José Balmes Parramón (20 January 1927 – 28 August 2016
) was a
Spanish
Spanish might refer to:
* Items from or related to Spain:
** Spaniards are a nation and ethnic group indigenous to Spain
**Spanish language, spoken in Spain and many Latin American countries
**Spanish cuisine
Other places
* Spanish, Ontario, Ca ...
-born painter based in
Chile
Chile, officially the Republic of Chile, is a country in the western part of South America. It is the southernmost country in the world, and the closest to Antarctica, occupying a long and narrow strip of land between the Andes to the eas ...
. He received Chile's
National Prize for Plastic Arts in 1999.
Biography

José Balmes was born in 1927 in the town of
Montesquiu in Catalonia, where he spent his childhood until the
Spanish Civil War
The Spanish Civil War ( es, Guerra Civil Española)) or The Revolution ( es, La Revolución, link=no) among Nationalists, the Fourth Carlist War ( es, Cuarta Guerra Carlista, link=no) among Carlism, Carlists, and The Rebellion ( es, La Rebeli ...
broke out in 1936. Three years later, after the
Nationalist
Nationalism is an idea and movement that holds that the nation should be congruent with the State (polity), state. As a movement, nationalism tends to promote the interests of a particular nation (as in a in-group and out-group, group of peo ...
victory, Balmes with his family was forced to leave Spain due to the militancy of his father, Damià Balmes, who was mayor of the town for the
Republican Left of Catalonia
The Republican Left of Catalonia ( ca, Esquerra Republicana de Catalunya, ERC; ; generically branded as ) is a pro-Catalan independence, social-democratic political party in the Spanish autonomous community of Catalonia, with a presence also in ...
.
He traveled to Chile on the
SS ''Winnipeg'',
[ after the aid of that country's government to the ]Spanish Republicans
Spanish might refer to:
* Items from or related to Spain:
**Spaniards are a nation and ethnic group indigenous to Spain
**Spanish language, spoken in Spain and many Latin American countries
** Spanish cuisine
Other places
* Spanish, Ontario, Ca ...
. In what would become his new homeland, Balmes completed secondary education at the , and in 1943 he entered the School of Fine Arts of the University of Chile
The University of Chile ( es, Universidad de Chile) is a public research university in Santiago, Chile. It was founded on November 19, 1842, and inaugurated on September 17, 1843. . There he had Pablo Burchard
Pablo Burchard (November 4, 1875 – July 13, 1964) was a Chilean painter. His father was German architect Teodoro Burchard Haeberle, who arrived in Chile around 1855, and introduced the Gothic style, and his mother was María (Sofía) Luisa Eg ...
and Camilo Mori as teachers. In 1947 he obtained Chilean nationality.
At the university, he interacted with other artists, including future National Arts Prize winner Gracia Barrios, whom he would marry in 1952. The couple had a daughter, Concepción Balmes, who is also a painter.
Balmes would continue to be linked to the University of Chile as an academic (1950–1973) and dean of the Faculty of Arts (1972–1973). Among his disciples is , who was his student of painting, as well as Francisco Brugnoli, , , and Eugenio Téllez.
Along with Gracia Barrios and other artists, he would form the informalist Grupo Signo, with whom he would present works in Barcelona, Madrid, and Paris.[
Of known communist militancy, and having been for several periods a member of the ]Communist Party
A communist party is a political party that seeks to realize the socio-economic goals of communism. The term ''communist party'' was popularized by the title of '' The Manifesto of the Communist Party'' (1848) by Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels. ...
's Central Committee, a large part of Balmes' career was linked to political life, actively supporting the Popular Unity government led by Salvador Allende
Salvador Guillermo Allende Gossens (, , ; 26 June 1908 – 11 September 1973) was a Chilean physician and socialist politician who served as the 28th president of Chile from 3 November 1970 until his death on 11 September 1973. He was the firs ...
, and having to leave for exile in France after the 1973 coup d'état. There he continued developing his artistic career as a professor at Pantheon-Sorbonne University.
In 1986, Balmes returned to Chile, after which he received multiple awards, such as the 1999 National Prize for Plastic Arts and the 2002 Altazor.[
In 2012 the Chilean filmmaker Pablo Trujillo Novoa shot a documentary about the life of the artist entitled ''Balmes: El doble exilio de la pintura'' (''Balmes: Painting's Double Exile'').
José Balmes died on 28 August 2016 at the , where he had been hospitalized for ]pneumonia
Pneumonia is an inflammatory condition of the lung primarily affecting the small air sacs known as alveoli. Symptoms typically include some combination of productive or dry cough, chest pain, fever, and difficulty breathing. The severi ...
since the beginning of that month.[
]
Awards
* Prize of Honor at the Salon of Alumni of the School of Fine Arts (1946)
* Second Honorific Prize for foreigners of the Official Salon of Santiago (1948)
* First Prize of the Official Salon, National Museum of Fine Arts, Santiago (1951)
* Prize of Honor of the Official Salon of Santiago (1958)
* Award of the 2nd Biennale of Mexico (1960)
* Honorable Mention at the 2nd Paris Biennale dedicated to young artists (1961)
* First Prize, Mention in Painting, CRAV contest of Valparaíso (1963)
* Special Award, Esso contest (1964)
* First Prize, Mention in Drawing, American Art Biennale of Cali, Colombia (1971)
* First Prize for Engraving, International Intergrafik Exposition of Berlín, Germany (1977)
* Critical Award, Santiago (1984)
* First Prize of the Ibero-American Biennale for art on paper in Buenos Aires, Argentina (1986)
* Named Professor Emeritus of the Faculty of Architecture and Fine Arts of the Catholic University of Chile (1993)
* Professor Emeritus of the University of Chile (1996)
* Gabriela Mistral Order of Teaching and Merit granted by the government of Chile (1997)
* Michoacán Award, Mention in Painting, granted by the National Culture Commission of the Communist Party of Chile
The Communist Party of Chile ( es, Partido Comunista de Chile, ) is a communist party in Chile. It was founded in 1912 as the Socialist Workers' Party () and adopted its current name in 1922. The party established a youth wing, the Communist Youth ...
(1997)
* National Prize for Plastic Arts, Santiago, Chile (1999)[
* ]Altazor Award
The Altazor Award of the National Arts or simply Altazor, is a Chilean award which is awarded annually. The winners are chosen by the own creators and performers of the arts. They were established in 1958, but were not awarded until 1999. The ...
, Santiago, Chile (2002)
References
{{DEFAULTSORT:Balmes, Jose
1927 births
2016 deaths
20th-century Chilean painters
20th-century Chilean male artists
Art Informel and Tachisme painters
Chilean communists
Deaths from pneumonia in Chile
Exiles of the Spanish Civil War in Chile
Naturalized citizens of Chile
University of Chile alumni
University of Chile faculty
Chilean male painters