In his essay “Escultura chilena 1950–1973,” the critic Gaspar Galaz outlines the main criteria that influenced Chilean sculpture from 1950 to 1973. He also highlights watershed events and trends in art and identifies connections between artists and their works. Galaz notes how Chilean sculpture changed in the late 1950s when sculptors worldwide began to question their medium’s formal language and take a critical and introspective look at other intrinsic values that radically altered the styles and trends then in vogue in North America and Europe. The critic’s review extends into the 1970s, when the languages used in Chilean sculpture tended toward individuality and isolation. This approach was largely a result of the 1973 coup d’état, when many visual artists were forced into exile. 

“Escultura chilena 1950–1973” was published in the year 2000 and was included in the catalogue for Chile 100 años de artes visuales [Chile: 100 Years of Visual Arts], the exhibition organized by the Museo Nacional de Bellas Artes (MNBA) to illustrate Chilean art over the course of a century. This exhibition was divided into three chronological sections: the first stage, “Modelo y representación” [Model and Representation], spanned the period from 1900 to 1950; the second, “Entre modernidad y utopia” [Between Modernity and Utopia], covered 1950 to 1973 (when democracy was interrupted); and the final period, “Transferencia y densidad” [Transfer and Density], spanned 1973 to 2000. The article in question was part of the second period, which was characterized by a move to challenge the limits of the work of art, a search for new forms of visual expression, and the association of artists with the social and political environment in which they worked.   

[See the ICAA Digital Archive for the other essays published in this catalogue: “Historias de recolección: bricolage, archivo y biblioteca” [Collection Stories: Bricolage, Archive, and Library] (doc. no. 745864) written by Alberto Madrid Letelier; and “El comportamiento de la crítica” [The Behavior of the Critics] (doc. no. 757179) by Patricio Muñoz Zárate].

The sculptor, teacher, and art historian Gaspar Galaz (b. 1941) co-authored, with Milan Ivelic, two of the most important books on Chilean art: La Pintura en Chile desde la Colonia a Juan Francisco González [Painting in Chile from the Colonial Period to Juan Francisco González] (1975) and Chile Arte Actual [Chile: Contemporary Art] (1988). He and Ivelic also co-directed the television program Demoliendo el Muro [Demolishing the Wall]. This series, which ran for two seasons, in 1983 and 1994, was funded by the Consejo Nacional de Televisión and produced at UCV Televisión.