National Art Gallery (Galería de Arte Nacional)
Venezuela's national art collection, from pre-Hispanic petroglyphs to contemporary work, in a 2009 building.
The Galería de Arte Nacional was created by decree in 1974 and opened to the public in 1976, taking custody of the national collection of Venezuelan art that had previously been held by the Museum of Fine Arts. For three decades it occupied Carlos Raúl Villanueva's neoclassical building beside the Parque Los Caobos. In 2009 the gallery moved a short distance to purpose-built premises on Avenida México designed by Carlos Gómez de Llarena, giving it far larger climate-controlled halls, a conservation laboratory and a public library devoted to the visual arts.
The collection numbers roughly 9,000 works and is arranged to show a continuous national story rather than a single period. It begins with indigenous petroglyphs and colonial religious painting, continues through nineteenth-century history painting by Arturo Michelena and Martín Tovar y Tovar, and takes in the landscapes of Armando Reverón and the kinetic experiments of Jesús Soto and Carlos Cruz-Diez. Photography, printmaking and textiles are also represented. The gallery runs a programme of temporary exhibitions and an education department for school groups.
Highlights
- Around 9,000 works covering Venezuelan art from pre-Hispanic times onwards
- Paintings by Arturo Michelena, Martín Tovar y Tovar and Armando Reverón
- Kinetic pieces by Jesús Soto and Carlos Cruz-Diez
- Purpose-built 2009 galleries by Carlos Gómez de Llarena on Avenida México
