Retrato de Pablo Neruda

Artist name

Artist year born

1905

Artist year deceased

1991

Artwork title translation

Portrait of Pablo Neruda

Artwork material

woodcut
paper

Artwork dimensions

height: 18cm
width: 14cm

Artwork type (categories)

Print

Accession method

On loan from Ruby Reid Thompson

Accession number

23-2001

Label text

Carolos Hermosilla was an influential printer and poet based around Valparaíso. Retrato de Pablo Neruda is a sombre portrayal of Chilean Nobel Prize winning poet, Pablo Neruda, who was a friend of the artist. Neruda was a committed communist and this woodcut was among a series of portraits of leftwing icons, including Bertold Brecht and Che Guevara, which Hermosilla made in 1973. This was the year of Neruda’s death from cancer, which occurred just days after the US-backed military coup in which the army violently overthrew the democratically elected socialist government of Salvador Allende, with whom Neruda had collaborated closely.

(Display caption from the exhibition <i>Southern Press: Prints from Brazil, Paraguay and Chile</i>, firstsite, 2011-2012)
Ian Dudley

Last updated date

2011