The University City of Caracas is a World Heritage Site in Caracas, Venezuela. It is a functional university campus for the Central University of Venezuela, as well as home to 108 notable works of art and famous examples of creative architecture. Many works of art are modernist and mosaic. The campus was designed by architect Carlos Raúl Villanueva, who oversaw much of the construction and design work, with the artwork overseen by Mateo Manaure.
Villanueva primarily enlisted artists who were either European or had European influences – Villanueva himself had been inspired for the campus design in Paris – including members of Los Disidentes, a group of Venezuelan artists who left for Europe to break from the Mexican mural tradition. Some artists did not initially want to work on the project, as they were opposed to the military dictatorship in place in Venezuela at the time, but French artist Fernand Léger encouraged them to participate by saying that "dictatorships pass but art remains"; part of Villanueva's intention was unity. Latin American art scholar Monica Amor wrote that Villanueva's Synthesis of the Arts philosophy, inspired by an André Bloc approach, "advocated a strong humanist approach to urban issues of reconstruction and social healing after the devastation of World War II." Amor noted that debate surrounding the dictatorship's funding of the project, and its realization in this context, persists into the 21st century.
Catalan urbanist Josep Lluís Sert was involved with the Spanish pavilion at the 1937 Paris Exhibition, which was opposite the Venezuelan pavilion that Villanueva helped create; Sert's pavilion (especially the patios) as well as the ideals of the Exhibition greatly inspired Villanueva, who would become friends with Sert after the war. Sert visited the University City in the early 1950s and introduced Villanueva to Alexander Calder.
The experience of the artwork and of the campus architecture was intended to be appreciated by moving through it, something inspired by Le Corbusier (and, in turn, Arab architecture). In the Plaza Cubierta, the center of the campus (and, at conception, Caracas), the organic forms of the winding pathways contrasts with the regular grid of its support structures, which is reflected in the artworks: curved walls support murals, breeze blocks frame design elements. In their book Modern Architecture in Latin America: Art, Technology, and Utopia, Carranza and Lara discuss the "movements" of Villanueva's Synthesis of the Arts, and the functions of certain pieces within their spaces.
Despite the philosophy of synthesis, criticism from the 1970s and the 2020s notes that not all works on the campus contribute equally as functional and artistic pieces; sculptures may not become part of the structures in the same way as murals, while some works were designed without ever seeing the campus. However, the same critics agreed that most of the works were "space definers" and as such were architectural by nature as well as artistic by design.
Amor wrote that the individual artworks creating the spaces of the campus "cannot be assessed individually". She describes many of the murals on the campus as showing "repetition, discontinuity, compression and expansion, dynamism, rhythmic composition, contrasting shapes, geometric organization, and anti-hierarchical allover-ness."
By Venezuelan artists "El primer libro" Just inside the main entrance of the Central Library is a stone depicting a petroglyph, carved by ancient indigenous people of Venezuela. The story of its placement is that it is the first book of the library, waiting for somebody to come and read it, but nobody can because the language is lost. Based on comments from scholars and university figures, it has been deemed that these people do not consider the petroglyph stone to be part of the university's heritage, nor as one of the campus works of art; the same distancing is seen with other elements of indigenous culture across the country. Map reference on this page: L5.
Francisco Narváez
Construction of the campus began in the late 1940s, with the first artworks being installed in 1950. These were designed by Francisco Narváez for the medical complex. Narváez, an old friend of Villanueva, created many pieces of artwork for the campus, in various media.:137
The mosaics at the entrance to the Institute of Experimental Medicine were installed by María Luisa Tovar. Three statues by Narváez on the campus are made of Cumarebo stone: El Atleta, a large statue in the sports complex, and La educación and La ciencia in the medical complex.:137 These last two are detailed depictions of female nudity,:137 something Narváez covers in his art with different materials frequently. The Cumarebo stone is a favorite material of Narváez. A slightly later statue, La cultura (identified as "Sculpture" in Fraser's book), is more figurative, showing the influence of the European artists designing for the campus on Narváez.:137 +Artworks by Francisco Narváez in University City of CaracasWorkDescriptionYearLocationMap ref.Untitled muralMosaic mural of surgical and religious imagery, including Adam and Eve and the Holy Grail1950On the right-side wall at the entrance to the Institute of Experimental MedicineH5CristoPainted fresco depicting Jesus on the cross, surrounded by female figures1950Behind the altar in the Chapel of the University HospitalH13La educaciónStatue, made of Cumarebo stone, of a woman sitting sideways and balancing a book on a raised knee1950On the first floor terrace of the Institute of Experimental MedicineH6Untitled muralMosaic