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Nemesio Antunez Biography

Artist

Date

Fall 2015

Date Range

2015-26-15 - 2015-10-09

Contributor

Nemesio Antunez

Description

Nemesio Antúnez (1918 - 1993) was born in Santiago, Chile and was interested in the arts from an early age. As a young boy of seventeen, he traveled to France where he met and studied with Pablo Picasso, Juan Gris, and Joan Miró.

He attended the Catholic University of Chile, graduating with a degree in architecture in 1941. He went on to direct the Museum of Contemporary Art at the University of Chile, and eventually became the director of the National Museum of Fine Arts. A Fulbright recipient, he studied at Columbia University where he received his MFA.

In 1947, English painter and printmaker Stanley William Hayter invited Antúnez to study at Atelier 17 in Paris. Working and studying at Atelier 17 was a pivotal time in Antúnez’ life.

When he returned to Chile in 1953, he was determined to open an art studio based on the principles he found at Atelier 17. Antúnez founded Taller 99 in Santiago between 1955 and 1956. The studio fostered close research and creative relationships between teachers and students, and emphasized experimentation and innovation, while using many traditional Chilean print methods. The approach was revolutionary in Chile and launched Taller 99 into the international spotlight, where it continues to thrive and support artists today.

Antúnez has been recognized for his own artwork and has received numerous awards, including the Prize of the Circle of Critics, Santiago, the Premio de la Crítica, the Museum S. Guggenheim Acquisition Prize, and Best Latin American Painter Prize at the V Bienal de São Paulo, Brasil. He was named cultural attaché of the Chilean Embassy in the United States in 1964, during which time he actively promoted Chilean and other Latin American art. The artist also painted Hearts of Los Andes, a mural for the United Nations. He was awarded the Medalla de Chile by the Senate of the Republic for his cultural work.

Antúnez developed a close friendship with Chilean poet Pablo Neruda.Their friendship resulted in poetic and visual collaborations, including prints by Antúnez that were inspired by Neruda’ s poems. Te Busco features, for example, Tres Cantos Materiales (1948), Estadios y Cordilleras (1973), and La Cordillera Neruda (1988).

Exhibition

Visiting Artist

Collection

Global

Place

Frank Museum of Art

Provenance

Chile

Subject

Art History/Criticism/Conservation

Recommended Citation

"Nemesio Antunez Biography" (2015). Opening Doors to the World - Te Busco. 2.
https://digitalcommons.otterbein.edu/tebusco/2

Keywords

Nemesio Antúnez, Te Busco, Otterbein University, Frank Museum of Art, Chile