“Altamirano. Respuestas a un cuestionario” (Altamirano. Answers to a Questionnaire) is a transcript of the conversation in which CAL magazine and gallery interviewed Carlos Altamirano about the exhibition Revisión crítica de la Historia del arte chileno (Critical Review of the History of Chilean Art) that was to be shown at the gallery. The interviewer specifically asks Altamirano about available spaces for contemporary art in museums and galleries, the exposure of artistic and cultural events, traditional forms of art and the value of art criticism, the theory and iconographic tradition of art, and so on. The Chilean visual artist outlines his critical views about modern and contemporary art in Chile. He discusses the latter in terms of the historical avant-garde, the break with the past, and experiments with more innovative supports. The questionnaire also has an appendix that is presented as part of the exhibition, which proposes the “use of a page as an art support,” addressed to CAL readers, asking them to reflect and respond, specifically, to a text by Nelly Richard in which she claims that the history of Chilean painting includes the appropriation of foreign ideas, referring to central cultures.

This document was published in the third issue of the Revista CAL, the magazine produced by the Galería CAL (Centro de Arte Latinoamericano), which was the first gallery in Chile to open its space to young artists and experimental art. The magazine’s goal was to publicize and encourage conversations about art and culture to the extent that was possible during the 1970s and 1980s under the authoritarian dictatorship in power at the time (1973–90). Though it only appeared four times, all of them in 1979, the magazine, which became known for its high artistic and editorial standards, was hugely influential in the Chilean art world during that tragic time in the country’s history, a period that is still the subject of unrelenting research.   

Carlos Altamirano (b. 1954) lived and worked in Santiago, Chile. In the 1970s and 1980s he joined forces with Nelly Richard and Carlos Leppe to revitalize the country’s art scene through the CAL, Cromo, and Sur galleries. They used these spaces to stage art actions that prompted discussions about local and international culture via magazines, exhibitions, catalogues, and other publications. Altamirano experimented constantly, using traditional supports (painting and printmaking) and exploring modern installations (performance art and video art).