{{Short description|Venezuelan artist (1921–2005)}} {{Use dmy dates|date=August 2021}} {{Infobox artist | name = Mercedes Pardo | image = Photo of Mercedes Pardo.jpg | imagesize = | caption = | birth_name = | birth_date = {{birth date|1921|7|29|mf=y}} | birth_place = Caracas, Venezuela | death_date = {{death date and age|2005|3|24|1921|7|29|mf=y}} | death_place = San Antonio de Los Altos, Venezuela | education = | field = Painting | training = | movement = Abstract Art | works = | patrons = | awards = | spouse = {{plainlist| * {{marriage|Marco Bonta|1945||end=divorced}} * {{marriage|Alejandro Otero|1951|}} }} }} '''Mercedes Clementina Marta del Carmen Pardo Ponte''',<ref>{{cite web|title=Mercedes Clementina Marta del Carmen Pardo Ponte|url=http://www.geni.com/people/Mercedes-Clementina-Marta-del-Carmen-Pardo-Ponte/6000000010903506161|website=geni.com|accessdate=21 February 2016}}</ref> known as '''Mercedes Pardo''' (July 29, 1921 – March 24, 2005) was a Venezuelan abstract art painter.<ref name=artand>{{cite web | url=http://www.artandartcollection.com/artist/54 | website=Art&Art | title=Pardo Mercedes | access-date=21 February 2016 | archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160303141554/http://www.artandartcollection.com/artist/54 | archive-date=3 March 2016 | url-status=usurped }}</ref><ref>{{cite web|title=Mercedes Pardo|url=http://www.mutualart.com/Artist/Mercedes-Pardo/820FE9C34496F6D7|website=MutualArt.com|accessdate=21 February 2016}}</ref><ref name="handbook">{{cite book|last1=Boudon|first1=Lawrence|title=Handbook of Latin American Studies v. 58|date=2002|isbn=9780292709102|page=68|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=Nj8Sh6x86x8C&q=%22mercedes+pardo%22&pg=PA68|accessdate=21 February 2016}}</ref><ref name="wikihistoriadelartevenezolano">{{cite web|title=Pardo, Mercedes|url=http://vereda.ula.ve/wiki_artevenezolano/index.php/Pardo,_Mercedes|website=Wikihistoria del arte Venezolano|accessdate=23 December 2017}}</ref>
==Biography== Pardo was born July 29, 1921 (or July 20, 1921, according to her obituary in ''El País''<ref name=obit>{{ cite news | work = El País | title=Mercedes Pardo, pintora (obituary) | date=28 March 2005 | url= http://elpais.com/diario/2005/03/28/agenda/1111960811_850215.html | access-date= 21 February 2016}}</ref>) in Caracas, Venezuela. By age 13 she began taking free classes at the Academia de Bellas Artes.<ref name="wikihistoriadelartevenezolano"/>
In 1941 she joined the Escuela de Artes Plásticas y Aplicadas in Caracas.<ref name="handbook"/> She was active in painting, printmaking, and collage, and in 1991 the National Art Gallery in Caracas held an exhibition to review her work from 1941 to 1991.<ref name="puerto">{{cite book|last1=Puerto|first1=Cecilia|title=Latin American Women Artists, Kahlo and Look who Else: A Selective, Annotated Bibliography|date=1996|publisher=Greenwood|isbn=9780313289347|page=189|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=1vsOMopLwp0C&q=%22mercedes+pardo%22&pg=PA189}}</ref><ref>{{cite web |url=https://icaadocs.mfah.org/icaadocs/ELARCHIVO/RegistroCompleto/tabid/99/doc/1155959/language/es-MX/Default.aspx |title= Mercedes Pardo : 1 x 9 / Margarita D'Amico |language=es |website=Documents of Latin American and Latino Art |publisher=Museum of Fine Arts, Houston |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190623222954/http://icaadocs.mfah.org/icaadocs/ELARCHIVO/RegistroCompleto/tabid/99/doc/1155959/language/es-MX/Default.aspx |archive-date=23 June 2019}}</ref>
In 1945 she married Marco Bonta, a professor of stained glass and mural painting. Their marriage was short.<ref name="wikihistoriadelartevenezolano"/>
In 1947 she attended the Academy of Fine Arts of Santiago in Chile where she had her first one-woman show. In 1949 she moved to Paris and attended the École du Louvre.<ref name="wikihistoriadelartevenezolano"/>
