Following the jury’s controversial decision at the XVII Salón de Artistas Nacionales [17th National Artists Salon] (1965), Gloria Pachón Castro’s article “Luciano: a propósito de un Salón” [Luciano: Concerning a Salon] was published in El Tiempo, the Bogotá newspaper. In this interview, the Colombian artist Luciano Jaramillo (1938-1984) voices his opinions on the decision and discusses the trend that was in vogue in Colombian painting at the time, known as the new Figuration.
The jury’s decision at the 17th National Salon essentially amounted to a passing of the torch in the field of Colombian contemporary art, because the prize-winning works were all produced by young artists, as follows. For painting: Norman Mejía (b. 1938), Beatriz González (b. 1938), Carlos Rojas (1933–1997), Gastón Betelli, and Antonio Grass. For sculpture: Feliza Bursztyn (1933-1982). And for drawing: Pedro Alcántara (b. 1942). In response to press reports (in El Tiempo newspaper, for example) about the catastrophe wrought by the fraudulent jury decision that ignored “the Maestros” who were traditionally awarded prizes— Alejandro Obregón (1920-1992), in particular—, the Argentine art critic Marta Traba (1923–1983), a long-time resident in Colombia, writing in her column in La Nueva Prensa magazine, launched a no-holds-barred defense of the winning works at the Salon which, in her opinion, ushered in a new day for Colombian art. In this article, the painter Luciano Jaramillo (1938-1984) criticizes the Salon’s prize-winning paintings which, in his opinion are an expression of “improvisation” that is in direct opposition to the “true painting” of the so-called “Maestros.”
Traba described Jaramillo as an “angry painter” (see “Jaramillo: pintura visible y audible” [Jaramillo: Visible and Audible Painting], doc. # 1099276). In point of fact, the Expressionist nature of his painting was viewed as stormy, violent, and somber. Jaramillo acknowledged the influence of the painter Francis Bacon (1561-1626) who had, he said, shown him how to observe things from an alternative point of view. After Jaramillo’s death in 1984, two major retrospective exhibitions were organized: Luciano Jaramillo (1995) at the Museo de Arte Moderno in Bogotá and Luciano Jaramillo: otra mirada [Luciano Jaramillo: A Different Point of View] (1997) at the Luis Ángel Arango Library in Bogotá.