Untitled, 1985
Oil pastel on paper under glass
Unsigned
Sheet: 27.25" H x 20.75" W

Provenance: Galeria Epoca, Santiago, Chile
The Carolyn J. Adrian Collection, South Pasadena, CA, acquired from the above in 1987

Notes: This lot is accompanied by a Certificate of Authenticity prepared by Lily Lanz, Director of Galeria Epoca, Santiago, Chile, dated April 2, 1987.

Carmen Aldunate , painter, illustrator and draftsman, born in Vina del Mar in 1940, began studies at the Facultad de Arte de la Pontificia Universidad Catolica de Chile and later at the Facultad de Artes de la Universidad de Chile. She later served as an assistant in the Art Department at the University of California. Aldunate belongs to a group of artists gravitating towards New Figuration (nueva Figuracion), an art that embraces figuration while making it unpredictable, whimsical and imaginary. The artist works primarily with oils on canvas and wood panel, and has also been known to use graphite and collage. With these techniques, she has developed a theme that focuses primarily on the female form. The representation of women in her work is achieved through a rationally controlled design, with a perfect balance of painting, reminiscent of Flemish art of the fifteenth century. Carmen Aldunate precisely recovers the aesthetic canons that once defined classical beauty. In her work, the faces of her subjects take the appearance of masks. With this, the painter means to symbolize the whole human being, in essence, never "show his/her true face" and instead lives day to day by using different facades. The use of a dark color harmony accentuates the poignancy of these images. Among other accolades the artist received the 1962 First Prize for Painting at the art fair in Santiago, First Prize for Drawing at the official Salon of Santiago in 1974 and the following year, the First Prize for Drawing at the Biennale of Valparaiso in 1978, the First Prize at the Biennale in Punta del Este, Uruguay and '81, First Prize Drawing Biennale de Cali, Colombia. She has had solo exhibitions in the Central Gallery of Santiago in 1963, in Belmonte Art Gallery in Sacramento, CA in 1964 and the University of California '69; in Gallery Lima, Peru in 1977, and in 1981 held an exhibition entitled "Ten Years of Painting Aldunate Carmen" at the National Museum of Fine Arts in Santiago. In 1984 she exhibited at Contemporary Art Center, Pereira, Colombia. During 1997, the show "Sins and Virtues" was featured in Valparaiso, Valdivia and Puerto Montt. Several of her paintings have been acquired by the Museum of Fine Arts and the Museum of Contemporary Art. She has also illustrated books like "Don Quixote de la Mancha" and "Alice in Wonderland"

Good condition. Framed floating and hinged to the back mat.

Frame: 37.5" H x 31" W x 1.75" D