Mestizophilia and Nationalism. The Art Writing of Mariano Picón Salas

Abstract

Mariano Picón Salas (Mérida, 1901 - Caracas, 1965) was a Venezuelan intellectual of deep Americanist convictions and author of an outstanding work for the history of Latin American essay writing in the 20th century. Art and regional literature occupied a relevant place in his work, both disciplines in which he made significant contributions at a time when they were defining their contours and objects. This article deals with aesthetic thought and art writing in Picón Salas, less explored than other aspects of his work, focusing on the Chilean stage of his intellectual life (between 1923 and 1936), where he germinates an aesthetic thought and produces a corpus of essays in which the concepts of mestizaje, nationalism and artistic experience are central. It is also argued that this thought on art is closely linked to an institutional and political trajectory that must be included in the analysis, specifically within the University of Chile. That is why, in order to examine his writing on art, his work will be analyzed using tools of intellectual, institutional and cultural history.