Untitled (door handles)
Ricardo Mesa
Sin título (tiradores de puerta)
Bronce fundido, 1972
This work is made up of 40 pieces that today are found on the doors of the center's performance and conference rooms.
Each handle represents a raised fist, which according to the artist's words, symbolizes Chilean workers.
During the military dictatorship this work was intervened, leaving the fists in reverse position for more than 30 years. In GAM the door handles have returned to their original position.
In the Diego Portales period, the figure of the shooters' fists were inverted.
Ricardo Mesa Núñez
(Cauquenes, 1931 - Santiago, 2000).
Sculptor
Coming from a family that loves art, poetry, painting and music; From a young age he developed manual and artistic skills. He studied at the School of Fine Arts of the University of Chile between 1950 and 1954. He was a student of Raúl Vargas and Julio Antonio Vásquez. He was assistant to José Perotti and Héctor Cáceres. In 1964 he held the Chair of Sculpture at the School of Fine Arts until 1974.
He studied in Italy, at the Porta Romana School in Florence and at the Bildenden Kunste Academy in Munich, Germany.
He was a communist militant and active leader of university reform, which is why after the Military Coup he went into exile to Spain in 1974, taking up residence in San Lorenzo del Escorial, near Madrid, for eleven years.
Back in Chile, he taught classes at the Catholic University and the Finis Terrae University of Santiago.