Justo Pastor Mellado (b. 1949) wrote a number of articles about the art field from the late 1970s to the mid-1980s. Basing himself on Benmayor’s work, he identifies connections that he uses to review his own writing career. He mentions “subjectivity” and “autobiography,” two key concepts that he considers to be relevant to Benmayor’s work. His essay is organized by dates though they are not arranged in any linear, chronological order since each one refers to a particular subject. The articles are dated from November 1982 to August 1984.
The 1983 Seminario mentioned above took place at the TAV (Taller de Artes Visuales), which was also directed by Virginia Errázuriz (b. 1941) and Francisco Brugnoli (b. 1935). The presentations, as regards Mellado, are available in the ICAA Digital Archive: the Intervention of Friday, May 13 (doc. no. 749169); the Intervention of Friday, May 20 (doc. no. 749179); and the Intervention of Friday, June 3 (doc. no. 749190). Shortly before the Seminar, Mellado presented a critical review of Paisaje (1983), the exhibition organized by the directors of the TAV at the Galería Sur. [See: “Paisaje” (doc. no. 730016)]. The document also refers to “La disputa de la cita bíblica” (doc. no. 730683), the essay written for Fábula de la pintura chilena, the exhibition of works by Juan Domingo Dávila (b. 1946), and the exhibition Provincia señalada, both presented at the Galería Sur (1983). [For more information about this event, see “Inversión de escena” (doc. no. 731376) by Nelly Richard]. Texts of this nature shed light on the debate about where painting stood in terms of conceptual art, a popular subject for discussion during the time of the so-called Escena de Avanzada, the umbrella term coined by the theorist and cultural critic Nelly Richard (b. 1949). [For more about the ‘Escena,’ see Richard’s “Return to the pleasurable” (doc. no. 743686).]
Samy Benmayor (b. 1956) studied at the Facultad de Artes de la Universidad de Chile, where he was a member of the “Promoción ’80,” the generation that was bound as much by age and training as by their expressionist, gestural style of painting. Like the anti-avant-garde (and reactionary) reaction in Europe in the 1920s known as the “Retour à l’ordre,” the collective Chilean approach was known as a “return to painting.” As regards the exhibition at the Galería Sur, Benmayor explained that in 1983 he rigorously questioned his work, an exercise that led him to experiment with new supports and broaden his range of subject matter. He nonetheless decided to return to what had always interested him, enjoying life and living, in other (overly familiar) words: sex, love, father and mother—that is, his personal, intimate home life. [For more information about that generation, see: “Promoción 80” (doc. no. 740347) by Milan Ivelic.]