Untitled - Banco Mercantil

Banco Mercantil (Schweiz)AG is honored to present its 2006 Annual Report featuring
the works ofAlejandro Otero, an international artist, writer, and cultural promoter,
recognized for hisrelentless exploration, and for hisfusion of realism and abstract
expressionism.
Alejandro Otero was born in Bolivar, Venezuela, in 1921. From early childhood his
notion of art became a situation to be sketched—a journey, a many-sided experience,
aweb of insights spread out before his very eyes, inviting investigation and
sparking new forms ofperception inthespectator. This activist and polemical vision
of art gave rise to many discussions at home and abroad, expressing the purposes
and possibilities of an art that would benefit everyone—an art that could assume
its most intimate contemporaneity.
A consciousness of themany dialogs of art describes the philosophy of Alejandro
Otero. In his multifacetedwork, he took on many challenges with fervor—the scenery
for theatrical productions, the integration of European tendencies in everyday
objects, and the conception of civic projects, among others. His investigative work
at the Massachusetts Institute ofTechnology (MIT), exploring the interrelation
between art and science in the modern world, resultedinhisparticipationinthe1982 XLVenice Biennale with two monumental sculptures, Aguja Solar and Abra Solar, the
latter now part of theMercantil Collection.
Alejandro Otero died on August 13, 1990, at the age of 69. It is fitting to pay homage
to a man whose artistic and intellectual creations depict discipline, constant labor,
drive, risk, and execution of cutting-edge ideas. He encouraged anever-active, everradiant,ever-alive
construction of freedom and experimentation as fundamental pillars
of life and creation. His work is part of international collections and museums,
including the New York Museum of Modern Art and the National Air and Space
Museum in Washington D.C.
“It’s absurd to judge abstract art as being somehow simple or indifferent,
just because of its apparent reticence. It isn’t true that it’s out of touch
with society, nor that it’s lacking human sensitivity. In fact, if you look
at art from this perspective, it’s actually healthier, purer, and more human,
because it is born of its own significance. It comes to life within every
man, and not from foreign ideas and principles. It clarifies roles and sets
them straight; it achieves greatness within its very own orbit.”
Alejandro Otero
(1921-1990)