This review, written by the Colombian artist and historian Luis Alberto Acuña, refers to an exhibition of works by Miguel Díaz Vargas at the Sociedad Colombiana de Ingenieros [Colombian Society of Engineers] in 1934. Acuña begins by praising the art of Spain, a country that he describes as having an “exemplary artistic environment.” He continues by mentioning the Iberian inspiration he sees in the works exhibited by Díaz Vargas, specifically in terms of his subjects, technique, and the light and color in his paintings. Acuña ends his review by stressing the thematic changes in Díaz Vargas’ work after his return to Colombia, where he would have been influenced by the “nationalist” painting of his contemporaries and where the style he had learned in Spain was replaced by a more local one (here Acuña is referring to the “costumbrista” subjects chosen by the artist for his most recent paintings). 

This essay by Luis Alberto Acuña Tapias (1904–1993) provides clues that help to understand how the pictorial tradition of the Escuela de San Fernando [San Fernando School] in Madrid overlaps the “costumbrista” or “nationalist” style that had been popular among Colombian painters since the 1920s. Artists such as Roberto Pizano (1896–1930), Coriolano Leudo (1886–1957), Luis Alberto Acuña, and Miguel Díaz Vargas (1886–1956) for example, were strong proponents of this style of painting.

Miguel Díaz Vargas studied under the Maestro Andrés de Santa María (1860–1945) at the Escuela de Bellas Artes [School of Fine Arts] in Bogotá, and then attended the Academia San Fernando in Madrid from 1926 to 1934. He was a teacher at the Escuela de Bellas Artes in Bogotá on two occasions, from 1910 to 1926, and from 1934 to 1948. He also had two stints as director of that same school, first in 1936, and then from 1946 to 1948, when he was replaced by the painter Alejandro Obregón (1920­–1992). 

The exhibition reviewed by Acuña in Cromos magazine (Number 933, September 15, 1934) was Díaz Vargas’ first solo show in Bogotá after his return from Spain. He exhibited 110 paintings and ten prints that were influenced by the “costumbrista” style that was popularized by artists such as Ricardo Gómez Campuzano (1891–1981), among others, and by the style of painting known in Colombia as “españolería” [Spanish style] that can be seen in the work of Ignacio Zuloaga, Joaquín Sorolla, and Santiago Rusiñol. The latter style was evident in Díaz Vargas’ works: Gitanas del Sacro Monte [Gypsy Women of Sacro Monte] (1930) and La salmantina [Woman from Salamanca].