sculptural set
Federico Assler
Conjunto escultórico
Hormigón, 1972
Federico Assler, 2009 National Fine Arts Prizewinner, poured concrete on site until the day before the inauguration of the UNCTAD III building to finish this great five-meter-high work.
The sculpture, designed so that the public could sit on it, spent 40 years invisible in a parking lot until 2013 when it was discovered as the protagonist of what has since been Assler Plaza.
* For construction reasons, the plaza is closed until the inauguration of the second stage of GAM.
He defined his artistic career in 1956, after studying architecture for two years at the Catholic University of Valparaíso where he received lessons from Hans Soyka. He began in the drawing workshops at the School of Fine Arts of the University of Chile.
Although he stood out with his first works as a painter, his interest in the problems imposed by the creation of works in volume led him to sculpture in the mid-sixties. Together with Raúl Valdivieso, Sergio Mallol and Sergio Castillo he was part of the so-called Generation of the Fifty. He was one of the sculptors who were members of the Rectángulo Group.
In parallel to his artistic work, Federico Assler has held different positions as a professor of sculpture and landscaping and as director of the Museum of Contemporary Art of the University of Chile from 1965 to 1968. In 1995 he was appointed President of the first board of directors of the Society of Sculptors of Chile.
For his artistic career of 60 years, 40 of which he has dedicated to sculpture with his renowned concrete technique in public spaces, Federico Assler received the 2009 National Art Award.
His first period corresponds to a series of sculptures executed in overlapping plates of agglomerated wood, large works that suggest the infinite possibilities of the three-dimensionality of forms.
The monumental nature of his works and the use of reinforced concrete for their execution became relevant after his stay in Spain from 1973 to 1983, in the town of Morata de Tajuna. Testimony of this period is a series of sculptures located on the Island of Tenerife.
Assler's sculptural groups and mural reliefs are present in various parks, squares and public buildings in Chile and abroad. Although they are abstract works, they allude to organic forms of striated surfaces that suggest intricate labyrinths. They do not have a pedestal, the author has expressed that they emerge from the earth as a way to integrate into the landscape and relate directly to man.