“The artists had a racial bias”

The Chilean Miguel Gaete wanted to carry out a “challenging vision” in an award-winning book that deals with German romanticism in Chile.

Doctor in Art History and Doctor in Philosophy, currently residing in England, Gaete was awarded the 2023 Klaus Heyne Prize for the work “Cultural Exchanges and Colonial Legacies in Latin America: German Romanticism in Chile”.

The research was recently published in New York. Until now, Gaete is the only Latin American and the only Chilean to receive this recognition.

The award is considered the most important prize in the world in studies of German Romanticism. This prize is awarded every two years by the University of Frankfurt thanks to the donation of Klaus Heyne, who was a prestigious collector of romantic art.

It consists of 15,000 euros and the organization of a conference on the subject, which will take place in October in Frankfurt. The previous winner was Joanna Raisbeck of Oxford University for research on Karoline von Günderrode, a romance writer.

Origin

Gaete says that the book began as a doctoral research project at the University of York, in the United Kingdom.

“The Art History department at this university is renowned for its research in 19th century art, particularly English Victorian art, and my project aimed to broaden this spectrum by incorporating Germany and Latin America in line with what is now known. called global art history,” he tells The counter.

His interest in the subject originated in Chile about twenty years ago, when he began studying arts pedagogy at the former Pedagogical School.

“Romanticism is generally studied as a topic in art history classes. However, I remember being struck by a painting by Caspar David Friedrich, ‘Capuchin Monk Facing the Sea’. “Almost every scholar I have met who works in this area has done so because of the impact of Friedrich, who is definitely the most iconic figure of German Romanticism.”

From there, Gaete began to investigate different topics related to romanticism, exploring, for example, the cinema of Werner Herzog in Latin America.

Critical scenario

“These investigations were configuring a more critical scenario in which I discovered that through the development of German Romanticism in Chile an alternative history of this movement outside of Europe could be told.”

On the other hand, he adds, art history in Chile has an approach deeply marked by a Eurocentric gaze that is characterized by a flattering and almost heroic tone towards the European artists who arrived in the country.

“My proposal separates itself from this view to propose a challenging review that incorporates elements of postcolonial criticism, issues of race and gender within the analysis of paintings, drawings and engravings,” he explains.

Investigation

His research focuses on five German explorers: Johann Moritz Rugendas, Otto Grashoff, Theodor Ohlsen, Carl Alexander Simon and Rudolph Amandus Philippi.

Each of these artists, explorers and naturalists arrived in Chile at different periods throughout the 19th century, and certainly they all arrived for different reasons, explains Gaete.

Of all of them, Rugendas and Philippi are probably the best known. Rugendas, who was a protégé of Humboldt, is considered the most globe-trotting European artist of the 19th century. His travels throughout the continent are legendary, with stays in Brazil, Mexico, Argentina, and of course Chile, where he lived for almost 11 years.

Philippi arrived in Chile mainly motivated by the German colonization process in the south of the country, which formally began in the mid-19th century.

“While Philippi is not an artist per se but rather a naturalist, his work converges with elements of the sciences and romantic art in many ways, which I explore in the book. Grashoff and Ohlsen are particular cases. Grashoff spent two years in Chile and Ohlsen for ten, mainly in Patagonia at the end of the 19th century. Both portrayed the country’s nature and aboriginal population with a markedly racial bias.

For Gaete, Simon is the most interesting case, “since it represents a unique case in the world.”

“Simon is probably the only German romantic artist to directly undertake colonizing activities. His ties with Chile are strongly linked to German colonization, so much so that he can be considered one of the driving forces of this process. I recently discovered some of his writings in Weimar, including a treatise on colonization that he wrote in 1848, which shed new light on the romantic and racist roots of German colonization in Chile. I am currently working on a second book about Simon thanks to a fund provided by the Gerda Henkel Foundation in Dusseldorf.”

Project development

The author also says that the original research began in 2017 and concluded in 2022, that is, much of the work was developed during the period of the global Covid pandemic.

However, he managed to carry out field work mainly in Germany. During the research I obtained several funds that allowed me to study works and writings in important museums and libraries, for example in Wolfenbüttel, Weimar, Berlin, Frankfurt and Rome.

In Chile he twice visited the Emilio Held Winkler Historical Library and Archive, the National Museum of Fine Arts and the National Historical Museum, which have important works by these artists.

Legacy

When asked about the legacy of this movement, Gaete responds that, in general, romanticism is understood as crucial in the history of art in Chile.

“Until now this period is assumed to be the awakening towards modernity, with new ideas brought to the country by these traveling artists. However, my approach is that there is a denied history that has to do, first, with a racial bias that was always present in these artists, and second, with a broader system of domination in which these artists functioned as agents. of a colonial structure that radiated from Europe,” he comments.

“In this way, I would say that his legacy is under constant scrutiny. Likewise, the validity of the ideas of romanticism is a topic that has many aspects. For example, research groups are studying the global environmental crisis from an eco-critical perspective, which was born with the first romantics and their relationship with nature and modernity. On a more local level, even the so-called Mapuche conflict can be studied from the impact of the ideas of romanticism brought to Chile by artists and colonizers like Simon.”

In fact, a factor that, in his opinion, remains absent from the equation to understand this problem has to do with German immigrants in the south and the colonizing project promoted by the Chilean State in the 19th century in order to “improve the racial capital of the country.”

“The ideas of romanticism are deeply present there,” emphasizes the specialist.

Gaete also comments that although the book was published in English in New York in December of last year, and he has tried to publish it in Chile, until now “it has been a more difficult task than I thought at first.”

“Last year I applied for a Fondart to translate the text into Spanish and publish it in Chile, which unfortunately was not approved. As often happens, I have found a better fit abroad rather than in my own country, which I believe has to do with other priorities that currently affect Chile,” he concludes.