This article by the researcher Camilo Sarmiento, “El Automático, entre la literatura y el arte” [El Automático: Between Literature and Art] appeared in Café El Automático: arte, crítica y esfera pública [Café El Automático: Art, Criticism, and the Public Sphere] the book that was published by the Universidad de los Andes (2009). The overall theme of the article is an assessment of the relationships that were forged and developed at the “Café Automático” in the fields of art, literature, and art criticism in the 1950s and 1960s in Bogotá. The article is divided into five parts. In the first part, Sarmiento discusses in detail the (originally European) concept of a literary café in terms of its unique role as a place where intellectuals gathered to talk about literature, art, and politics. In Bogotá these cafés were a key ingredient in the establishment of, among other things, the avant-garde ideas of the time. Sarmiento mentions several of the important cafés (such as El Windsor) and names their regulars, many of whom were members of the Los Nuevos group, one of the only avant-garde organizations that “existed in Colombia at the time when avant-garde movements were emerging in other cities in Latin America.” The article also stresses the importance of “El Automático” as one of the most typical cafés of the period, a place frequented by noted figures in literary and art circles such as León De Greiff, Luis Vidales, Marco Ospina, and Alejandro Obregón. In this section, Sarmiento claims that “El Automático” provided exhibition space to young artists whose work was inspired by modernist ideas. He also mentions art critics, such as Jorge Gaitán Durán, who were regulars at the café and supported the works produced by the new generation of artists. The third section of the article focuses on the art criticism that emanated from “El Automático.” Sarmiento mentions the important work done by the critics Vidales, Gaitán Durán, and Jorge Zalamea, who pioneered the exploration, consolidation, and professionalization of art criticism in Colombia long before Marta Traba arrived. Sarmiento ends his article by explaining that modern artists, such as Ospina, Obregón, Fernando Botero, and Omar Rayo, were also habitués at the “Café El Automático.”

This article is important because it explores the relationships between the cafés that were so emblematic of life in Bogotá and the people who frequented them, and discusses the artistic, literary, and cultural results of those relationships. In the early years of the twentieth century in Bogotá, the conversation in cafés was more appealing to many intellectuals than the options that were available to them on academic or university premises. A café like “El Automático” therefore facilitated some crucial connections during the period when modern art was taking root in Colombia. Not just in terms of exhibitions of the works of artists, such as Alejandro Obregón (1920–1992), Fernando Botero (b. 1932), Omar Rayo (1928?2010), and Marco Ospina (1912–1983), but in terms of the conversations between the poets and essayists who approved of the work those artists were producing. Artists and critics were thus able to forge close relationships, which of course helped to strengthen and shore up the “modernist” ideals that ushered in a new way of approaching the history of the country’s art.

An important aspect of this article by Camilo Sarmiento (b. 1980) is his discussion of art criticism during the 1950s and 1960s. Colombian historiography has highlighted the work done by the Argentine critic Marta Traba (1923–1983), while ignoring the legacy of others, such as Luis Vidales (1900–1990) and Jorge Gaitán Durán (1924–1962), who were among a group of intellectuals who addressed the function of art criticism in a serious and professional manner. Sarmiento thus exposes the critical contribution and avant-garde positions of these two poets.

Sarmiento is a professor of philosophy at the Universidad del Rosario at Bogotá and a graduate in literary studies from the Universidad Nacional in Colombia. He holds a master’s degree in history, and the theory of art, architecture, and the city from the latter university, where his research work was focused on art criticism in Colombia. He is a freelance translator and a professor of art history at the Universidad de los Andes at Bogotá.