Book launch “China. Art, culture, revolution”
- Conference Room 1, Gabriela Mistral Cultural Center (GAM), Alameda 227, Metro UC.
- Tuesday, August 13 – 6:30 p.m.
China. Art, culture, revolution, by José Venturelli (Santiago de Chile, 1924 – Beijing, 1988), is the title of the book that recounts the life and artistic experience of the prominent Chilean painter, muralist and engraver, during his residence in China, published this 2024, within the framework of his centenary, by the publishing house Atmósfericas, from Valparaíso, and the Fondo de Cultura Económica.
The book, a project financed by the National Fund for the Promotion of Books and Reading, call for 2024, and which has the support of the José Venturelli Foundation, brings together unpublished texts written by the Chilean artist, as well as a set of drawings in Chinese ink and interviews, in which he addresses his life experience in the Asian country with reflections on the artistic, cultural and political processes of the Chinese people, specifically after their revolution and proclamation of the People’s Republic in 1949.
The launch will feature the participation of Elixabete Ansa and Claudia Lira, academics from the Institute of Aesthetics of the Pontifical Catholic University of Chile, Malva Venturelli, director of the José Venturelli Foundation, and Felipe Aburto, editor of Atmosféricas.
Unpublished documents
From 1953, José Venturelli lived in China for three years, becoming the first Latin American artist to witness the large-scale cultural and political transformation of the country. His testimony and understanding—both of the long duration of Chinese culture and of the revolutionary process and its artists—are reflected in the texts in China. Art, culture, revolution.
In the previously unpublished literary and visual documents included in this publication, safeguarded by the José Venturelli Foundation, the Chilean artist narrates, among other things, his encounter with traditional Chinese painting and with the long-lived painters who have preserved—in adverse political circumstances—its essential technique and material with its popular character. Among them, Venturelli highlights the painter Qi Baishi, as well as the peasant artists of woodcuts, and others equally committed to the revolutionary principles that mobilize the country.
In addition to the influence José Venturelli received, he was also involved in his commitment to the Chinese people and to the dissemination of their culture through his participation in the founding—along with Salvador Allende and Pablo Neruda—of the Chilean-Chinese Institute of Culture, in addition to the artistic teaching he imparted at the Faculty of Fine Arts at the University of Beijing.
For these reasons, Elixabete Ansa and Claudia Lira stand out in the “prologue” of china Art, culture, revolutionn, the artistic and cultural relevance of José Venturelli, since it allows us to situate and study the transpacific relations between Asia and the Pacific, as well as to update an aesthetic debate on the artist’s participation in the problems that arise in his social environment.
Book information:
Title: China. Art, culture, revolution
Author: José Venturelli
Publisher: Atmosféricas and Fondo de Cultura Económica
Year: 2024
Pages: 120
Foreword by Elixabete Ansa and Claudia Lira
Edited by Felipe Aburto
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