Julio Escámez

Julio Escámez Carrasco (November 15, 1925 – December 23, 2015) was a Chilean painter, engraver and muralist. His work includes numerous frescoes, oil paintings and engravings (lithography, woodcut and etching)

He also designed scenography and made costumes for various ballet works, and had an outstanding career as a book illustrator from diverse writers, including the poet Pablo Neruda, whom he met personally. he belonged to the school of muralists of Chile.

Once back in Concepción, he worked as a professor of engraving and mural painting at the Academia Vespertina de Concepción. . The following year, the old Enrique Molina Garmendia High School was demolished, and with it his fresco El hombre ante el micro y macrocosmos was destroyed. His murals Historia de la medicina y la farmacia en Chile (History of Medicine and Pharmacy in Chile) and Historia de Lota (History of Lota) were damaged when people without the necessary skills and knowledge tried to restore them.

In Costa Rica, the artist worked from 1974 as a professor at the School of Plastic Arts of the National University of Costa Rica, located in Heredia, in the subjects of Aesthetics and Graphic Techniques. Some of his large-format oil paintings, on the other hand, are influenced by magical realism.

His mural painting is strongly influenced by Mexican muralism, particularly that of David Alfaro Siqueiros and Diego Rivera. In his murals he often criticizes the spiritual crisis generated by industrialization, as well as other conflicts of modern man. An example of this is his mural De principio a fin, located in Chillán. His recurring themes are the sense of identity, respect for the idiosyncrasy and concerns of the people, work rooted in the land and mineral exploitation, as in the case of his mural Historia de Lota, where he depicts the exploitation of coal in the city of Lota.

Individual exhibitions Mural Historia de la medicina y la farmacia en Chile (1957-1958), an example of social realism in the work of Julio Escámez. 1959 - Bharatieja Uitya Bhranau Cultural Institute, New Delhi, India. 1959 - University of Tokyo, Japan. 1969 - Escámez Drawings. National Museum of Fine Arts, Santiago, Chile. 1972 - Mural De principio a fin del Salón de Honor de la Municipalidad de Chillán, Chile. 1978 - El Caballo Verde Art Gallery, Concepción, Chile. 1988 - El Caballo Verde Art Gallery, Concepción, Chile. 1988 - Drawings and Engravings by Julio Escámez. Modern School of Music, Santiago. 1996 - Retrospective of Paintings, Drawings and Engravings. National Museum of Fine Arts, Santiago. 1996 - Engravings at El Caballo Verde Art Gallery, Concepción, Chile. 1997 - Julio Escamez, Paintings. El Caballo Verde Art Gallery, Concepción, Chile. 2001 - The Fronda Florida. Julio Escamez Exhibition. Chilean-North American Institute of Culture. Concepcion. Concepción, Chile. 2007 - Paintings and Drawings. Codelco Cultural Gallery, Santiago, Chile.

Collective exhibitions

1954 - Exhibition Homage to Pablo Neruda. Scenes of Chile. National Museum of Fine Arts, Santiago. 1955 - One Hundred Years of Chilean Painting. Exhibition Hall of the Journalists Circle, Santiago. 1956 - Contemporary Art of Chile. Carnegie International Center, United States. 1960 - Exhibition of Chilean Engravings. Lima Art Museum, Peru. 1963 - First American Biennial of Engraving. Museum of Contemporary Art, Santiago, Chile. 1970 - Collective Exhibition. Concepcion, Chile. 1970 - Contemporary Chilean Engraving. Casa de la Cultura Jalisciense, Jalisco, Mexico. 1971 - Collective Chile-Cuba. Museum of Contemporary Art, University of Chile, Santiago. 1972 - 150 Years of Chilean Painting. Museo Nacional de Bellas Artes, Buenos Aires, Argentina. 1974 - Drawings and Prints of the Museum of Contemporary Art. University of Chile, Santiago. 1976 - Century and a Half of Chilean Painting. Las Condes Cultural Institute, Santiago. 1976 - Museum of Contemporary Art. University of Chile, Santiago. 1988 - Three Centuries of Drawing in Chile, Germán Vergara Donoso Collection of the National Historical Museum. Las Condes Cultural Institute, Santiago, Chile. 1989 - 20th Century Plastic Arts. Municipal Casino of Viña del Mar, Chile. 1990 - Municipal Art Awards. Pontifical Catholic University of Chile, Regional Office Talcahuano, Chile. 1994 - Realisms in Chilean Painting (XX Century). Cultural Institute of Providencia, Santiago. 1995 - Illustrated Book Covers Exhibition, Universidad Mayor Used Book Fair. Santiago, Chile. 2000 - Chile One Hundred Years Visual Arts: First Period (1900 - 1950) Model and Representation. National Museum of Fine Arts, Santiago. 2000 - Chile One Hundred Years Visual Arts: Second Period (1950 - 1973) Between Modernity and Utopia. National Museum of Fine Arts, Santiago.

Works in permanent exhibition

Fonda de fiesta. Oil on canvas, 80×100 cm. National Museum of Fine Arts. Santiago, Chile. Girl from the South (1951). Woodcut, paper, 41×57 cm. Museum of Contemporary Art. University of Chile, Santiago, Chile. Man before the micro and macrocosm. Former Enrique Molina Garmendia High School, Concepción, Chile (destroyed in 1975). Children and sunflowers. Oil on canvas, 152×110 cm. Casa del Arte of the University of Concepción, Chile. History of medicine and pharmacy in Chile (1957-1958). Fresco mural. Maluje Pharmacy, Concepción, Chile. De principio a fin. Mural. Municipality of Chillán, Chile (destroyed in 1974). History of Lota. Mural. Mexico de Lota School, Lota, Chile. National Insurance Institute Building, Costa Rica.

Awards

1956 - Municipal Art Award (Concepción, Chile)