In this essay, Jean Emar writes about the Grupo Montparnasse’s first exhibition and its origins. He discusses the group’s name, which, for its five members, was neither a painting trend nor an objective; it was simply a referent. He explains what living in Europe meant to those artists, noting that the influences they came under did not mean adopting a more updated way of painting; it meant breaking with the limited traditional Chilean teaching they had received and trying to move on to an individual kind of painting of their own. Emar insists that he will not critique each one of the artists individually; he would rather interview them in order to delve more deeply into their works, into Europe, or perhaps into art in general. He thus hopes to fill the unquestionable void in Chilean art caused by the lack of modern artworks. It is that void that identifies these works as seeking to address everything in sight. In his interviews, Emar explores the road that transported them to a pictorial “evolution.” 

Jean Emar or Juan Emar is the pseudonym used by the writer, painter, and art critic Álvaro Yáñez Bianchi, which is derived from the French expression J'en ai marre (I’m fed up). After living in Paris for years he returned to Chile in the early 1920s, and from 1923 to 1927 published “Notas de arte,” a column in the newspaper La Nación, in which he tirelessly promoted a renewal of traditional Chilean trends in the fields of education and criticism, determined to improve the public’s sense of “taste.” Emar’s main goal was to promote the dissemination and acceptance of modern art.   

He demonstrated his desire for change by joining the Grupo Montparnasse, which challenged the academicism that was the dominant force in Chilean painting at the time. The group made its first public appearance in 1923 with an exhibition at the Casa de Remates Rivas y Calvo in Santiago. Participants on that occasion included the painter Henriette Petit (1894–1983); the painter and sculptor José Perotti (1898¬–1956); the painter Julio Ortiz de Zárate (1885–1946), who was considered part of the Generación del ’13; and the painter Luis Vargas Rosas (1897–1977), the founder. Two years later, at a new exhibition held at the same venue, the list of participants included Mori and the painters Manuel Ortiz de Zárate (1887–1946), Isaías Cabezón (1891–1963), Augusto Eguiluz (1893–1969), Romano de Dominicis, Sara Malvar (1894–1970), and Hernán Gazmuri. The exhibition also presented a collection of calligrams created by the poet Vicente Huidobro (1893–1948) and works by European Cubists. A notable feature of the second exhibition, Salón de Junio o Primer Salón de Arte Libre, was the inclusion of Pablo Picasso (1881–1973), Juan Gris (1887–1927), Jacques Lipchitz (1891–1973), Fernand Léger (1881–1955), and Louis Marcoussis (1878–1941) in the list of participants. The event provided the context for what Emar highlighted in his essay by trying to understand a pictorial evolution that could be considered based on the works themselves. [For more information about members of the group, see the ICAA Digital Archive: “La pintura de Hernán Gazmuri” (doc. no. 750435) by Antonio Romera, “Confesión artística” (doc. no. 748526) by Camilo Mori, and “Con Vicente Huidobro” by Emar.] In addition to the influence of European modern art, the artists were also influenced by the painter Juan Francisco González, a pioneer in the exploration of the visual arts in Chile; “Documentación sobre el hombre y el artista” (doc. no. 740266), written by Cabezón, documents his life and work.  

The Montparnasse group’s exhibition and their paintings sparked a negative backlash in public opinion, expressed most pointedly in a critique by Nathanael Yáñez Silva (1884–1965) published in El Diario ilustrado. Emar and Perotti promptly returned fire by poking fun at Yáñez Silva’s critical skills in a scathing mock dialogue they published in the same newspaper: “Grupo ‘Montparnasse’ José Perotti, o un diálogo en la Casa Rivas y Calvo” (doc. no. 750279). [On the subject of the claims involved and Emar’s role as a critic, see: “Dos críticos de comienzos del siglo XX (aplicación del modelo)” (doc. no. 757623) by Margarita Schultz.]