Jacobo Borges (born 28 November 1931 in Caracas, Venezuela) is a contemporary, neo-figurative Venezuelan artist. The mediums he has worked in include painting, drawing, filmmaking, stage design, and sculpture.Borges, Jacobo. 60 Paintings by Jacobo Borges: Museo de Arte Contemporaneo Internacional Rufino Tamayo: Mexico City, Mexico August–October 1987: from Fishing to the Mirror of waters. [Monterey, Mexico] : Museo de Monterey, 1987 Considered one of the most accomplished Latin American artists of the 20th century, Borges first received international recognition as a painter in the 1960s and attracted further attention as a theorist and writer. His oeuvre includes a rich body of paintings, a film directed in 1969, and a book The Great Mountain and Its Era, published in 1979.Maddicks, R. Venezuela: Jacobo Borges: without frontiers. ARTnews v.95 (June 1996)
Personal life Jacobo Borges resides in New York City and Caracas, Venezuela. He has a wife, Diana and three children, a daughter named Ximena and two sons, one named Ezequiel and other Emiliano.
Biography
Early years (1945–1955) During his youth, Jacobo held various jobs. He worked as a lithographer at the Cartones de Venezuela company and as a draftsman at the McCann-Erickson advertising agency alongside the master Carlos Cruz-Diez.Jacobo Borges, Dore Ashton, Caracas Venezuela, Armitano Editores, 1982
Between 1945 and 1948, he met the painter Armando Reverón and came into contact with the poet Aquiles Nazoa and the Cuban writer Alejo Carpentier. The following year, in 1949, he enrolled in the School of Plastic and Applied Arts in Caracas, where he studied for two years.
In 1951, he worked at the Taller Libre de Arte in Caracas and exhibited his first paintings. One of them, "La lámpara y la silla" (The Lamp and the chair), received the first prize in the 1952 Young Painting Contest promoted by the newspaper El Nacional, Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer, and the Embassy of France in Venezuela. The prize was a ten-month study scholarship in Paris, where he stayed for several years, taking on various jobs. There, he exhibited at the Salon de la Joven Pintura at the Museum of Modern Art in Paris.
Recognition inside and outside Venezuela (1956–1964) After returning to Venezuela, he held solo exhibitions at the Museum of Fine Arts in Caracas and the Lauro Gallery. In 1957, he received the José Loreto Arismendi Award at the XVIII Official Annual Salon of Venezuelan Art and an honorable mention at the IV São Paulo Biennial. During this time, he collaborated with the literary and artistic groups Tabla Redonda and El Techo de la Ballena, active in Caracas in the early 1960s. In the following years, alongside his pictorial work, he began his scenographic research for various theater productions.
Alongside artists such as Jesús Soto, Luis Guevara Moreno, and Régulo Pérez, among others, he represented Venezuela at the XXIX Venice Biennale in 1958. He participated in the Venezuelan stand at the Brussels World Fair and exhibited at the Official Salon in Caracas. In 1959, he took part in the exhibition "Veinte años del Salón a través de sus premios" (Twenty Years of the Salon Through Its Prizes) at the Museum of Fine Arts in Caracas. Borges was also one of the five Venezuelan painters chosen to represent Venezuela at the Palacio de Bellas Artes in Mexico. In parallel, he created scenography for the plays "Hernani" by Victor Hugo and "Esperando al Zurdo" by Clifford Odette, as well as costumes and props for "Calígula" by Albert Camus.
Borges kicks off the 1960s with the Arturo Michelena First Prize at the XVIII Arturo Michelena Salon held in Valencia, Venezuela, and an Honorable Mention at the XXI Official Annual Salon of Venezuelan Art. Shortly thereafter, he secures the first prize in the contest "Siete pintores venezolanos" (Seven Venezuelan Painters), organized by Esso at the Museum of Fine Arts in Curaçao.
In 1961, he exhibited at the XXII Official Annual Salon of Venezuelan Art in Caracas, where he was awarded the National Drawing Prize for the work "Yo también quiero ver" (I Want to See Too). He was also included in the retrospective "Pintura venezolana (1661-1961)" presented at the Museum of Fine Arts in Caracas. His work, along with that of 16 other Venezuelan painters, traveled to New York, Tel Aviv, Haifa, and Jerusalem. Simultaneously, he continued his work as a set designer, this time for Tennessee Williams' play "Zoológico de cristal" (The Glass Menagerie).
While designing the set, costumes, and program for Federico García Lorca's "Bodas de sangre" (Blood Wedding), premiered in 1962, he won the Puebla de Bolívar Prize and the Antonio Esteban Frías Prize at the XXIII Official Annual Salon of Venezuelan Art. The succession of recognitions continued the following year when he received the National Painting Prize at the XXIV Official Annual Salon of Venezuelan Art for the work "La coronación de Napoleón" (The Coronation of Napoleon) and the First Prize in Drawing and Engraving at the V Drawing and Engraving Salon of the Faculty of Architecture of the Central University of Venezuela.
His work circulated widely outside Venezuela. He was part of the exhibition "22 pintores venezolanos" (22 Venezuelan Painters), organized by the Neumann Foundation, which toured Chile, Uruguay, and Peru. He also participated again in the VII São Paulo Biennial, Brazil. In the same year, 1963, he held his third solo exhibition at the Caracas Gallery.
