Nemesio Antúnez Zañartu (Born in Santiago, May 4, 1918 - May 19, 1993) was an influential Chilean painter and engraver who founded Workshop 99.

Biography

Born to Nemesio Antúnez and Luisa Zañartu, he was the eldest of three sons, all of whom became dedicated to art:

Enrique Zañartu Enrique Zañartu (1921 - 2000) was a Chilean printmaker and educator. Biography Zañartu was born on 6 September 1921 in Paris, France, moving to Chile in 1938. He moved to New York City in 1944 where he was associated with the Atelier 17 print ...

(6 September 1921 - 13 June 2000) became a painter and Jaime Antúnez (6 March 1923 - 10 May 2010) a sculptor. The couple also had a daughter named Laura (2 September 1919 - 30 July 2010). He went to

High School A secondary school describes an institution that provides secondary education and also usually includes the building where this takes place. Some secondary schools provide both '' lower secondary education'' (ages 11 to 14) and ''upper seconda ...

at the College of the Sacred Hearts of Santiago. At 17, he took first place at a French speaking competition and won a trip to

France France (), officially the French Republic ( ), is a country primarily located in Western Europe. It also comprises of overseas regions and territories in the Americas and the Atlantic, Pacific and Indian Oceans. Its metropolitan area ...

, where he learned about

Pablo Picasso Pablo Ruiz Picasso (25 October 1881 – 8 April 1973) was a Spanish painter, sculptor, printmaker, ceramicist and Scenic design, theatre designer who spent most of his adult life in France. One of the most influential artists of the 20th ce ...

Juan Gris José Victoriano González-Pérez (23 March 1887 – 11 May 1927), better known as Juan Gris (; ), was a Spanish painter born in Madrid who lived and worked in France for most of his active period. Closely connected to the innovative artistic ge ...

and Joan Miró. In 1938 he enrolled in the school of

architecture Architecture is the art and technique of designing and building, as distinguished from the skills associated with construction. It is both the process and the product of sketching, conceiving, planning, designing, and constructing building ...

at the

Pontifical Catholic University of Chile The Pontifical Catholic University of Chile (''PUC or UC Chile'') ( es, Pontificia Universidad Católica de Chile) is one of the six Catholic Universities existing in the Chilean university system and one of the two pontifical universities i ...

, where he graduated in 1941. At the age of 25 he presented his first solo

watercolor Watercolor (American English) or watercolour (British English; see spelling differences), also ''aquarelle'' (; from Italian diminutive of Latin ''aqua'' "water"), is a painting method”Watercolor may be as old as art itself, going back to ...

exhibition at the Chilean Institute of Culture. Thanks to a scholarship from the

Fulbright Program The Fulbright Program, including the Fulbright–Hays Program, is one of several United States Cultural Exchange Programs with the goal of improving intercultural relations, cultural diplomacy, and intercultural competence between the people o ...

, he traveled to

Columbia University Columbia University (also known as Columbia, and officially as Columbia University in the City of New York) is a private research university in New York City. Established in 1754 as King's College on the grounds of Trinity Church in Manhatt ...

in New York. Upon completing his

Master's degree A master's degree (from Latin ) is an academic degree awarded by universities or colleges upon completion of a course of study demonstrating mastery or a high-order overview of a specific field of study or area of professional practice.

in 1947, he began working in the studio ''

Atelier 17 Atelier 17 was an art school and studio that was influential in the teaching and promotion of printmaking in the 20th century. Originally located in Paris, the studio relocated to New York during the years surrounding World War II. It moved back t ...

'' with Stanley William Hayter, who applied the techniques of printmaking to

surrealist Surrealism is a cultural movement that developed in Europe in the aftermath of World War I in which artists depicted unnerving, illogical scenes and developed techniques to allow the unconscious mind to express itself. Its aim was, according to ...

art. He worked with his brother Enrique to explore the possibilities of old printmaking techniques from artists like

Yves Tanguy Raymond Georges Yves Tanguy (January 5, 1900 – January 15, 1955), known as just Yves Tanguy (, ), was a French surrealist painter. Biography Tanguy, the son of a retired navy captain, was born January 5, 1900, at the Ministry of Naval Aff ...

