Carlos Sotomayor
   HOME

TheInfoList



OR:

Carlos Sotomayor Román (1911–1988) was a
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 ...
an
painter Painting is the practice of applying paint, pigment, color or other medium to a solid surface (called the "matrix" or "support"). The medium is commonly applied to the base with a brush, but other implements, such as knives, sponges, and ai ...
, born in
La Serena, Chile La Serena () is a city and commune in northern Chile, capital of the Coquimbo Region. Founded in 1544, it is the country's second oldest city after the national capital, Santiago. As of 2012, it had a communal population of roughly 200,000, and ...
. He is considered to be one of the principal exponents of the
cubism Cubism is an early-20th-century avant-garde art movement that revolutionized European painting and sculpture, and inspired related movements in music, literature and architecture. In Cubist artwork, objects are analyzed, broken up and reassemble ...
from
South America South America is a continent entirely in the Western Hemisphere and mostly in the Southern Hemisphere, with a relatively small portion in the Northern Hemisphere at the northern tip of the continent. It can also be described as the southe ...
.


Early years

His father, Carlos Sotomayor Cáceres was a Civil Engineer who worked for the Chilean Railway Company (
Empresa de los Ferrocarriles del Estado Empresa de los Ferrocarriles del Estado (abbreviated EFE, lit. ''State Railway Company'') is the national railway and the oldest state-run enterprise in Chile. It manages the infrastructure and operating rail services in the country. Track gauge ...
), married to Julia Román Morales. They had 5 children: Carlos, Julio (poet), Lucía, Inés (agronomist) and Elena. In his teenage years, Carlos Sotomayor met the painter and sculptor Laura Rodig, who had just come back from Europe, and worked with her, putting up an exhibition together with Pedro Olmos. He studied at the Instituto Nacional 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 ...
and in 1931 he studied at the School of Architecture of the
Universidad de 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.
. However, in 1932 he opted to study at the Fine Arts College of the same university instead. Some of his teachers were Jorge Caballero, Herman Gazmuri and Augusto Eguiluz.


Work

His first formal exhibition took place in September 1933 at the Libreria Walton, a centre of cultural events. This event was sponsored and introduced by the poet
Vicente Huidobro Vicente García-Huidobro Fernández (; January 10, 1893 – January 2, 1948) was a Chilean poet born to an aristocratic family. He promoted the avant-garde literary movement in Chile and was the creator and greatest exponent of the literary m ...
, with whom Carlos Sotomayor shared a close friendship. In 1934 Sotomayor joined the Grupo Decembrista, together with María Valencia, Gabriela Rivanedeira, Jaime Dvar and Waldo Parraguez. This group of neocubist artists was led by Vicente Huidobro. Two years later, Carlos Sotomayor married Franka Serka Jurac, fellow student at the Fine Arts College. In 1938 he joined the Grupo Rectángulo de Arte Moderno, encouraged by the artist Vergara Grez. He exhibited at the Alianza de Intelectuales de Chile together with María Valencia, Waldo Parraguez and Haroldo Donoso. In August 1944 he exhibited 20 paintings at the Sala del Ministerio de Educación. In the catalogue there were articles and poems by the poets
Eduardo Anguita Eduardo Anguita Cuéllar (Yerbas Buenas, Linares November 1914 - Santiago de Chile August 12, 1992) was a Chilean poet, who was awarded the Chilean National Prize for Literature in 1988. Life Eduardo Anguita was raised in San Bernardo, bef ...
and Julio Molina. The critic Antonio Romera wrote a very complimentary review in the press. In 1946 Sotomayor exhibited several oil paintings and drawings at the Sala del Ministerio de Educacion. The writer Andres Sabella wrote an article about it. In December 1952 Sotomayor exhibited at the Sala Pro Arte and in 1953 he took part in the Primer Salon de Primavera de la Casa de la Cultura de Nunoa, together with 50 other artists: José Balmes, Sergio Montecinos, Raul Santelices and José Venturelli among them. In 1955 he started working at the Chilean Railway Company (
EFE Agencia EFE, S.A. () is a Spanish international news agency, the major multimedia news agency in Spanish language and the world's fourth largest wire service after the Associated Press, Reuters, and Agence France-Presse. EFE was created in 1939 ...
) as a draughtsman in the Department of Vias & Obras. In 1960 Sotomayor took part in La Segunda Feria de Artes Plasticas (Parque Forestal) organised by the Museo de Arte Contemporáneo. Sotomayor won second prize. Sotomayor exhibited his works at the Exposicion de Pintura Chilena Nueva in March 1962, organised and sponsored by Empresa Esso Oil Co.
Nemesio Antúnez 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 wh ...
and José Balmes also participated. In November 1966 Sotomayor exhibited his oil paintings at the Sala del Instituto de Artes Plasticas de la Universidad de Chile. His last exhibition while he was alive, took place in 1979 at the Galeria Eco, where there were 30 of his paintings, among them: ''The painter and his models'', ''Rape 1'' and ''Landscapes of Cartagena''. The art critic José María Palacios praised Sotomayor’s works in the press. In 1973 Sotomayor retired from the railway company and devoted himself entirely to his paintings until his death. In 1984 he travelled to
Europe Europe is a large peninsula conventionally considered a continent in its own right because of its great physical size and the weight of its history and traditions. Europe is also considered a Continent#Subcontinents, subcontinent of Eurasia ...
where he visited museums of modern art in
Paris Paris () is the capital and most populous city of France, with an estimated population of 2,165,423 residents in 2019 in an area of more than 105 km² (41 sq mi), making it the 30th most densely populated city in the world in 2020. S ...
,
London London is the capital and largest city of England and the United Kingdom, with a population of just under 9 million. It stands on the River Thames in south-east England at the head of a estuary down to the North Sea, and has been a majo ...
,
Birmingham Birmingham ( ) is a city and metropolitan borough in the metropolitan county of West Midlands in England. It is the second-largest city in the United Kingdom with a population of 1.145 million in the city proper, 2.92 million in the West ...
and
Rome , established_title = Founded , established_date = 753 BC , founder = King Romulus (legendary) , image_map = Map of comune of Rome (metropolitan city of Capital Rome, region Lazio, Italy).svg , map_caption ...
. In 1988 he suffered a
heart attack A myocardial infarction (MI), commonly known as a heart attack, occurs when blood flow decreases or stops to the coronary artery of the heart, causing damage to the heart muscle. The most common symptom is chest pain or discomfort which may tr ...
from which he did not recover and died on 17 April. In the year 2004, an exhibition of his paintings was organized at the Cultural Corporation of
Las Condes Las Condes is a commune of Chile located in Santiago Province, Santiago Metropolitan Region. The area is inhabited primarily by upper-mid- to high income families, and known in the Chilean collective consciousness as home to the country's economi ...
, so called "Carlos Sotomayor: A modern classic"


