Pardo married noted Venezuelan painter Alejandro Otero, and they spent the rest of their careers in Venezuela. In 1962, Pardo helped found the San Antonio de Los Altos Cooperative School outside of Caracas, where she often taught classes.
During her lifetime, Pardo participated in the International Exhibition of Abstract Art, São Paolo Biennale, Venice Biennale, National Biennial of Visual Arts in Caracas, and the Official Salon. Her work has been exhibited in galleries and museums throughout Venezuela, Chile, Spain, Mexico, Paris, Germany, Cuba, and the United States. Her work is included in collections worldwide, including the Cisneros Collection, Caracas, Venezuela; Museum of Fine Arts, Caracas, Venezuela; National Art Gallery, Caracas, Venezuela; Museo de Arte del Banco de la República, Bogota, Colombia, among others. The Otero Pardo Foundation works to preserve her legacy today.
