Sofía Urrutia Holguín/en
| Nombre | Sofía Urrutia Holguín |
|---|---|
| Fecha de nacimiento | 1912 |
| Nacionalidad | Colombo Boliviana |
| Ocupación | Pintora |
| País de nacimiento | Bolivia |
| Ciudad de nacimiento | La paz |
| Fecha de fallecimiento | 2002 |
| País de fallecimiento | Colombia, 
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| Ciudad de fallecimiento | Bogotá |
| Familia | Francisco José Urrutia (Padre) |
Sofía Urrutia Holguín was a Colombian-Bolivian painter born in La Paz in 1912 and an exponent of naive or primitivist art. Through an informal artistic education amid humanities courses and private classes with painters, she made a place for herself among the most distinguished artists of the 1940-1970 period, receiving positive recognition from critics such as Walter Engel and Marta Traba. Her paintings dealt with natural and religious themes as well as elements of Colombian culture.
Biography
Sofía Urrutia was born into a prominent family from the city of Popayán. Her father, Francisco José Urrutia, served as foreign minister and carried out diplomatic work with countries such Bolivia, Spain, Switzerland and the United States, which explains the artist’s birthplace of La Paz. Her artistic training was self-guided, through humanities courses during her family’s stays in Europe and later through contact with artists that were reinvigorating Colombian art. During the 1940s, Sofía took classes with the artist Guillermo Wiedemann at his workshop in the Teusaquillo neighborhood of Bogotá, and from that moment he would be a great friend. While the naivety of her work was a quality that was praised from the outset on the artistic circuit, recently there has been discussion around whether the word ‘naive’ is the most accurate description of the creative methods of Sofía Urrutia and other painters from the second half of the 20th century in Colombia. The term “primitivist” has been put forward in modern times to recognize this visual language, in dialogue with artistic trends that developed in other cultural and historical contexts since the beginning of the century. She was a tireless reader until her last days and painted in an authentic and unpretentious style. In her final years, her friends would visit her house to read to her, as her sight had diminished significantly and she was no longer able to read or paint. She passed away in Bogota in 2002.
Artistic career
In the 1940s, Sofía Urrutia started working very actively responding to the calls for the most important national group exhibitions at that time. In October 1948, she was one of the 26 participants of the Contemporary Painting Exhibition at the National Museum of Colombia, one of the two events that the institution organized between 1946 and 1950, in addition to the Annual Artists Show. In doing so, Urrutia earned a place among the “Generation of the 1950s,” and from then on was considered an exponent of naive art[1] In 1959, as a result of her outstanding work, the Austrian critic Walter Engel acknowledged her special place as part of a group of female Colombian painters, together with Judith Márquez, Lucy Tejada and Cecilia Porras[2]. In the early 1970s, Urrutia also had the support of the Argentinian critic Marta Traba, who dedicated one of her columns in the La Nueva Prensa newspaper to the artist in 1963 and described her work as “a spring that never runs dry”[3].
Features of her work
Art criticism at the beginning of the 1950s emphasized “the peace, clarity, and naive and crystal-clear beauty” of Sofía Urrutia’s paintings[4], characterizing them as elements taken from a “wondrous toy shop”[5], thus drawing the subtle line between childlike representation — to which primitivist art was compared — and the resolute, purposeful decision by the artist to portray reality through a non-professional technique. The writings of the critics included her in the avant-garde trends of the mid-20th century, pointing to her success in applying “colorful patches and striking touches of white” in paintings such as Beach on the Cauca River (Playa en el río Cauca)[6]. Urrutia’s scenes depict public spaces in cities such as Cartagena, Bogotá and Popayán. Other paintings are transformed into ethnographic portraits of indigenous and mestizo communities, such as Beach on the Cauca River, Cuna Indians (Indios Cuna) and Little Holy Week (Semana Santa Chiquita). Flowers are the central theme of her still lifes, which feature hydrangeas, roses and delphiniums. Her paintings devoted to religious themes portray figures such as St. Francis of Assisi, scenes from the Old Testament like Eden and The Tower of Babel, and stories such as The Creation of the World, Noah’s Ark, The Destruction of Sodom, Joseph Sold by his Brothers and Moses Saved from the Waters. The Bible and the novel One Hundred Years of Solitude by Gabriel García Márquez were essential references in the construction of her imagery.
