Sculptures in Chile: dilemmas, agents and influences

Abstract

The development of sculpture in Chile is examined in this article, from its beginning where it was taught within the academic structure of the country, up to the middle of the past century. The article presents three crucial points of analysis: The relationship of the Chilean State with the esthetic processes; the classical model as the formal and iconographic support for national sculpture, and finally, the relationship between sculpturing activity and the European schools (influences). Besides, it analysis those authors that have had a higher presence and gravitation in the national artistical scenario, providing data about the academic formation, work and outmark in our artistical media. On the other hand it provides information about how it evolves from a classic esthetic model that had characterized the art and the national authors during the XIX century XIX to artistical concepts and iconographic repertories more identified with the latest proposals that begin to develop in the country during the first decades of the XX century. The work establishes also some parallelisms between the Chilean sculpture and the other American countries.