Villela Balderrama, Marisol
(2024)
José Venturelli’s Revolutionary Art: Murals and Prints in Chile, China, East Germany, and Cuba, 1938–1964.
Doctoral Dissertation, University of Pittsburgh.
(Unpublished)
Abstract
Politically-committed Chilean artist José Venturelli Eade (1924–1988) developed his transpacific artistic practice between Latin America and the Caribbean, Asia, and Europe. This dissertation follows his largely unknown trajectory during his years as a communist militant artist, from 1938 to 1964. It focuses on the prints and murals he created, exhibited, and reproduced in Chile, Brazil, Mexico, East Germany, the People’s Republic of China (PRC), the Soviet Union, and Cuba. It argues that by 1964 Venturelli was a global modern artist working outside the market-dominated artistic centers of Western Europe and the United Sates. Instead, he operated within pro-communist and socialist international networks and his artistic and political activities contributed to the insertion of Latin America in the early shaping of the political project later known as the Third World. From an early age in Chile, he was part of the Latin American anti-fascist and communist intelligentsia, becoming acclaimed Chilean poet Pablo Neruda’s closest visual artist collaborator and befriending Mexican muralist David Alfaro Siqueiros. After traveling aboard and establishing his identity as a Latin American muralist aligned with modern Mexican muralism, Venturelli traveled to Europe, where he joined the World Peace Council (WPC) in East Berlin in 1951. Shortly, thereafter, he moved to Beijing as a Permanent Guest and WPC Latin American Delegate. Venturelli’s art was transformed by his contact with Chinese artistic traditions, and he became the main cultural liaison between the PRC and Latin America. He continued to strengthen these South-South connections—including cross-promoting Chinese and Latin American art transnationally —when he relocated to Havana in the early 1960s. Here, he collaborated with Cuba’s new revolutionary government and received large-scale mural commissions that extolled the Sierra Maestra guerrilla leaders and Latin American Revolutions, promoted the International Solidarity movement, and emphasized socialist and ecological concerns. Highlighting the impact of the Sino-Soviet Split in Latin America, especially in the arts, Venturelli was expelled from the Chilean Communist Party in 1964 and was forced to depart Cuba due to his strong connection with the PRC, driving him to find other means to continue his artistic and political interventions internationally.
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Details
| Item Type: |
University of Pittsburgh ETD
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| Status: |
Unpublished |
| Creators/Authors: |
| Creators | Email | Pitt Username | ORCID  |
|---|
| Villela Balderrama, Marisol | mav124@pitt.edu | mav124 | |
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| ETD Committee: |
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| Date: |
27 August 2024 |
| Date Type: |
Publication |
| Defense Date: |
25 April 2024 |
| Approval Date: |
27 August 2024 |
| Submission Date: |
10 August 2024 |
| Access Restriction: |
2 year -- Restrict access to University of Pittsburgh for a period of 2 years. |
| Number of Pages: |
204 |
| Institution: |
University of Pittsburgh |
| Schools and Programs: |
Dietrich School of Arts and Sciences > History of Art and Architecture |
| Degree: |
PhD - Doctor of Philosophy |
| Thesis Type: |
Doctoral Dissertation |
| Refereed: |
Yes |
| Uncontrolled Keywords: |
Muralism, printmaking, Latin America, Chile, China, East Germany, Cuba, Transpacific, Communism, Socialism, Revolution, Third World, World Peace Council |
| Date Deposited: |
27 Aug 2024 13:01 |
| Last Modified: |
27 Aug 2024 13:01 |
| URI: |
http://d-scholarship.pitt.edu/id/eprint/46911 |
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