Díaz, Gonzalo (1947–)

Gonzalo Díaz (b. 1947), Chilean artist. Throughout his career Díaz has addressed what he has termed the conceptualization of Chile as "cultural landscape" and the troubled status of painting in contemporary Chilean art. Born in Santiago, he studied art at the Escuela de Bellas Artes, Universidad de Chile, Santiago, from 1965 to 1969. Like the conceptually minded artists associated with the Avanzada, he was strongly affected by the institution of General Augusto Pinochet's military dictatorship in 1973. However, while most of the Avanzada artists abandoned painting, Díaz remained captivated by its theory, practice, and history in the era of photography. In the late 1970s he began producing labyrinthine installations that incorporate paintings as well as objects. His painting Historia sentimental de la pintura chilena (1982) exemplifies his central thematic concerns: the troubled status of painting in contemporary Chilean art, which in the late 1970s and early 1980s was largely dominated by conceptual and photographic practices, and the relationship between painting and the construction of national identity. Díaz has taught at the Universidad de Chile (1969), the Universidad Católica (1974), and the Instituto de Arte Contemporáneo (1977–1986), all in Santiago. He continues to teach at the Universidad de Chile and won the Premio Nacional de Artes in 2003.

See alsoArt: The Twentieth Century .

BIBLIOGRAPHY

Adriana Valdés, "Gonzalo Díaz," in Contemporary Art from Chile, edited by Fatima Bercht (1991), pp. 10-21.

Mari Carmen Ramírez, "Blueprint Circuits: Conceptual Art and Politics in Latin America," in Latin American Artists of the Twentieth Century (1993), pp. 156-167.

Additional Bibliography

Mellado, Justo Pastor. Gonzalo Díaz: El padre de la patria. Santiago: Eds. de la Cortina de Humo, 1999.

Oyarzún R., Pablo. "Estética de la sed: 'Lonquén 10 años,' diez años después." Revista Iberoamericana 69: 202 (Jan.-Mar. 2003), 85-94.

                                       John Alan Farmer