Margot Römer

Margot Römer (1938, Caracas, Venezuela – 2005) was a Venezuelan artist who was a leader of radical experimental art, a teacher and a professional pilot. Her artwork reflected topics involving domesticity and sensuality of the human body. She emphasized topics of the female body by using objects to create irony. Römer had diverse knowledge in many mediums including silkscreen, pencil, oil painting, and sometimes assemblages or collages involving found objects.

Biography Born October 7, 1938, in Caracas, Venezuela, and died in 2005. Römer used conceptual language and objects in her work to refer to the human body. In 1976, Römer became part of a curatorial team for the Galeria de Arte Nacional in Caracas. She was a director of Sala Mendoza art foundation. In the 1970s, Römer focused on incorporating messages about violence and corruption awareness within her art. During the late 1980s, she turned her focus on environmental and social issues.

"The Urinal of Marcel Duchamp" A painting Römer presented in the Associated Graphic Arts Workshop of Luisa Palacios (TAGA). The painting is of a urinal inside a see-through box wrapped in a bow like a gift. The idea behind this piece was to take an everyday object and give it new meaning. In recognition of the iconography of the artist Marcel Duchamp. The urinal is painted with black and white stripes externally. While the inside is a mixture of blue, red and magenta. This painting comes from Dadaist influences because of the emphasis on the unpredictable and absurd importance of wasted objects.

Corte esquemático del abdomen (Schematic cut of the abdomen)1970 This artwork was shown in Henrique Faria, New York. The medium for this piece is silkscreen. The image shows an oven with a dominant red color similar to that of an abdomen. The oven is left with its door open and has a pink frame for the opening. This is a representation of woman's bodies, their abdomen is looked at as machines that can produce babies.

Exhibitions

Solo exhibitions Desde el taller de Margot Römer (1976) Estudio Actual, Caracas La estrella es la estrella (1987) Museo de Bellas Artes, Caracas Del cielo a la tierra (1991) Sala Mendoza, Caracas Balance general (1996) Museo de Arte Contemporáneo de Caracas Sofía Imber Ortogonías (2001) Museo Alejandro Otero, Caracas. This series shows a representation of 3-dimensional objects through a linear perspective. Las sensaciones perdidas del hombre (1972) Sala Mendoza, Caracas Para contribuir a la confusión general (1972) Ateneo de Caracas Dibujos (1973) Sala Mendoza, Caracas Piel y piel (1973) XII Bienal de São Paulo Las artes plásticas en Venezuela (1976) Museo de Bellas Artes, Caracas Third International Drawing Biennial (1976) Inglaterra The International Drawing Trienal (1978) Wroclaw, Poland Artists from the Continent (1983) Chrysler Museum, Norkfolk, Virginia, USA Challenge: Young Latin America on Paper (1987) CDS Gallery, NY Bienal de Cuenca, Ecuador (1989; mención honorífica) Fabulación-Figuración. 75 años de pintura latinoamericana (1990) Galería de Arte National, Caracas Transitoria (2003) Centro Cultural Corp Group, Caracas.

Group exhibitions In 1972, Römer participated in "two seminal group exhibitions in the history of conceptional art in Caracas. Las Sensaciones Perdidas del Hombre at Sala Mendoza, and Para Contribuir a la Confusión General in Ateneo de Caracas.

Honors and awards 1972: Received honorable mention at the 2nd Salón Nacional de Jóvenes Artistas de Maracay for her work entitled, El aparato reproductor de la mujer (woman's reproductive system).

1977: Römer received the Premio Arturo Michelena as the first female artist from Venezuela.

2000: She won the Premio Nacional Armando Reverón for visual arts.