Santos Chávez (1934-2001) was a
Mapuche
The Mapuche ( (Mapuche & Spanish: )) are a group of indigenous inhabitants of south-central Chile and southwestern Argentina, including parts of Patagonia. The collective term refers to a wide-ranging ethnicity composed of various groups who sha ...
printmaker
Printmaking is the process of creating work of art, artworks by printing, normally on paper, but also on fabric, wood, metal, and other surfaces. "Traditional printmaking" normally covers only the process of creating prints using a hand proce ...
and painter from
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 east a ...
, known for his engravings and woodcuts.
Background
Santos Segundo Chávez Alíster was born on February 7, 1934, in a small town of Canihual, between
Tirúa
Tirúa () is a Chilean commune and town in Arauco Province, Biobío Region. The 2010 Chile earthquake led to a permanent uplift of Tirúa of about 180 cm above sea level, the highest recorded uplift related to the earthquake. This caused a large i ...
and Quidico in the
Región del Biobío,
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 east a ...
.
[Santos Chávez: Earth's Painter.]
''Chilean Cultural Heritage Site.'' (retrieved 3 July 2009)[Ancan Jara, José]
The Engravings of Santos Chavez: Reunion from the Land on the Other Side of the Sea.
''National Museum of the American Indian''. (retrieved 3 July 2009) He was Mapuche, the indigenous people of central and southern Chile and southern Argentina. His father was a ''huinca'' or traditional chieftain, while his mother was Mapuche and Scottish. Santos was the youngest of seven and his given name was Santos Chávez Mac Alister Curinao.
[ His father died when Santos was seven,]
(retrieved 3 July 2009) and his mother died when he was 12.[ When he was young, he herded goats and farmed and could not attended school regularly.
]
Art studies and career
Between 1958 and 1960, he studied at the ''Sociedad de Bellas Artes'' (Fine Arts Society) at the University of Concepción, and supported himself by working night shifts as a baker, construction worker, bill collector, and field hand.[ In Concepción, he was exposed to the work of artists such as Tole Peralta and followers of Mexican muralism, including Julio Escámez, Gregorio de la Fuente and Jorge González Camarena. In 1961, Chávez was invited by Nemesio Antúnez to continue his studies the Catholic University and ''Taller 99'' (Studio 99) in ]Santiago
Santiago (, ; ), also known as Santiago de Chile, is the capital and largest city of Chile as well as one of the largest cities in the Americas. It is the center of Chile's most densely populated region, the Santiago Metropolitan Region, whose ...
. Here he perfected the techniques of the lithography
Lithography () is a planographic method of printing originally based on the immiscibility of oil and water. The printing is from a stone (lithographic limestone) or a metal plate with a smooth surface. It was invented in 1796 by the German a ...
, etching, dry point
In geography, a dry point is an area of firm or flood-free ground in an area of wetland, marsh or flood plains. The term typically applies to settlements, and dry point settlements were common in history.
In the United Kingdom extreme examples ...
and wood-block printing.
After obtaining the ''Premio Andrés Bello'' in the ''Salón Oficial'' in 1966, Chávez traveled to Mexico to work in the ''Taller Fray Cervando'' in 1967, in Mexico City
Mexico City ( es, link=no, Ciudad de México, ; abbr.: CDMX; Nahuatl: ''Altepetl Mexico'') is the capital and largest city of Mexico, and the most populous city in North America. One of the world's alpha cities, it is located in the Valley o ...
.
In 1968, he won Honorable Mention at the ''Casa de las Américas'' in Cuba. In the same year, Chávez traveled to the United States, where he studied at the Pratt Institute
Pratt Institute is a private university with its main campus in Brooklyn, New York (state), New York. It has a satellite campus in Manhattan and an extension campus in Utica, New York at the Munson-Williams-Proctor Arts Institute. The school was ...
of New York and in the School of the Art Institute of Chicago. While in Chicago, he participated in the 1969 show, ''Santos Chavez and Hector Herrara: Two Chilean Artists'' at the Renaissance Society at the University of Chicago
The University of Chicago (UChicago, Chicago, U of C, or UChi) is a private research university in Chicago, Illinois. Its main campus is located in Chicago's Hyde Park neighborhood. The University of Chicago is consistently ranked among the b ...
.[
Exiled from Chile in 1977, he spent four years in Europe, continued printmaking at the Graphic Workshop of ]Stockholm, Sweden
Stockholm () is the capital and largest city of Sweden as well as the largest urban area in Scandinavia. Approximately 980,000 people live in the municipality, with 1.6 million in the urban area, and 2.4 million in the metropoli ...
and finally settling down in the German Democratic Republic
German(s) may refer to:
* Germany (of or related to)
**Germania (historical use)
* Germans, citizens of Germany, people of German ancestry, or native speakers of the German language
** For citizens of Germany, see also German nationality law
**Ger ...
, where he worked in a private factory and joined the National Association of Artists.
