ABSTRACT
Chilean artist José Venturelli (1925–88) first arrived in Beijing in 1952 as a delegate of the Asia-Pacific Peace Conference. From 1953 he served as deputy secretary general of this organization and was stationed in Beijing. He was also offered a studio and teaching opportunity at the Central Academy of Fine Arts. Living in Beijing for almost a decade, Venturelli acted as a de facto cultural ambassador of Latin America to the PRC.
Venturelli also experienced the early years of the Cuban Revolution, frequently visiting Havana from 1960 to 1966. While in Cuba, Venturelli was commissioned by Che Guevara to create a large-scale mural “Camilo Cienfuegos,” commemorating the revolutionary leader killed in a plane crash in 1959. Back in Beijing, Venturelli held an exhibition in November 1962 showing drawings and photos of this mural. The show was a great success and exerted a tremendous influence on Chinese art in subsequent years.
This chapter will examine how this mural connected Latin America with China and introduced a new kind of revolutionary spirit and a modernist approach to Chinese artists. This amazing story provides a compelling example of a transcultural dialogue that had a significant impact on the subsequent development of Chinese art.
