Refined Material - Petroculture and Modernity in Venezuela

“Refined Material is a groundbreaking study that situates Venezuela’s midcentury art and architecture in light of the modern nation-state’s myriad ties to petroleum extraction, processing, and petrodollars.”⏤Rachel Price, Princeton University

“There is no study in the English language to date that investigates and contextualizes petroculture in midcentury Venezuela, certainly not with the rigorous research and keen analysis of Refined Material. I would venture to say that there is no such book available in any language that so thoroughly contextualizes artistic production in Venezuela within this high-stakes historical moment and global economic interests.”⏤Ana María Reyes, author of The Politics of Taste: Beatriz González and Cold War Aesthetics

List of contents

Contents

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS 

Introduction: The Alchemy of Refinement 

1 Designing Oil 
2 Refi ning Amuay 
3 Building the Vista 
4 Vibrating Nature 
5 Killing the Well 

Epilogue: The Ooze of History 

NOTES 
SELECTED BIBLIOGRAPHY 
LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS 
INDEX 

About the author

Sean Nesselrode Moncada is Associate Professor of Theory and History of Art and Design at the Rhode Island School of Design.

Summary

Venezuela’s turbulent twentieth century saw boom and bust as the former Spanish colony transformed into a major postwar cultural player. In this sweeping study of visual and material production, Sean Nesselrode Moncada explores the integral relationship between the global oil industry and the celebrated rise of geometric abstraction, kinetic art, and modern architecture in midcentury Venezuela. Oil provided the crucible for national reinvention, ushering in a period of dizzying optimism and bitter disillusion as artists, architects, graphic designers, activists, and critics sought to define the terms of modernity. An innovative, transdisciplinary reevaluation of Venezuelan modernism, Refined Material reveals how the logic of refinement conditioned the terms of development and redefined our relationship to nature, matter, and one another. 

Product details

• Authors: Sean Nesselrode Moncada, Sean Nesselrode Moncada
• Publisher: University Of California Press
• Languages: English
• Product format: Hardback
• Released: 04.08.2023
• EAN: 9780520392465
• ISBN: 978-0-520-39246-5
• No. of pages: 368
• Series: Studies on Latin American Art; Studies on Latin American Art and Latinx Art
• Subjects: Humanities, art, music > Art > Art history; South America, Ethnic Studies, Latin America, ART / History / General, ARCHITECTURE / History / General, HISTORY / Caribbean & West Indies / General, DESIGN / History & Criticism, ART / Caribbean & Latin American, HISTORY / Latin America / South America, HISTORY / Latin America / General, History of art / art & design styles, Caribbean islands, History of Art, Industrial / commercial art & design, history of design, History of Architecture, Latin America – Mexico, Central America, South America, History of the Americas, SOCIAL SCIENCE / Cultural & Ethnic Studies / General