Carlos Isamitt

Carlos Isamitt Alarcón (March 13, 1887 – July 6, 1974) was a Chilean painter and composer. He received the National Prize of Art of Chile in 1965.

Career In 1927 Isamitt was appointed professor at the School of Fine Arts at the University of Chile. He modified curriculum to create coherence in musical education from preschool to higher education.

Painter As a painter, Isamitt shared many traits with the "Generación del 13" though he was less prone to subtlety. His obituary in El Mercurio explains "Sometimes, as in the Lebu landscape, the forms convulse and the brush seems to place color in fleeting, stark, and uncompromising ways." He travelled regularly. He began research in Tierra del Fuego, then went to the Chiloé Archipelago. He carried out much of his research in the 1930s in the Araucanía Region. When he became an academic at the Institute of Musical Research in the 1940s his research was focused on the south-central part of the country.

He is especially known for his research working with the Mapuche people. His studies are some of the most comprehensive in regard to traditions, repertoires, and musical instruments. He was considered a leader in the "indianismo musical" movement.

Isamitt was labeled an "indigenist" which was notable as interest in ethnicity was not common in Chile. His perspectives led to his desire to make Mapuche culture part of the nation. Isamitt's approach, using ethnographic notes, drawings, watercolors, and musical scores, was not the usual scientific route of the time. He brought together the aesthetic and humanistic elements that other researchers missed.

Awards In 1917 he received First Medal in the Official Salon with his painting Sunrise on Lake Llanquihue. In 1933 his composition Friso Araucano won First Prize at the composition competition at the University of Chile. In 1965 he became a permanent member of the Chilean Academy of Fine Arts. In 1967 he received the gold medal from the Institute of Musical Research at the University of Chile.