Colombian art

Colombian arthas 3500 years of history and covers a wide range of media and styles ranging from SpanishBaroquedevotional painting toQuimbayagold craftwork to the "lyrical americanism" of painterAlejandro Obregón(1920–1992). Perhaps the most internationally acclaimedColombian artistis painter and sculptorFernando Botero(1932).

Pre-Columbian sculpture

Pottery

There is archaeological evidence that ceramics were produced on Colombia's Caribbean coast earlier than anywhere in the Americas outside of the lowerAmazon Basin.Fiber-temperedceramics associated with shell middens appeared at sites such asPuerto Hormiga,Monsú, Puerto Chacho, and San Jacinto by 3100 BC. Fiber-tempered ceramics at Monsú have been dated to 5940 radiocarbon yearsbefore present.The fiber-tempered pottery at Puerto Hormiga was "crude", formed from a single lump of clay. The fiber-tempered pottery at San Jacinto is described as "well-made". Sand-tempered coiled ceramics have also been found at Puerto Hormiga. The Piartal culture (750–1250 AD) in the mountainous region on theColombia–Ecuador borderproduced unique methods of producing pottery as well as patterns inspired by animal or snake skin. Vessels were created for use in secondary burial, or the practice of allowing the flesh to decompose and then reburying the bones. These vessels were also used to hold relics and jewelry belonging to the deceased.

Poporo Quimbaya and pestle. Phytomorphic (fruit-shaped) lime container, gold, 300 BCE – 1000 CE

Goldwork

The earliest examples of gold craftsmanship have been attributed to the Tumaco people of the Pacific coast and date to around 325 BCE. Gold would play a pivotal role in luring the Spanish to the area now called Colombia during the 16th century (See:El Dorado).

One of the most valued artifacts of Pre-Columbian goldwork is the so-calledPoporo Quimbaya,a small (23.5 × 11.4 cm), hollow, devotional object (used tomambeoorcoca leafchewing ritual) made of gold whose aesthetic harmony, simple elegance, and mathematical symmetry are striking and almost modern.

TheMuseo del OroinBogotádisplays the most important collection of pre-Columbian gold handicraft in the Americas.

Stone

Roughly between 200 BCE and 800 CE, the San Agustín culture, masters of stonecutting, entered its “classical period". They erected raised ceremonial centres, sarcophagi, and large stonemonolithsdepicting anthropomorphic and zoomorphhic forms out of stone. Some of these have been up to five meters high.

Related to the San Agustín culture were the inhabitants ofTierradentro( “inner land”, so called because of its inaccessibility) who created over one hundred and fifty underground tombs, or hypogea; their walls and ceilings were richly decorated with geometric forms recalling the interior of palm huts. Also in the tombs were found funeral urns, bowls, and pitchers.

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  Tolita-Tumaco gold figure
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  TheMuisca raftvotive piece,Muisca(Pasca,Cundinamarca),gold, 600 CE - 1600 CE
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  El Infiernitoarchaeological site
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  ZoomorphicSan Agustin sculpture
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  Monumental tomb,Middle San Agustín period (San Agustín, Huila),100 BCE - 700 CE

Modern sculpture

The Colombian sculpture from the sixteenth to 18th centuries was mostly devoted to religious depictions of ecclesiastic art, strongly influenced by the Spanish schools of sacred sculpture. During the early period of the Colombian republic, the national artists were focused in the production of sculptural portraits of politicians and public figures, in a plainneoclassicisttrend. During the 20th century, the Colombian sculpture began to develop a bold and innovative work with the aim of reaching a better understanding of national sensitivity.

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  Monument toBachuéby Luís Horacio Betancur,Medellín
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  Monument to thetayronadeities.Santa Marta
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  Monument toIndia CatalinainCartagena
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  Vargas Swamp LancersMemorial is the largest sculpture in Latin America
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  Monumento a la Raza,located inLa Alpujarra Administrative CenterinMedellín
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  Botero PlazainMedellínwith permanent display of several sculptures byFernando Botero
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  Bird( ByFernando Botero) Was destroyed by aterrorist attackin 1997,Medellínwhere 17 people died. The remains of the sculpture are displayed in San Antonio Square as a memorial for the victims
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  Ranas bailando. (Dancing frogs) 1990. ByMaría Fernanda Cardoso
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  Cascada. ByEdgar Negret

Painting

Pre-Columbian period

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  Chimitápetrographs,circa 1300 B.C.Santander Department

Colombian colonial art includes altar wood carving masterpieces and the statues for religious processions.

Colonial period

Painting in the colonial period reflected the power and prestige of the Catholic Church and the Spanish aristocracy in Colombia or as it was then knownThe New Kingdom of Granada(c. 1548-1717) and laterThe Viceroyalty of New Granada(1717–1819).

Early colonial period

Our Lady of the Rosary of Chiquinquirá(flanked bySt. Anthony of PaduaandSt. Andrew the Apostle) by Alonso de Narváez, tempura on rustic cloth, 16th century

Colombian painting in the early colonial period (1530s–1650) was mostly ecclesiastical in subject and based onmannerist,renaissance,andmedievalstyles, with some minor influence from indigenous culture.

