In this essay, the Colombian historian Eugenio Barney Cabrera refers to the ‘feminine presence’ at the Exposición Nacional de Bellas Artes [National Exhibition of Fine Arts] in 1899 by mentioning that Margarita Holguín y Caro was among the participating artists. He also identifies the artists Epifanio Garay and Ricardo Acevedo Bernal among the participants, and reports that the painter Andrés de Santa María, who was Holguín y Caro’s instructor, was a member of the jury. Barney Cabrera also recalls the ‘feminine participation’ in the 1886 Exposición Nacional de Bellas Artes. He discusses the role played by women in Colombian visual arts in the late nineteenth century, and rates Holguín y Caro as a “vocational artist;” the only one who, in his opinion was worthy of attention during that period. He then examines her work in terms of late nineteenth and early twentieth century Colombian socio-cultural conditions, and includes a biographical note on her life and work.    

Margarita Holguín y Caro (1875–1959) is among the least-studied artists in Colombian art historiography. She is possibly the only late nineteenth century woman artist whose work is still in Colombian museums and private collections.

The essay “Margarita Holguín y Caro o la disciplina de lo inútil” [Margarita Holguín y Caro or the Discipline of the Useless], the most complete of the three that have been written about her, discusses her work and the role of women in turn-of–the-century Colombian art. Prior to the publication of this essay the only information available on this artist was recorded in the magazine article by the historian and novelist Eduardo Caballero Calderón (1910-1993) “Margarita Holguín y Caro” (in Revista de América, Bogotá: Vol. 23, # 77, August 1956, pp. 190-92), and in occasional notes in books and magazine and newspaper articles published in the early twentieth century. The other two articles are also by Barney Cabrera who was largely responsible for reevaluating this artist’s work in the 1970s.

Eugenio Barney Cabrera (1917–1980) originally published this essay as the prologue to the catalogue for the exhibition of works by Holguín y Caro at the Colombian National Museum in March 1977. In 1980, a longer version of the essay was published in the book El arte en Colombia: temas de ayer y de hoy [Art in Colombia: Yesterday and Today], (Bogotá: Fondo Cultural Cafetero, 1980), which was the basis for this review.     

Barney Cabrera was one of the most important Colombian art historians of the twentieth century. He was a teacher and director of the Escuela de Bellas Artes de la Universidad Nacional de Colombia (the actual Escuela de Artes Plásticas) [National University of Colombia’s School of Fine Arts (currently the School of Visual Arts], and is the author of many books and articles about the history of Colombian art.