Carlos Sotomayor

Carlos Sotomayor (1911–1988) was a Chilean painter, born in La Serena, Chile. He is considered to be one of the principal exponents of the cubism from South America.

His father, Carlos Sotomayor Caceres was a Civil Engineer who worked for the Chilean Railway Company (Empresa de los Ferrocarriles del Estado), married to Julia Roman Morales. They had 5 children: Carlos, Julio (poet), Lucia, Ines (agronomist) and Elena.

In his teenage years Carlos Sotomayor met the painter and sculptor Laura Rodig, who had just come back from Europe and worked with her, putting up an exhibition together with Pedro Olmos.

He studied at the Instituto Nacional in Santiago and in 1931 he studied at the School of Architecture of the Universidad de Chile. However, in 1932 he opted to study at the Fine Arts College of the same university instead. Some of his teachers were Jorge Caballero, Herman Gazmuri and Augusto Eguiluz.

His first formal exhibition took place in September 1933 at the Libreria Walton, a centre of cultural events. This event was sponsored and introduced by the poet Vicente Huidobro, with whom Carlos Sotomayor shared a close friendship.

In 1934 Sotomayor joined the Grupo Decembrista, together with Maria Valencia, Gabriela Rivanedeira, Jaime Dvar and Waldo Parraguez. This group of neocubist artists was led by Vicente Huidobro. Two years later, Carlos Sotomayor married Franka Serka Jurac, fellow student at the Fine Arts College.

In 1937 he joined the Grupo Rectangulo de Arte Moderno, encouraged by the artist Vergara Grez. He exhibited at the Alianza de Intelectuales de Chile together with Maria Valencia, Waldo Parraguez and Haroldo Donoso.

In August 1944 he exhibited 20 paintings at the Sala del Ministerio de Educacion. In the catalogue there were articles and poems by the poets Eduardo Anguita and Julio Molina. The critic Antonio Romera wrote a very complimentary review in the press.

In 1946 Sotomayor exhibited several oil paintings and drawings at the Sala del Ministerio de Educacion. The writer Andres Sabella wrote an article about it.

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