Chili
José Venturelli
Pintura acrílica, 1972
Dimensiones 2,24 m x 8,76 m
This is the most figurative and traditional work in the GAM collection. Its theme and technique is a faithful reflection of the 70s. In it you can see the geography of the country, its ethnic groups and its workers. The type of representation reveals the influence of Mexican muralism on Venturelli's work.
Of the murals located in the original building, this is the only one that was not destroyed after September 1973 and has remained in the same location since its creation.
original location
José Venturelli Eade
(Santiago 1924 - Beijing, China 1988).
Painter and engraver
Son of an exiled Italian engineer who supported the birth of socialism in his homeland, he followed his father's political convictions, which led him from a young age to join movements with a Marxist tendency against fascism and to support the revolutionary movements of South America, following in the footsteps of many students and intellectuals of the time.
In the beginning and while he was still a teenager, he worked alongside the Mexican artist David Alfaro Siqueiros in the creation of the mural for the Escuela México de Chillán. Siqueiros visited Chile in 1940 on a cultural mission.
The tuberculosis that he contracted at the age of 17 was not an impediment for Venturelli to become a traveling artist, creator of a prolific work of great interpretative force. At the beginning of the forties, he traveled to Brazil where he held his first individual exhibitions and where he received the teachings of Cándido Portinari. Upon returning to Chile he worked on drawings, illustrations, engravings and theater sets.
In 1950 he traveled to Mexico, then to Europe and China and finally to Cuba in 1961, where he collaborated with the Cultural Council, organized experimental graphics workshops and took on large projects such as the mural for the Ministry of Industries. From that time his great friendship with the guerrilla leader Ernesto Che Guevara stands out.
In 1974 he settled in Geneva, Switzerland. In 1986, after twelve years of exile, he lived in Chile for the last time and for a short time. He died in China, while preparing his final return. On October 18 of the same year, his remains were buried in Santiago.