Santiago´s
Artes Virtuales Museum is now offering the largest
exhibit ever presented in Chile of painter Marrio
Carreño´s work, one of Latin America´s
most important artists, and a foreigner who produced
his in Chile most of his oeuvre.
Mario Carreño had a Cuban origin, but was
later nationalized as a Chilean and got our National
Arts Award in 1982. Of all the foreigners that have
ever looked for shelter in our country, he is one
of those who gave back the most. His legacy can
be appreciated until May 30 at the Artes Visuales
Museum (MAVI), thanks to the exhibit "Mario
Carreño: Retrospectiva 1939-1993", the
most complete collection of his work to be ever
showed in Chile.
Paintings, sculptures, drawings, collages and some
of the artist´s objects reflect the diverse
styles in which Carreño succesfully worked,
including abstraction, informalism and surrealism,
among others. Beatriz Huidobro was in charge of
the exhibit´s curatory and investigation.
The wide period that is covered allows to value
the artist´s large experience and the deep
connection between his work, his living and the
time´s events.
A cosmopolitan painter
Mario Carreño was born in Havana, Cuba, on
June 24th, 1913. During the decade of the thirties,
he starts studying at the San Alejandro Academy,
and then travels to Madrid (1932) to study at the
San Fernando School. In 1934 he meets Pablo Neruda
and his circle of intelectual friends: Rafael Alberti,
Federico García Lorca, Acario Cotapos and
Manuel Altoaguirre, among others. Due to the Spanish
Civil War he moves to Mexico, where he gets to meet
that time´s most important muralists: Diego
Rivera, David Alfaro Siqueiros and José Clemente
Orozco. That´s how the mural becomes part
of his work, as well as sensing for the first time
the importance of introducing Latin American identity
to his art.
Carreño continues his studies at Paris' Julien
Academy, where he organizes his first exhibit, which
gets the first good comments in France´s artist
circle. Second World War motivates his moving to
New York City, where he lives for more than a decade.
Between 1951 and 1954 he goes back to Havana to
work as a teacher. In 1958, the events around the
Cuban Revolution decide Carreño to move to
Chile, mainly because of his friendship with Neruda
and Universidad de Chile´s invitation to give
some Art Courses. His staying in Chile extends until
his death, on December 20th, 1999.
Legacy
With the passing of time, Mario Carreño became
a remarkable name in Chile´s cultural and
artistic fields. He was not only involved in the
foundation of Universidad Catolica´s School
of Arts, but also to the teaching in several study
centers and the creation of public works such as
the murals at the San Ignacio School, the Casiño
of Viña del Mar and Rancagua´s Hospital
del Trabajador (1983).
He exposed in several countries and his paintings
are now part of the collection of the world´s
most important museums and galleries, including
New York´s MOMA, the San Francisco Museum
of Art, the Caracas Bellas Artes Museum, the Havana
Museum, France´s Musée d'Art Moderne
of Ceret, Argentina´s Museo de La Plata, Washington´s
Latin American Museum of Modern Art and Miami´s
Metropolitan Museum.
Chile´s northern landscape was, for him, a
constant motif. There are paintings such as <i>Aurora
de volcanes</i> (Volcanoes´ Dusk), <i>Tierra
de volcanes</i> (Volcanoes' Land) and <i>Silencio
cordillerano</i> (Mountain Silence). He also
made a series of paintings based on women that face
the sea, and which were directly inspired by the
figureheads that Pablo Neruda used to keep in his
coastal house of Isla Negra. Mario Carreño
never left his native caribbean spirit, working
the exhuberant, the sensual and the warm tones.
Mario Carreño:
Retrospective 1939-1993
From March
25th to May 30th.
Museo de Artes Visuales.
Address: José Victorino Lastarria
307, Plaza Mulato Gil de Castro (Metro Universidad
Católica and Bellas Artes. Phone#: [56-2]
638 3502 / 664 9337).
Guided visits: in Spanish and English, during
the whole exhibit period. For reservations, please
contact Macarena Goldenberg at mgoldenberg@mavi.cl.
Open: Tuesday through Sunday, from 10.30
am to 6.30 pm.
Tickets: General, $1,000. Students and senior
citizens, $500. Children, for free. Sundays, free
entrance.
|