Starting off 1964 with a solo exhibition at the El Techo de la Ballena gallery, his work was chosen by the jury of the II Biennial of Córdoba in Argentina for a traveling exhibition through the Museum of Fine Arts in Mexico and several museums in the United States. Shortly afterward, he was included in the inaugural exhibition of the Museum of Modern Art in Bogotá and was part of the Venezuelan representation at the XXXII Venice Biennale. He also participated in the VI Exhibition of Graphic Arts, Drawing, and Engraving of the Faculty of Architecture and Urbanism of the Central University of Venezuela and in the XXV Official Annual Salon of Venezuelan Art. Critic Laurence Alloway included him in the "Guggenheim International Award" exhibition.Guggenheim International Award, Catalog, EEUU, 1964
Retirement from painting and cinematic experimentation (1965–1970) He initiated the series "Las jugadoras" (The Players) in 1965, the same year he participated in the VIII São Paulo Biennial and the XXVI Official Annual Salon of Venezuelan Art. He was part of the traveling exhibition "20 Artistas sudamericanos" (20 South American Artists), which later presented at the Museum of Fine Arts in Mexico, the University of California (Oakland), the American Federation of Arts in New York, and the Pan American Union in Washington. He was also included in the exhibition "Evaluación de la pintura latinoamericana" (Evaluation of Latin American Painting), which toured the Museum of Fine Arts in Caracas, the Ateneo de Caracas, and the University of Cornelly Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum in New York. Additionally, he was part of the collective exhibition "Donación Miguel Otero Silva" at the Museum of Fine Arts in Caracas.
After designing the set for Carlos Muñiz's "El tintero" (The Inkwell), he began working with a team of filmmakers, photographers, set designers, writers, musicians, and sound technicians on "Imagen de Caracas," dedicating himself to the study and experimentation of new media of expression.
Once he designs the set for Carlos Muñiz's "El tintero," he starts working with a team of filmmakers, photographers, set designers, writers, musicians, and sound artists in "Imagen de Caracas," dedicating himself to the study and experimentation of new visual communication media: film, video, photography, performance, and installation, among others. This marks the moment of his retirement as a painter: for five years, Jacobo Borges will not paint or participate in exhibitions. The major exhibitions to which he sends his paintings include: "20 South American Artists," Museum of Fine Arts, Mexico; University of California, Oakland; American Federation of Arts, New York; Pan American Union, Washington; "Circulating Exhibition, Evaluation of Latin American Painting," Museum of Fine Arts, Caracas; Ateneo de Caracas; Cornell University, USA; Guggenheim Museum, New York; Armando Reverón Biennial, Museum of Fine Arts, Caracas; Official Salon, Caracas.
As part of the "Cornell Latin American Year 1965-1966" program, Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum director Thomas M. Messer, along with Jack L. Squier from Cornell University, initiates an exhibition project. In 1964, they make two trips to eight Latin American countries in search of the most significant contemporary painters. Messer invites Borges to participate in the exhibition "The Emergent Decade: Latin American painters and painting in the 1960s," presented at the Guggenheim Museum in New York. As a result, the Guggenheim Museum acquires his work "Figura en una habitación. La comedora de helados" in 1966.
"Imagen de Caracas," a project he had been preparing for three years, is presented in 1967 under the auspices of the Government of the city of Caracas as part of the commemoration of the city's 400 years. He directs the cinematic material, theatrical development, and installation of this installation. The show takes place in a purpose-built space in the city center, covering 4,900 square meters and 20 meters in height, with tubes and scaffolding. Inside, the audience walks and interacts with projected images and moving objects. After this, in 1969, he directs a short film in 16mm format and 35 minutes in duration, titled "22 de mayo."
The return to painting (1971–1979) His return to painting is marked by the exhibition of four series of drawings at the Viva México Gallery in 1971: "Los Novios," "Los Traidores," "La Farsa," and "El Che." His first solo exhibition at the Estudio Actual Gallery in Caracas comes in 1972. There, he presents 18 acrylics on canvas dated that year, along with "Humilde ciudadano" from 1963 and "Yo también quiero" from 1965.
Two years later, in 1974, Borges participates in the III Latin American Print Biennial in San Juan, Puerto Rico, and at the Estudio Dos Gallery in Valencia, Venezuela. He is included in the collective exhibition "Nine Venezuelan Artists," presented at the Museum of Contemporary Art in Caracas, and in the collective exhibition "Great Creators of the Continent" at the Estudio Actual Gallery in Caracas. He also designs the set for the theatrical work "El testamento del perro," directed by Álvaro de Rosson.
"Vision of Venezuela," his traveling exhibition composed of murals, photomontages, audiovisuals, and texts, arrives at the urban complex Parque Central in Caracas in 1975. Some of his colleagues in this installation include Josefina Jordán, Pedro Laya, Pepe Garrido, Raúl Fuentes, and Régulo Pérez. Afterward, he participates in the Exhibition of Venezuelan Art in Havana, Cuba. Later on, he exhibits at the Estudio Actual Gallery in Caracas, showcasing 28 works created between 1974 and 1975.