In this article, Walter Engel (1908–2005), a Viennese historian based in Colombia, theorizes and reflects on the relationship between Modern art and the public. In his view, both critics and the general public are resistant to Modern forms of expression. Engel attempts to show by means of examples that this resistance has been a constant throughout art history. He concludes that many great works of art have gone unnoticed by the public at large, whereas artists once highly esteemed are often barely remembered by posterity. When Engel came to Colombia from his native Austria in the 1930s, he was a young man who had studied art history, drawing, and painting in Vienna and Paris. He eventually became one of the most respected critics in the country thanks to judicious and productive formulations.
On the basis of his early education, Engels condemns some of the critical positions of the time. First, he deems it wholly misguided to eschew a work because it is not considered “decent.” Second, he argues that not infrequently the judgments most in keeping with the spirit of the time are those of poets rather than artists. In the Colombian case, he cites the critical reflections of Eduardo Carranza (1913–1985) in reaction to a show of Frans Masereel’s work held in Bogotá.
In closing, Engels provides a general diagnosis of the state of Modern art in Colombia from the perspective of reception theory. Engel, as a foreigner, makes a series of recommendations to arouse interest in art. At the same time, he greatly values everything that has been done for art in Colombia in times of crisis. Specifically, he praises annual salons, publications like Revista de las Indias,the Sunday supplement to the newspaper El Tiempo, as well as the distribution of catalogues free of charge, which would be unthinkable in Europe. The text, then, examines the way Modern art was received in Colombia in historical and sociological terms in the context of the aesthetic formulations of the time.