In his essay “Realismo y crisis de la representación pictórica” (Realism and Crisis in Pictorial Representation), Guillermo Machuca addresses several critical points regarding the visual arts in Chile during the 1960s. They include, for example, the crisis in pictorial representation (associated with the global boom in abstraction and the difficulties faced by the Academia de Bellas Artes), the first modernist trends, and the various attempts at renewal in the local visual arts demanded by artists who were members of certain groups, such as Rectángulo and/or Signo, among others. These aggressive groups were increasingly distancing themselves from the merely referential aspects of painting. Machuca also mentions topics, discussions, and the shortcomings of art criticism, which, at a national level, had long depended on clichés and conventional ideas and was openly reluctant to accepting any modernization in painting.   

Guillermo Machuca has a degree in art theory and history from the Universidad de Chile. He has taught courses on Chilean art, contemporary art, and art history at the Universidad de Chile, the Universidad Diego Portales, and the Universidad de Arte y Ciencias Sociales (ARCIS). He has written the following books: Astrónomos sin estrellas (Astronomers Without Stars) (2018), El traje del emperador (The Emperor’s Clothes) (2011), and Estremeciendo al papa (Shocking the Pope) (2010). His major curatorial projects include Del otro lado. Arte contemporáneo de mujeres en Chile (On the Other Side: Contemporary Art by Chilean Women) (2006) and Kent Explora Instalaciones (2002). A columnist in weekly publications such as The Clinic, which appeared when Pinochet was arrested while at a medical institution in London, Machuca has written numerous articles and essays on contemporary Chilean art.   

“Realismo y crisis de la representación pictórica,” the article in question, appeared in the exhibition catalogue for Chile 100 años de artes visuales and covers the period “Entre modernidad y utopia” (Between Modernism and Utopia), which spans the years from 1950 to 1973. It includes a number of milestones, such as a move to challenge the limits of the work of art and a search for new forms of visual expression, the conscience of modern painting, and the association of artists with the social and political environment in which they worked.

[See the ICAA Digital Archive for other essays in the same catalogue: “Escultura chilena 1950-1973” (doc. no. 757161) written by Gaspar Galaz; and “Historias de recolección: bricolage, archivo y biblioteca” [Collection Stories: Bricolage, Archive, and Library] (doc. no. 745864) by Alberto Madrid Letelier].