Spanish explorers first set foot on Colombian soil in 1499 and establishedSanta Marta,the first city and government in the territory of Colombia, in 1599. King Ferdinand of Aragon and Queen Isabela of Castille had in 1492 year unified Spain and conquered the remainingMoorishstronghold in southern Spain (Granada); expelled Jews with theAlhambra Decreeand continued theInquisition;and sentChristopher Columbuson his first expedition. It is from this context ofreconquistaor the Christianizing of the Iberian peninsula that the similarly strongly Catholic colonial project in the Americas might be understood. In this period, Spain and Portugal were the greatest powers in Europe and the most dogged defenders (and enforcers) ofCatholicism.

Workshops inSevilleproduced many of the early paintings sent to Colombia. Colombian artists in this period were mostly considered common tradesmen, likecobblersorcoopers.As throughout much of the history of art around the world, these usually anonymous artisans produced work that served the ideological needs of their patrons, in this case theCatholic Church.

The churches and homes of wealthy families in the main towns ofCundinamarcaandBoyacácontain some of the oldest extant examples of colonial art in Colombia, mostly in the form ofmural painting.

The first colonial-era painter to work in Colombia, or as it was then known as,Nueva Granada,was theSevillenative Alonso de Narváez (d. 1583). He is credited with painting an image of the Virgin Mary (Our Lady of the Rosary) that later became itself an object of devotion, known asOur Lady of the Rosary of Chiquinquiráthanks to, as Catholics believe, a miraculous repairing of the painting's fabric.

Holy Trinityby Gregorio Vázquez de Arce y Ceballos, oil on canvas, 17th century

Baroque period

Baroque art(starting in Rome around 1600), includingLatin American Baroque(1650-1750es:Gregorio Vásquez de Arce y Ceballos), tended towards emotionalism, an appeal topopulism,and large gestures and flowing garments. In line with the Counter-Reformation a generation prior, theJesuits,an order formed to counterProtestantism,were the first to embrace theBaroque.The major influences on Colombian artists in this period were Spanish Baroque painters likeFrancisco de Zurbarán(1580–1664), as well as Flemish, Italian, and also Quito and Cuzco influences, through engravings and various original images imported for churches and monasteries.

Another Seville native, Baltasar de FigueroaEl Viejo(1629–1667), settled inBogotáin the early 17th century and set up an artist's workshop. He and his many descendants would be prolific and would invent a kind of creolized Colombian form of Baroque painting that combined the borrowing of forms and subjects from European engravings (mostly religious in nature: saints in various states of mortification or ecstasy, the Virgin Mary, or Christ) with native motifs and decoration. But it would be one of the Figueroa family's apprentices, Gregorio Vázquez de Arce y Ceballos, who would stand out among all painters of the colonial era.

Gregorio Vasquez de Arce y Ceballos(1638–1711) is considered the greatest master of the colonial period. In his lifetime he produced around five hundred paintings, mostly devotional, with a technique that juxtaposed figures taken from paintings by European masters using innovative materials found in the New World. His depictions of the Trinity as a single figure with four eyes and three faces, an innovation unique to Latin America, would be later condemned as heretical in part because they resembled Hindu deities.

TheSopo Archangelsis a series of twelve paintings, each featuring anarchangel(three canonical, plus eight apocryphal, and one guardian) engulfed in a tenebrous (cloudy) background. Their figures are life-sized, clad in rich apparel, full of drapes and folds, and are meant to be "read" through their various iconography. Like many depictions of angels, these ostensibly male figures are depicted with soft, feminine faces and round hips. The origin of this series is unknown, as is the artist. It is considered one of the enduring Enigma s of Colombian art.

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  San José y el NiñobyGregorio Vasquez de Arce y Ceballos,oil on wood, ca. 1670
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  St. Catalina weddingsby Gregorio Vasquez de Arce y Ceballos, (Desposorios de Santa Catalina) 18th century. Oil on canvas 176 x 130 cm
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  HolyTrinity,by Gregorio Vásquez de Arce y Ceballos. Oil on canvas.62 x 44 cm
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  "Coronación de la virgen", by Baltasar de Vargas Figueroa (1663) – The catholic influence is very strong in the colonial period
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  Sopo Archangels,a series of archangels painted around 1650 in colonial Colombia.
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  Baraquel- Blessing of God: The archangel of virtue
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  Guardian Angel-Company of God: The angel of children
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  Esriel-Justice of god: The archangel of divine discipline

TheVirreinatoand rococo

The raising of the Viceroyalty of New Granada in 1717 coincided roughly with the ascension of the Bourbons to the throne of Spain. This period marked a period of resurgence and the first sparks ofEnlightenment in Spain.Rococo,a decadent form, replaced baroque as the dominant style. The new viceroy court in Bogotá led to a surge in demand for portraits of civilians and clergymen. The leading portrait painter of this period was Joaquín Guttiérrez. He depicted members of the aristocracy in frozen forms, surrounded by richly embellished furniture and decoration, and usually printed the subject's name and family title beneath their image.