In 1951 she married the painter Alejandro Otero.<ref name="wikihistoriadelartevenezolano"/>
She died on March 24, 2005, in San Antonio de Los Altos, Venezuela.<ref name="wikihistoriadelartevenezolano"/>
==Legacy== The Fundación Alejandro Otero-Mercedes Pardo was established in 2016. It is located at Alejandro Otero and Mercedes Pardo's house in San Antonio de Los Altos.<ref name="ArtNexus">{{cite web|last1=Benko|first1=Susana|title=Opening of the Fundación Alejandro Otero-Mercedes Pardo|url=https://www.artnexus.com/Notice_View.aspx?DocumentID=30417|website=ArtNexus|accessdate=23 December 2017}}</ref>
In 2023 her work was included in the exhibition ''Action, Gesture, Paint: Women Artists and Global Abstraction 1940-1970'' at the Whitechapel Gallery in London.<ref name="Whitechapel Gallery">{{cite web |title=Action, Gesture, Paint |url=https://www.whitechapelgallery.org/exhibitions/action-gesture-paint-women-and-global-abstraction-1940-70/ |website=Whitechapel Gallery |access-date=27 April 2023 |language=en}}</ref>
==Exhibitions== Source:<ref name="wikihistoriadelartevenezolano"/> * 1947 Pacific Room, Santiago de Chile * 1962 MBA * 1964 "Signs", Sala Mendoza * 1967 "Signs", Librería Cruz del Sur, Caracas * 1969 "1 x 9 color of silkscreen", MBA * 1970 "Recent works of Mercedes Pardo", Sala Mendoza * 1971 Center of Fine Arts, Maracaibo * 1974 Aele Gallery, Madrid * 1977 Adler Gallery / Castillo, Caracas / El Parque Art Center, Valencia, Edo. Carabobo / Pecanins Gallery, Mexico City * 1978 "From the workshop of Mercedes Pardo today, National Art Gallery", Caracas / Museum of Modern Art, Mexico City * 1979 "Color, skin, meditated presence: anthological exhibition by Mercedes Pardo", GAN / Galería Adler / Castillo, Caracas * 1980 "Mercedes Pardo in Margarita: paintings / serigraphs", Museo Francisco Narváez * 1983 "Inesauribile Venezia", Sagitario Gallery, Caracas * 1991 "Moradas del color", GAN * 1993 "Graphic work of Mercedes Pardo", Consulate of Venezuela, New York * 1994 "Graphic work of Mercedes Pardo", The Warm Spaces * 1995 "Graphic work of Mercedes Pardo", MRE * 1996 Sacred Museum, Caracas * 2000 "Mercedes Pardo, 1951–2000", MAO / "Color and shape", GAN * 2005 House of the Culture Village of the Sea, Porlamar, Edo. Nueva Esparta / Unimet
==Awards == Source:<ref name="wikihistoriadelartevenezolano"/> * 1942 Honorable mention in painting, III Official Salon * 1944 José Loreto Arismendi Prize, V Official Show * 1960 Puebla de Bolívar Prize, XXI Official Salon * 1961 Prize of the Fina Gómez Foundation, XXII Official Show * 1964 National Prize for Applied Arts (shared with Alejandro Otero), XXV Salón Oficial * 1966 Enamel Prize, International Exhibition of Artistic Crafts, Stuttgart, Germany * 1978 National Prize of Plastic Arts, Caracas * 1980 Special Edition Purchase Award, World Print III, San Francisco, California, United States * 1991 Armando Reverón Award, AVAP
==References== {{reflist}}
==Further reading== *{{cite book|title=Mercedes Pardo: moradas del color | year=1991 | publisher=Fundacion Galeria de Arte Nacional}} <!-- cited in Handbook of Latin American Studies, ref above --> *{{cite web | url=http://www.artandartcollection.com/artist/54 | website=Art&Art | title=Pardo Mercedes | access-date=21 February 2016 | archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160303141554/http://www.artandartcollection.com/artist/54 | archive-date=3 March 2016 | url-status=usurped }} * [http://www.sothebys.com/en/auctions/ecatalogue/lot.14.html/2017/latin-american-contemporary-art-n09769 image of COMPOSICIÓN]
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{{DEFAULTSORT:Pardo, Mercedes}} Category:1921 births Category:2005 deaths Category:Venezuelan women painters Category:20th-century Venezuelan painters Category:20th-century Venezuelan women artists Category:Venezuelan contemporary artists Category:Venezuelan expatriates in France Category:20th-century women painters