mural of anatomical images, including a Vitruvian woman1950-51On the left-side wall at the entrance to the José Izquierdo Institute of AnatomyH12Untitled muralMosaic mural of a sea life scene, including fish, a shark, and an octopus1951On the wall of the university dining space; damaged during renovationsC1La cienciaStatue, made of Cumarebo stone, of a woman sitting sideways and a boy kneeling in her lap, in the position of Jesus on the cross1951On the first floor terrace of the José Izquierdo Institute of AnatomyH11El AtletaStatue, made of Cumarebo stone, of a stylized geometric male athlete in an Atlas pose1951-52Outside the University Olympic StadiumS1Untitled sculptureA bronze wall-mounted sculpture of José Gregorio Hernández, with a microscope and dedication plaque1953On an outside wall of the Institute of Experimental MedicineH4La culturaBronze sculpture of an abstract figure1954Originally placed on the tenth floor terrace of the Central Library, it was then moved to the garden of the medical complex. In 1984 it was moved to its position in the northwest of Rectory Plaza.R10TorsoWooden sculpture of a woman's torso1956On the eighth floor of the Faculty of Architecture and Urban PlanningAU2Untitled muralWooden panel three-dimensional relief mural of abstract shapes1956In the Henri Pittier Library of the Caracas Botanical GardenB2Dr. José María VargasA bust and dedication to José María Vargas, commissioned by rector Edmundo Chirinos to mark the bicentennial of Vargas's birth1987In the south of Rectory Plaza, next to the covered pathway into the Rectory buildingR5
Alejandro Colina Alejandro Colina made María Lionza, a statue of María Lionza, in 1951; a replica sits just outside the university on the Francisco Fajardo freeway, but the work is nevertheless owned by the university, protected by the university's artwork commission for the heritage site, and generally viewed as part of the campus environs. Restorer Fernando de Tovar has described the replica as "ridiculous"; it was made by Silvestre Chacón in 2004, to protect the original, which has significant heritage value. This has been a point of controversy, with some arguing that the original's heritage means it should be the only one displayed, rather than hidden for safekeeping. The original statue has been kept locked in a workshop at UCV since 2004, despite orders to put it back along the highway. It was significantly damaged when the local council took the mold to create the replica.
The statue was originally made to sit outside the Olympic Stadium for the 1951 Bolivarian Games. With the expansion of the city, the road system was made larger, and the statue was moved a short distance to an island between lanes of the highway.
+Artworks by Alejandro Colina in University City of CaracasWorkDescriptionYearLocationMap ref.María LionzaGiant statue depicting the indigenous goddess María Lionza riding a tapir and holding aloft a woman's pelvis1951Original in a UCV workshop; replica along the Francisco Fajardo freewayS9
Armando Barrios Villanueva approached Armando Barrios in 1952 to create a number of murals for the campus. Barrios' murals are mosaics made of glass, and are considered part of his "abstract-geometric" period. After 1954, his work became less abstract and incorporated more identifiable human figures. As a music lover, Barrios incorporated a musical flow into his designs.
Julio Nicolás Camacho has described the mural on the Museum building of Rectory Plaza poetically, referring to the images as "curtains that imitate waves [and] mountain peaks".:509 The mural is high and over long, and is said to be a "pictorial melody". Carranza and Lara wrote that the mural "aims at dematerializing the structure and form" of the museum away from a purely functional grid-like building.
The Olympic Stadium murals use mosaic tiles imported from Venice. The mural here with horizontal stripes is also considered "melodic", with Ronnie Saravo Sánchez writing that the use of color and the Renaissance influence "link it conceptually with movements such as Cubism and Russian constructivism, [and] served as a support for the creation of a new universe where the figure and background are diluted until reaching an almost abstract stylization".
+Artworks by Armando Barrios in University City of CaracasWorkDescriptionYearLocationMap ref.Untitled muralA graphic design of overlapping lines in shades of bright blue, green, yellow and grey; the color changes where lines intersect. There is a background of vertical stripes on the right of the mural1951On the facade of the University Olympic Stadium, sixth mural from south to northS7Untitled muralA graphic design of overlapping lines in shades of bright blue, green, yellow, purple and grey; the color changes where lines intersect. There is a background of horizontal stripes on the left of the mural 1951On the facade of the University Olympic Stadium, third mural from south to northS4Untitled muralA graphic design of overlapping lines in shades of muted purple, yellow, white and blue; the color changes where lines intersect1953On the north side of the west facade of the Museum Building in Rectory PlazaR8
Carlos Gonzaléz Bogen Bogen lived in Paris from 1948 until 1951, returning to Venezuela to open a gallery with Mateo Manaure and contribute murals to the campus. Bogen had already cultivated an interest in combining art and architecture when making great murals for walls and doors, and the Synthesis of the Arts project allowed him to explore this. He also contributed several works, including murals and glassworks, to the UCV CDCH campus.