In this essay, José Balmes discusses the work of Patricio de la O, reflecting on his painting and how it connects to the viewer. Balmes ponders De la O’s work, exploring his inspiration and his subject matter. The well-known Catalonian artist reviews De la O’s painting, taking into account his experience (the number of years he has been working), and noting the dominant role of landscape in his works, albeit somewhat removed from “reality.” The author recalls De la O’s early days at the Escuela de Bellas Artes (Santiago) and discusses his current work, underscoring his ability to incorporate other languages into his process, though never dogmatically. Balmes finds this artist interesting because of his painting and its possibilities, which lead him to a renewed approach to landscape based on “pure eye” and the key factors of distance and objectivity.

The painter José Balmes (1927–2016) wrote “Una objetividad esencial” about Patricio de la O (b. 1946), who was one of his students at the Escuela de Bellas Artes de la Universidad de Chile from 1962 to 1968. The essay was published in the catalogue for Ventana al paisaje, De la O’s solo show at the  Museo Nacional de Bellas Artes (Santiago, 1998).

Trained at the Escuela de Bellas Artes de la Universidad de Chile in the 1960s, Patricio de la O (b. 1946) studied under the painters Iván Vial (1928–2016), Reinaldo Villaseñor (1925–1994), José Balmes (1927–2016), and Eduardo Martínez Bonati (b. 1930); Balmes and Bonati were members of the Grupo Signo at the time. During his time at university, De la O produced graphic art for advertising campaigns and for political propaganda pieces as a sideline to his art production. After the 1973 coup d’état he was imprisoned before going into exile. From 1974 to 1978 he lived in Buenos Aires, where he worked as a graphic artist for Editorial IARA and at the Diario La Opinión (Jacobo Timerman’s newspaper), and as a painter at the well-known artist Luis Felipe Noé’s studio. [On the subject of Noé’s work, see the following in the ICAA Digital Archive: “De por qué Luis Felipe Noé (*) ya no es más pintor y sin embargo hace una exposición de pintura (autorreportaje)” (doc. no. 740623).]      

In 1980,  De la O once again exhibited his work in Chile at Serie del regreso, where he showed paintings and collages he’d produced between 1978 and 1980. The art historian Milan Ivelic (b. 1935) described this series as a synthesis of the artist’s experiences during the 1970s; hence “return” in the title of the exhibit referred to his return to the country as well as to the craft. At that time, De la O developed a close working relationship with Pastor Mellado, who wrote about his work on more than one occasion. They did a series of interviews they planned to publish, but the project never came to fruition.

At a time when people were talking about conceptual art and neo-expressionist painting, De la O was producing a rational, systematic sort of painting that retained a certain classicism, according to Mellado. [For more information about his art, see: “La manufactura del paisaje” (doc. 757713) and “Nota sobre la pintura de Patricio de la O” (doc. no. 756787), both by Mellado.]