In this essay Adriana Valdés discusses Pintura por encargo (Commissioned Painting), the work by the visual and Conceptual artist Gonzalo Díaz. Valdés describes it as follows: the viewer stands before a commissioned portrait of Díaz that was painted to look like a movie poster. The artist himself is standing in front of the viewer, photographing the poster. Valdés sees an ironic and conflicting distance in the painting (and in Díaz’s work in general): (1) the photographer being photographed introduces that distance between the painting and the photograph; (2) a certain violence is represented here as regards the condition of the painting; (3) the poster as a pictorial paroxysm (exaggerated and overrepresented); (4) the painting suggests a masochistic or master-slave relationship to the photograph in terms of creativity; (5) the pictorial image has nothing to do with “reality”––it is actually deceptive. Valdés offers some context on the subject of how photography has affected Western and local art, taking into account the “material trace” left by photography. The use of photography also contributed to a clearer view of the set of conventions that influence the viewer’s perspective and a broader understanding of the optical unconscious generated by photographic images. 

Composición de Lugar. Escritos sobre cultura (Taking Stock: Essays on Culture) is Adriana Valdés’s first book. It includes a selection of articles that appeared in various publications and presents the discursive strategies and works produced by a number of artists in Chile in response to the military dictatorship (1973–90), including Eugenio Dittborn, Roser Bru, and Alfredo Jaar, as well as writer-critics such as Enrique Lihn and José Donoso. In the chapter “Gonzalo Díaz: pintura por encargo” (Gonzalo Díaz: Commissioned Painting), she writes about one of the most prominent artists of the Pinochet period and refers specifically to one of his most iconic paintings.

Gonzalo Díaz studied at the Escuela de Bellas Artes de la Universidad de Chile, where his teachers were artists such as José Balmes, Adolfo Couve, and Alberto Pérez, among others. He was one of the generation of artists whose interests ranged from Conceptual art to the use of new supports and techniques (specifically, installation); his work thus sought to challenge the values of painting and the traditions of art. For example, see his works Unidos en la gloria y en la muerte (United in Glory and in Death, 1997) and Historia sentimental de la pintura (A Sentimental History of Painting, 1982) [see the ICAA Digital Archive (doc. no. 731923)], and the series of installations Lonquén 10 años (Lonquén 10 Years).