The preface to the exhibition, Gráfica Contemporánea de la República Democrática Alemana (1982), is clear evidence of the cultural ties between some Colombian artists and the embassies of socialist bloc countries, specifically of Cuba, the GDR [East Germany] and Czechoslovakia (today, the Czech Republic and Slovakia). Such contacts opened the door for art events such as this one.
This exhibition was a joint initiative among the East German Union of Visual Artists, the Center for Art Exhibitions in the GDR, the Corporación Prográfica [Prográfica Association] in Cali and the Museo de Arte Moderno La Tertulia, also in Cali. It was held in the context of bilateral agreements that allowed the dissemination and trading of graphic works between Europe and Latin America.
During the year of the exhibition, the Corporación Prográfica (1977−87)—whose mission was to print graphic art portfolios—broadened its scope as a graphic arts workshop through international relationships. These were forged by the association’s director, the painter and printmaker, Pedro Alcántara Herrán (b. 1942), a well-known leftist militant. Prográfica shared the socialist political causes that can be perceived in the work of some of the German artists. In particular, it focused on themes related to the sociopolitical background of the military dictatorship in Chile and the occupation of Palestine.
The city of Cali led the graphic arts heyday in Colombia. Starting in the 1960s, it promoted drawing and printmaking events that included artists from the whole continent (see “I Bienal Americana de Artes Gráficas” [doc. no. 1075853]). Cali also had a graphic arts mission: the workshops given at the Museo de Arte Moderno La Tertulia and at the Corporación Prográfica. One of Prográfica’s initiatives was to promote international agreements that allowed the circulation of works by Colombian artists in socialist countries (such as at the exhibition, Intergrafik, in East Berlin). In addition, it offered reasonable printing prices, competitive with those in the Latin American print market.
In addition to this text, in the catalog, there is an “Introduction” written by the Corporación Prográfica and another “A modo de prefacio” [By way of preface] written by the German art researcher, Christa Kuhne.