In 1994, after returning to Santiago, Chile, he was commissioned to illustrate Pablo Neruda
Ricardo Eliécer Neftalí Reyes Basoalto (12 July 1904 – 23 September 1973), better known by his pen name and, later, legal name Pablo Neruda (; ), was a Chilean poet-diplomat and politician who won the 1971 Nobel Prize in Literature. Nerud ...
's collection of poetry, ''All the Songs - You'', translated to Mapudungun
Mapuche (, Mapuche & Spanish: , or Mapudungun; from ' 'land' and ' 'speak, speech') is an Araucanian language related to Huilliche spoken in south-central Chile and west-central Argentina by the Mapuche people (from ''mapu'' 'land' and ''che ...
by poet Elicura Chihuailaf
Elicura Chihuailaf Nahuelpán (, 1952 in Quechurehue, Cautín Province) is a Mapuche Chilean poet and author whose works are written both in Mapudungun and in Spanish, and have been translated into many other languages as well. He has also transl ...
.
The subject matter of his prints included landscapes, seascapes, children, and lovers. His artworks, he has said, "have an intimacy with the land, with life, with my thoughts."[
]
Death and legacy
He died on January 2, 2001. During his life, he had over 85 solo exhibitions.[Santos Chavez.]
''The Ohio Channel.'' (retrieved 3 July 2009) His work was featured in the First Biennial Exhibition of Indigenous Art and Culture.[
A scholarship for Mapuche artists has been established in his name at the Playa Ancha University of Educational Sciences.][ The Chilean National Council on Culture and the Arts offered the first Santos Chávez Prize to indigenous artists in 2008.][Estrada, Daniela]
Chile: Exhibit to Celebrate Indigenous Art.
''Inter Press Service.'' 2008 (retrieved 3 Nov 2009)
Collections
Chávez's work is included in the public collections of the Museum of Modern Art
The Museum of Modern Art (MoMA) is an art museum located in Midtown Manhattan, New York City, on 53rd Street between Fifth and Sixth Avenues.
It plays a major role in developing and collecting modern art, and is often identified as one of ...
, New York; Museum of Modern Art, Montevideo
Montevideo () is the Capital city, capital and List of cities in Uruguay, largest city of Uruguay. According to the 2011 census, the city proper has a population of 1,319,108 (about one-third of the country's total population) in an area of . M ...
; Museum of Modern Art, Rio de Janeiro
Rio de Janeiro ( , , ; literally 'River of January'), or simply Rio, is the capital of the state of the same name, Brazil's third-most populous state, and the second-most populous city in Brazil, after São Paulo. Listed by the GaWC as a b ...
; the Museum of Contemporary Art, Santiago;[ the ]Metropolitan Museum of Art
The Metropolitan Museum of Art of New York City, colloquially "the Met", is the largest art museum in the Americas. Its permanent collection contains over two million works, divided among 17 curatorial departments. The main building at 1000 ...
, New York; the National Museum of the American Indian; and state museums in Nicaragua and Berlin.[
]
Quotes
"They threw me out twice f the Sociedad They said I was no good. That I
should take up something else. But I kept going back. They had no choice
but to let me tay
Tay may refer to:
People and languages
* Tay (name), including lists of people with the given name, surname and nickname
* Tay people, an ethnic group of Vietnam
** Tày language
*Atayal language, an Austronesian language spoken in Taiwan (ISO 639 ...
The people who had studied in Paris or London could
not accept the idea that a man with the face of an Indian like me could draw,
engrave, paint." —Santos Chávez[
"I am a particle in the cosmos, what are we in the planetary system, in infinite space? …Balance, harmony, sense, symbolism, poetry…
It is my entire childhood, alone in the country, the world I interpret in my work. In the distance a window opens up […I cannot say 'I
know it all,' so I keep working, suffering and seeking to find that indescribable thing that one searches for…" —Santos Chávez][
]
References
External links
Santos Chávez Alister Carinao en la Galería Cultural Codelco
featuring images of his work
Chilean Cultural Heritage Corporation
{{DEFAULTSORT:Chavez, Santos
1934 births
2001 deaths
20th-century Mapuche people
21st-century Mapuche people
Latin American artists of indigenous descent
20th-century Chilean painters
Chilean male artists
21st-century Chilean painters
Mapuche artists
Chilean male painters
Chilean people of Mapuche descent
Male painters
20th-century Chilean male artists