A Unique Figure in Chilean Painting (by J. Palacios)

A retired employee of the Chilean Railways, quiet, with a distant air, most people would not suspect that he is an artist, particularly a modern one. However, this unassuming artist inspired the critic Antonio Romera to write about him: 'Perhaps, in the entire history of Chilean painting, there isn't a clearer example of dedication to artistic creativity for its own sake.' And it would be difficult to find a more fitting observation. Even as a teenager he displayed an innovative vision. At 14, he took part in a poster competition for the Spring Festival, encouraged by his father. An excellent draughtsman, with a line capable of expressing both the graceful and the vigorous in the classical tradition, Carlos Sotomayor could have worked entirely figuratively, an approach which would have brought him instant commercial success. With his mastery of line, he could also have diversified into printmaking, but his instinct was for painting. As a result, in 1934 he joined the Grupo Decembrista, a neocubist group led by the poet Vicente Huidobro, one of his most fervent admirers, who revealed his enthusiasm for Sotomayor's work in the magazine PRO published in the same year. Curiously, it was the writers of the avant-garde who were the first to recognise Sotomayor's genius. E. Anguita, who won the 1988 Writer of the Year Award, Julio Molina and Guillermo Atías were among his greatest apologists, praising him as a painter who did not confine his work to the replication of reality, or to conventional romanticism. Supported by the solid foundation of his drawings, Sotomayor alters reality in order to render it more real, in the quest for more sensitive communication through highly personal, expressive forms. He is both violent and tender at the same time. He remains an enigma, a solitary figure, praised by a few and still unknown to the majority. He doesn't win official accolades, nor do they hold any interest for him. Quiet, retiring, conversing only with his friends, the artist is not afraid of confronting his own solutions. Sensitive to current events, the initial figuration suddenly emerges in his work, but not as a final phase of his expression, only as the rebelliousness of a pure spirit. It is for this reason that, although efforts have been made to pigeonhole it, Sotomayor's work admits no labels.
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 ...
may be in the background, but it is because he admires in him, above all, his creative independence. The poet E. Anguita goes as far as saying that Sotomayor's painting is like the image of a "restless idea", a definition which the critic Romera elaborates on, underlying it as "a certain restlessness or agitation of the spirit.'.


External links


Official site (Spanish)
{{DEFAULTSORT:Sotomayor, Carlos 1911 births 1988 deaths People from La Serena 20th-century Chilean painters Chilean male artists Chilean male painters Male painters 20th-century Chilean male artists