Discourses About Colonial Art and Their Visibility in Nineteenth-Century Chile

Abstract

Throughout the nineteenth century it was possible to appreciate a critical attitude
towards colonial art, which emerged in liberal intellectual contexts seeking to promote an
academic art they considered appropriate within the context of a nascent republican culture.
However, those discourses animating this critical view towards the artistic production under
Spanish rule in Latin America were manifested in spheres including the intellectual and the art
exhibitions fields. This article seeks to examine the forms in which these instances of exhibition,
visualized not only this critical spirit but also the attempts to introduce colonial art within the
larger discourse of art history.