Se me otorga una mirada para ojear dentro de los tarros de basura
Juan Calzadilla · Venezuela, 1930–2025 · 1983
Price on request
- Medium
- Mixed media on jute
- Dimensions (to be confirmed)
- 95 × 73 cm (37 × 29 in)
- Edition
- Unique piece
- Frame
- Wood frame
The proportion given by the inventory's measurements does not match that of the photographed piece, so these figures are pending verification against the work itself. Write to us and we will confirm them before closing any purchase.
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The story
On an open-weave jute, ten horizontal bands of black signs cover the cloth from top to bottom, separated by strips of bare sacking. From a distance it reads as a handwritten page; up close, the signs are not letters: they are hooks, knots and small figures that mimic writing without ever saying anything.
The two lines that can actually be read are at the edges. At the top, hand-lettered, the artist's name and the title: «Juan Calzadilla · Se me otorga una mirada para ojear dentro de los tarros de basura» — I am granted a gaze to peer inside the rubbish bins. At the bottom, in capitals: «LAS PISADAS DEJAN HUELLAS DE CENIZA QUE NOS SUJETAN A LA MEMORIA» — footsteps leave traces of ash that bind us to memory.
Juan Calzadilla (1930–2025) was a poet, art critic and draughtsman, and in 1961 he co-founded El Techo de la Ballena. In this 1983 piece both conditions occupy the same support: the writing does not accompany the drawing, it is the drawing.
Why this work?
«Se me otorga una mirada para ojear dentro de los tarros de basura» (1983), by Juan Calzadilla, is a mixed media on jute recorded in the inventory as 95 × 73 cm (dimensions to be confirmed): ten horizontal bands of black signs that mimic writing cover the weave, with the title hand-lettered along the top edge and, along the bottom, the sentence «LAS PISADAS DEJAN HUELLAS DE CENIZA QUE NOS SUJETAN A LA MEMORIA». A unique piece, selected by Pablo Vaca for EL ART DEALER because it gathers the poet and the draughtsman on a single surface.
In your space
Its vertical format and earth range call for a narrow wall and warm light: a corridor, a study or the gap between two windows, where one can step close enough to read it.
Catalog details
| Work | Se me otorga una mirada para ojear dentro de los tarros de basura |
| Artist | Juan Calzadilla — Venezuela, 1930–2025 |
| Year | 1983 |
| Medium | Mixed media on jute |
| Dimensions (to be confirmed) | 95 × 73 cm (37 × 29 in) |
| Edition | Unique piece |
| Condition | Good condition |
| Frame | Wood frame |
| Certificate | Signed certificate of authenticity, included |
| Price | Price on request · Available |
About the artist
Juan Calzadilla
Venezuela, 1930–2025 · Drawing, painting and poetry
Juan Calzadilla (Altagracia de Orituco, 1930 – Caracas, 2025) was a poet, draughtsman, painter, essayist and art critic. In 1961 he co-founded El Techo de la Ballena, a group of the Venezuelan avant-garde of the 1960s, and he received Venezuela's National Prize for Visual Arts. In 2011 he was appointed director of the Galería de Arte Nacional, a post he left in 2013. His visual work is shot through with writing: mark and word occupy the same surface.
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Se me otorga una mirada para ojear dentro de los tarros de basura
Juan Calzadilla · 1983