This article was written by Gaspar Galaz on the occasion of a retrospective exhibition of works by Claudio Bravo at the Museo Nacional de Bellas Artes in Santiago, Chile. Galaz refers to a debate about art and how it should be defined that was reignited by the pictorial realism of Bravo’s work. The author calls for a revision of the concept of “realism” in the history of Western art, while declining to ignore the categories of “modernity” and “postmodernity.” Galaz believes Bravo’s works contradict Monet, Kandinsky, and Cézanne but thinks they are in synch with seventeenth-century Dutch painters and twentieth-century realism. By claiming to see a counterpoint between the Chilean artist and Titian, Giorgione, and/or Velásquez, Galaz defines Bravo’s work as a direct exhibition—it connects the viewer to the painting, to “what is represented” with no emotional intermediaries. In Galaz’s opinion, this creates a bond between the viewer and the work.

The article about Claudio Bravo (1936–2011) was written by the art historian and sculptor Gaspar Galaz (b. 1941) on the occasion of Claudio Bravo: Visionario de la realidad (1994), the artist’s first solo show in the 1990s, held at the Museo Nacional de Bellas Artes in Santiago, Chile.     

Though he was an exponent of hyperrealism, Bravo described his painting as “super-realist,” to make a distinction between the two. He did not refer to photographs when he painted, relying instead on direct contact with his models. Surrealism was a powerful influence in his early painting, and it is thought that it left its mark on a significant part of his work. His paintings include still lifes and portraits, neither of which quite conform to the traditional poses of the day. Most of Bravo’s career as a painter took place outside of Chile, after he left in 1961. He originally settled in Madrid, where he painted portraits of members of high society and had exhibitions in galleries. He was then in New York for a while, and eventually settled in Tangiers, Morocco, where he set up a studio and developed his international career.

The 1994 exhibition was important; it allowed the Chilean public to rediscover Bravo’s work. The event was well received by a large number of visitors. Despite the fact that his work reflected his own personal exploration—far from what had been going on in Chile during the final stages of the military dictatorship (1973–90) and the country’s return to democracy— Milán Ivelic (b. 1935) and Galaz, acting as historians, included him in their books, La pintura en Chile desde la colonia hasta 1981 (Painting in Chile from Colonial Times to 1981, 1981) and Chile, arte actual (Chile, Contemporary Art) (1988). According to the two authors, his portraits were of no great interest because of their commercial nature and the fact that they were commissioned assignments. But they did take note of Bravo’s crumpled paper packets in which he creates an autonomous atmosphere that does not depend solely on a reproduction of “what is real.”