Republican period

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  Policarpa Salavarrietaportrait by Mercedes Delgado Mallarino
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  Portrait ofFrancisco de Paula Santander(1874) by Martín Tovar y Tovar (1827-1902). Oil on canvas
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  Portrait ofJoaquín MosquerabyRicardo Acevedo Bernal(1867)

20th century and modernism

From 1920 to 1940,Marco Tobón Mejía,José Horacio Betancur,Pedro Nel Gómez,Ignacio Gómez Jaramillo,Santiago Martinez Delgadoand Alipio Jaramillo produced several mural paintings influenced by the Mexican muralists, withneoclassicfeatures and influences ofArt Nouveau.During the 1940s, a rising international disinterest in the Colombian art caused the local artists to try new ways of expression such aspost-impressionismand French scholar style. An example of this is the landscape painter Ricardo Gómez Campuzano and his depictions ofCartagena.

Several art critics point to the 1950s as the time when Colombian art started to have a distinctive point of view, reinventing the traditional elements under the 20th century concepts. Examples of this are the Greiff portraits by Ignacio Gomez Jaramillo, showing what the Colombian art could do with the new techniques applied to typical Colombian themes. Carlos Correa, with his paradigmatic “Naturaleza muerta en silencio” (silent dead nature), combines geometrical abstraction andcubismin a style still recurrent today in many artists. Pedro Nel Gómez, in his “Autorretrato con sombrero” (1941) (self-portrait with hat) shows influences fromGauguinandVan Gogh.He also shows a strong influence ofJosé Clemente Orozcoin his series about theBarequeras(women extracting gold from the rivers banks) and his self-portrait (1949) shows strong influences fromCézanne.Alejandro Obregónis often considered as the father of modern Colombian painting, and one of the most influential artist in this period, due to his originality, the painting of Colombian landscapes with symbolic and expressionist use of animals, (specially theandean condor). In his work is noticeable the influences ofPicassoandGraham Sutherland.Currently, some of the most recognized painters in the international scene areFernando BoteroandOmar Rayo.

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  Chicago fair (1933), bySantiago Martinez Delgado
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  Mural by Santiago Martinez Delgado in the Colombian Congress
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  "The Colombian Republic". Mural byPedro Nel Gómez
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  "Coffee dance". Mural byPedro Nel Gómez
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  "Painting of a contrabass" byAlvaro Valbuena(1970)
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  Zibebiz.Omar Rayo.Quinta de San Pedro Alejandrino

21st century

During the 21st century, Colombian artists have focused in the intersection between new media and traditional crafts, as well as narratives that reflect on theColombian conflictand the consequences it has had on Colombian society, territory and bodies.

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  "Fourth Circle" byNicolas De la Hoz,oil and acrylic on canvas, 2005

Film

Main article:Cinema of Colombia

See also:List of Colombian filmsandCartagena Film Festival

Theater

Main article:Theater of Colombia

Theaterwas introducedin Colombiaduring the Spanish colonization in 1550 throughzarzuelacompanies. Colombian theater is supported by the Ministry of Culture and a number of private and state owned organizations. Among the most important organizations are the National Association of Scenic Directors (ANDE), Performing Arts Workers Associations, Antioquia Storytellers Association, Colombian Association of Critique and Theater Research (ACIT), Puppeteers Associations (ATICO), Colombian Corporation of Theater among others.

Colombian theater was introduced during thecolonizationby the Spanish between 1550 and 1810. At the end of the 19th century and beginnings of the 20th century the most important center of theater in Colombia was the Colon theater in downtown Bogota. These theaters were built resembling Italian architecture style. During the 20th century interest for theater had spread all over Colombia and many theater were built in the biggest cities of Colombia. Colombia currently holds one of the biggest theater festivals in the world, properly called the Ibero-American Theater Festival. As in many other parts of the world, future actors and actresses begin their performing experience in theater many of them with the goal of making it to television or film. Theater in Colombia is informally known as "tablas" (woods) because of the wooden stages on which actors perform their plays. Colombia has a mature system of theater companies which reaches an audience mostly in the city of Bogota.

See also

• Muisca art
• Colombian handicrafts
• List of Colombian artists
• Culture of Colombia
• Colombian architecture
• Latin American culture
• Art Galleries in Colombia

Further reading

• Londoño Vélez, S. (2001).Colombian Art: 3,500 Years of History.Bogotá: Villegas Editores

External links

• (in English)Official site-Gold Museum, Bogotá
• (in English)Virtual museum of Pre-Columbian gold in Colombia
• (in English)Current information on Colombia´s Art Scene
• (in Spanish)Official site Museo de BogotáArchived2008-05-16 at theWayback Machine
• (in Spanish)Official site Museo de Arte Moderno de Bogotá
• (in Spanish)Digital collectionArchived2010-09-23 at theWayback Machine-Luis Ángel Arango Library
• (in Spanish)Official site Directorio Nacional de Arte Colombiano
• (in Spanish)Museum of Antioquia