Kurt Seligmann Kurt Leopold Seligmann (1900–1962) was a Swiss-American Surrealist painter and engraver. He was known for his fantastic imagery of medieval troubadors and knights in macabre rituals and inspired by the carnival held annually in his native ...

Jacques Lipchitz Jacques Lipchitz (26 May 1973) was a Cubist sculptor. Lipchitz retained highly figurative and legible components in his work leading up to 1915–16, after which naturalist and descriptive elements were muted, dominated by a synthetic style of ...

and Joan Miró. In 1950, the French branch of ''Atelier 17'' was moved.

Murals

Antunez Nemesio - Mural n16, MaCA detalle 02

Antunez painted fifteen murals in total, only five of which are in Chile. Four are in Santiago - ''Luna'', ''Quinchamalí'', ''Sol'' and ''Terremoto'' - while one, No. 16, ''Bailarines con volantinesis'', is in the Open-air museum of Valparaíso. Santiago's murals in Chile were declared national monuments in 2011, but their condition leaves something to be desired. ''Terremoto'' ('earthquake'), painted in 1958, is over 30 square meters, and covers the whole vestibule wall of the Nile Cinema. The mural has visible cracking produced during the Earthquake in 2010. In even worse conditions is ''Quinchamalí'' (1958) at the

Juan Esteban Montero Juan Esteban Montero Rodríguez (February 12, 1879 – February 25, 1948) was a Chilean political figure. He served twice as president of Chile between 1931 and 1932. Early life He was born in Santiago, the son of Benjamín Montero and of Eug ...

Gallery: the paint of the mural is peeling and warping due to the humidity. The art restorer Carolina Broschek maintains that the mural can be saved, but the owner of the building on which it is painted, Yusif Tala, opined that the Nemesio Antúnez Foundation should take care of the painting or move it to another place, as has no interest in preserving it. In the same gallery, besides the mural, Antúnez installed floor mosaics which are still in perfect condition. The murals ''Sol'' and ''Luna'' have been more fortunate. Commissioned in 1955, they adorn the space between the Gran Palace cinema and theater. The murals incorporate gold and silver threads and sheets. Pablo Novoa, manager of the Gran Palace hotel, says that restoration will begin in 2015.

Posthumous homage

The name of the painter is today held in exhibition halls, galleries, schools and streets in Chile. In 1993 a stamp was minted in his honour which depicts ''Tanguería en Valparaíso''. The following year, the Chilean Government created the "Commission Nemesio Antúnez", in charge of supervising laws concerning art.
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Gallery

File:Antunez, Nemesio - ceramios Quinchamali -20171204 fRF00.jpg File:Antunez Nemesio - ceramios Quinchamali 02.jpg File:Antunez Nemesio - ceramios Quinchamali 03.jpg File:Antunez Nemesio - ceramios Quinchamali 04.jpg File:Antunez Nemesio - ceramios Quinchamali 05.jpg File:Antunez Nemesio - ceramios Quinchamali 06.jpg File:Antunez Nemesio - Mural n16, MaCA detalle 04.JPG File:Antunez Nemesio - Mural n16, MaCA detalle 06.jpg File:Antunez Nemesio - Mural n16, MaCA detalle 07.jpg File:Antunez Nemesio - Mural n16, MaCA detalle 08.jpg File:Antunez Nemesio - Mural n16, MaCA detalle 09.jpg File:Antunez, Nemesio - Quinchamali -20171204 fRF01.jpg File:Antunez Nemesio - Quinchamali detalle 01.jpg File:Antunez Nemesio - Quinchamali detalle 02.jpg File:Antunez, Nemesio - Quinchamali -20171204 fRF04 detalle.jpg File:Antunez Nemesio - Terremoto 02.jpg File:Antunez Nemesio - Terremoto detalle 01.jpg File:Antunez Nemesio - Terremoto detalle 02.jpg File:Antunez Nemesio - Terremoto detalle 03.jpg File:Antunez Nemesio - Terremoto detalle 04.jpg

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Antunez, Nemesio 1918 births 1993 deaths People from Santiago 20th-century Chilean painters Chilean male artists 20th-century Chilean male artists Atelier 17 alumni Chilean male painters Male painters