The arguments used by the Argentine art critic Marta Traba (1923–83), who was based in Colombia starting in the early 1950s, accord importance to the first exhibition in Bogotá by the Colombian artist Norman Mejía (1938?2012). The article emphasizes this critic’s faith in a new type of painting in Colombia, represented by a generation of young artists determined to break loose from artistic conventions and resolve the problems of artistic expression. In this way, they were following in the footsteps of the Colombian artists whose work became well-known during that period: Alejandro Obregón (1920–92), Fernando Botero (b. 1932) and Eduardo Ramírez Villamizar (1923–2004). To Traba, the prospects of a Colombian art rooted in the neo-figurative trend opened up possibilities of both new formal/thematic approaches and a relationship that would require more of the viewer. It is interesting that right from the start of this article, the writer placed the responsibility for the lack of debate about neo-figurative works or Mejía’s strong expressionist leanings on the viewing public. As the critic writes in this article, it is viewers who must open themselves up to a new type of painting that breaks with the aesthetic conventions to which they are accustomed.
In this article, Traba launches Mejía as one of the most promising painters of a very new national art scene; she even dares to compare his expressionism with that of Luciano Jaramillo. Regarding Jaramillo, Traba states that like the German Expressionists, he limited himself to painting a caricature of the society. Meanwhile Mejía, like the contemporary neo-figurative artists, “started with the actual form but went on to create another form that no longer had any dependence on—or commitment to—the actual form, [and] was no longer subject to it.” The key term here is what is current, since Mejía would set a new benchmark in the 1965 Colombian art world when he focused all his energy on creating a world of paintings, works that Traba considered contemporary, valid, and new.
To learn more about Norman Mejía, see [doc. no. 1132484 and doc. no. 1132468].