Featured works
- 1952: Beach on the Cauca River and Annunciation (Anunciación), oil on canvas. Honorable mention at the 11th Annual Show of Colombian Artists.
- 1967: The Girl and the Doll (La niña y la muñeca), Bogota Museum of Modern Art collection.
Obras de Sofía Urrutia en las Colecciones del Banco de la República
| Title | Year | Location | Technique | Registration number |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| St. Francis (San Francisco) | 1969 | Reserve | Painting | AP0303 |
| Popayán Rooftops (Tejados de Popayán) | 1983 | Reserve | AP3966 | |
| Cuna Indians (Indios Cuna) | Not recorded | Reserve | Painting | AP3846 |
| Self-Portrait (Autorretrato) | Not recorded | Reserve | Painting | AP3845 |
| Cartagena Rooftops (Tejados de Cartagena) | ca. 1964 | Reserve | Painting | AP0240 |
Timeline
- 1912: nació en La Paz, Bolivia.
- 1948: participó en la Exposición de Pintura Contemporánea en el Museo Nacional de Colombia.
- 1950: realizó su primera exposición individual en la sala Gregorio Vásquez de la Biblioteca Nacional de Colombia.
- 1962: concursó en el XIV Salón Nacional de Artistas.
- 2002: la Galería Diners en Bogotá le dedicó una exposición retrospectiva. Murió en Bogotá.
- 2016: el Banco de la República presentó algunas de sus obras en la Exposición Aparente ingenuidad, en la que se recordó a los pintores primitivistas colombianos.
Véase también
- Exposición Aparente ingenuidad. Pintores primitivistas en la colección de arte del Banco de la República [1]
- Guillermo Wiedemann [2]
Referencias
- ↑ Vidales, L. (August 31, 1952). El “otro” punto de vista (The “other” point of view). El Tiempo.
- ↑ Gómez, N. Critical commentary from the book Pintoras colombianas contemporáneas (Contemporary Colombian painters) (1959) by Walter Engel. In: Documents of 20th-century Latin American and Latino Art, International Center for The Arts of the Americas at the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, USA.
- ↑ .Reproduction of the column in the book Marta Traba (1984) compiled by Emma Araújo de Vallejo. Bogotá: Museum of Modern Art
- ↑ Engel, W. (August 17, 1952). El IX Salón Anual (The 11th Annual Show). El Tiempo.
- ↑ Mendoza, E. (August 9, 1952). La pintura en el IX Salón (Painting in the 11th show). El Espectador.
- ↑ Vidales, idem.
Bibliografía
- Calderón, C. (1990). Salón Nacional de Artistas 50 años. Bogotá: Instituto Colombiano de Cultura - Colcultura.
- Cobo Borda, J. y otros (2000). Sofía Urrutia. Pinturas. Bogotá: Seguros Bolívar.
Colección de arte del Banco de la República
- Visite la obra de arte San Francisco de Sofía Urrutia Holguín en Colección de arte
- Visite la obra de arte Tejados de Popayán de Sofía Urrutia Holguín en Colección de arte
- Visite la obra de arte Indios Cuna de Sofía Urrutia Holguín en Colección de arte
- Visite la obra de arte Autorretrato de Sofía Urrutia Holguín en Colección de arte
- Visite la obra de arte de Sofía Urrutia Holguín en Colección de arte
Créditos
1. Investigación y texto: Oscar David Rodríguez, mediador de los Museos y Colecciones del Banco de la República, para Banrepcultural
2. Revisión y edición de textos Inti Camila Romero Estrada y Diana Salas, Sección de Servicios al Público y Educativos, Unidad de Arte y Otras Colecciones (UAOC).
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