Manuel Ortiz de Zarate

MANUEL ORTIZ DE ZÁRATE (Como, Italy, 1887 - Los Angeles, USA, 1946).
"Cubist Composition".
Oil on wood.
Signed in the upper margin.
Measurements: 59 x 33 cm; 84 x 57 cm (frame).

During his Parisian stage, Manuel Ortiz de Zárate was influenced by the cubism of Picasso and Braque, adopting techniques such as the decomposition of the planes and the fragmentation of forms.

A Chilean painter and member of the Montparnasse Artistic Group, Ortiz de Zárate developed most of his career in Europe and was, together with his brother Julio, one of the most outstanding members of the Chilean pictorial avant-garde during the first third of the 20th century. Son of the composer Eleodoro Ortiz de Zárate, Manuel began his artistic training in Chile with one of the country's best painters, Pedro Lira. He later studied for a short time at the School of Fine Arts in Santiago, but at the age of eighteen he embarked for Europe; after many vicissitudes he settled in Rome, where he obtained a place to study at the Academy of Fine Arts and earned his living as a portrait painter. During the second decade of the new century he took part in the Official Salon of Santiago de Chile, being awarded the third medal in 1911 and the second in 1913 and 1916. In 1923 he was in Chile when, together with his brother Luis, Henriette Petit, Luis Vargas Rosas and José Perotti, among others, he participated in the founding of the Montparnasse Group, thus giving life to the first movement that renewed Chilean painting in tune with the new artistic tendencies of the 20th century. In the 1920s he took up residence in Paris, where his painting became immersed in the language of the avant-garde. Ortiz de Zárate participated during these years in the competitions and exhibitions organized by the various Parisian salons, being distinguished with medals in 1922, 1926, 1927 and 1928. Although he made frequent trips to Chile, he did not leave Paris until the year of his death. He is currently represented in the Museo Nacional de Bellas Artes de Chile, the Pinacoteca de la Universidad de Concepción, the Museo de Arte Contemporáneo de la Universidad de Chile and the Colección Banco Sudamericano in Santiago.