PINACOTECA - CASA DEL ARTE

This gallery offers the best panorama of the history of Chilean painting. Its collection includes nearly 2,050 paintings and covers the entire recent history of Chile: the colonial period (most of the authors are anonymous), the beginning of the 19th century (with José Gil de Castro, Mauricio Rugendas or even Ernesto Charton, considered as the initiators of Chilean national painting), the precursors of landscape painting (including Ramirez Rosales or Antonio Smith) and the mature period of Chilean painting and whose representatives are Agustín Raya, with his superb Niña del Cántaro, or Subercaseaux or Pedro Lira. A great deal of space is also given to the pictorial movements of the 20th century, an area in which this museum is perhaps the richest in Chile: the 13th generation, the Montparnasse movement, the 28th and 40th generations. Temporary exhibitions allow visitors to get to know Chilean artists of today.

Presencia de América Latina. A huge mural is located in the entrance hall of the university's Casa del Arte, covering an area of 250 m². It is made entirely of special acrylic, a material that stands the test of time, as the mural has never had to be restored. The 1960 earthquake - which devastated southern Chile and its most important cities, including Concepción - was the cause of a vast wave of solidarity from the whole of South America, especially from Mexico, which donated many schools to Chile. The University of Concepción and the mural that adorns it are without doubt the most beautiful symbols of Mexican solidarity. On this occasion, Mexico decided to organize a competition in honour of the muralist Clemente Orozco, the winner of which would create the mural of the University of Concepción. Jorge Gonzales Camarena won the prize and, with the help of three Mexican companions and two Chileans (Eugenio Brito and Albino Etchegarria), he spent almost five months creating this grandiose work. The mural, which illustrates the origins of the South American people, had to be an allegory of the tormented history of this continent, so often relegated to second place, plundered and misunderstood, but whose creative breath and poetic magnetism no one could extinguish. So it was Presencia de América Latina (Presence of Latin America) symbolizing the cultural unity that transcends its peoples.