Macula and Touching the Fiber

Printmaking has played an important role in the development of art since its beginnings, when the earliest humans made incisions in various materials to create motifs and images. In China, with the invention of paper, woodblock printing also developed, and in other parts of the world different types of image transfer emerged. In our own territory, Indigenous communities used stamps and ceramic rollers to print designs on their textiles.  

MACULA
Graphic Work in the MAC Collection

Printmaking has played an important role in the development of art since its beginnings, when the earliest humans made incisions in various materials to create motifs and images. In China, with the invention of paper, woodblock printing also developed, and in other parts of the world different types of image transfer emerged. In our own territory, Indigenous communities used stamps and ceramic rollers to print designs on their textiles.  

In contemporary times, graphic work is essential for artists; its continued relevance is due to its reproducibility across a variety of techniques and materials, with aesthetic value and easy accessibility.  

Artists came together to found workshops driven by creation, research, and experimentation. In these creative hotbeds, different sectors of society mobilized in support of art and culture and, on other occasions, politics and education; thanks to the multiple copy, it was possible to reach a broader public.

Photography largely defined the development of graphic art, and with it, new experiments unleashed an unprecedented creative explosion after the second half of the 20th century. Graphic art fulfills communicative purposes and, in some settings, has propagandistic aims, since it moves thoughts and ideologies of every kind.

A good example of the importance of printmaking was set by the Papel Periódico Ilustrado through its journalistic work. The rise of training spaces promoted by artists such as Luis Ángel Rengifo, Augusto Rendón, and Umberto Giangrandi, collectives such as Taller 4 Rojo and Taller Arte 2 Gráfico, and events such as the Bienal de Artes Gráficas in Cali — through these initiatives, national graphic art was consolidated.

The graphic work in the MAC's permanent collection has been enriched year after year with pieces that enhance the curatorial projects and encourage the production of emerging art.

We highlight the importance of the donations made by artists and foundations, which has made it possible to build up a wide variety of works that have contributed to exhibitions centered on graphic art, in events such as "La Primera Bienal Internacional de Arte Joven" [The First International Biennial of Young Art] in 1970, the founding event of the MAC's new building, "Talleres de Grabado de Bogotá" [Bogotá Printmaking Workshops] in 1984, "El Poder de la Imagen" [The Power of the Image] in 2010, or "El Riesgo de Ser" [The Risk of Being] in 2014.

Thanks to these exhibition events, the MAC's collection shows technical experimentation and the treatment of imagery across diverse subjects. The use of color or monochrome printing with techniques such as screen printing or photoengraving reflects an interest in both the documentary and the aesthetic; in these and other traditional techniques, themes such as politics, memory, identity, territory, and landscape stand out, through figurative representation or abstraction.

In this curatorial project, the expressive forms of contemporary graphic art stand out, along with the artistic value of the multiple work, in which one perceives the artists' creative and technical processes — a testimonial source of the stylistic, technical, and thematic diversity of our collection.

Macula is the mark left by the matrix on the paper; it is the result of a long process of trial and error through which the work is developed, where the value of the artist's proof is significant and gives conceptual shape to the curatorial project. Once on view, the viewer develops a closer relationship with the work and with the set of pieces exhibited. The exhibition seeks to leave an indelible mark on the public by activating emotions, thoughts, memories, and meaningful reflections.

Sebastián Jiménez Cortés
Curator of the MAC

TOUCHING THE FIBER

Homage to Nirma Zárate

Those of us who personally knew Maestra Nirma Zárate, her students from the screen-printing workshop at the Universidad Nacional, remember her as a dynamic teacher, open to sharing her knowledge, dedicated to researching and experimenting in pursuit of an ever more forceful and committed visual language.

From those turbulent 1980s, in the midst of the Security Statute, what remains with us is Maestra Nirma's imprint — her rigor, her methodology, her love of things done well, instilling in us discipline in doing, thinking, and acting.

Twenty-five years have passed since her departure, time that has allowed us to deepen our understanding of, and give thanks for, her legacy, found in the Museo de Arte Contemporáneo's permanent collection and in the archive carefully preserved by Armando Chicangana, her student and collaborator at the Zepia paper workshop, which occupied the final stage of her life.

The natural fibers on which she focused her research for creating paper pulp are likewise a metaphor for the intense weave that was her life, and for how we feel connected to her through the different roles we have had to play in our own artistic practice. We do not hesitate to say that Maestra Nirma Zárate touched our fiber and made us resonate with that harmony which gives culture its social meaning.

Gustavo A. Ortiz Serrano

Director of the MAC