H-ART. Revista de historia, teoría y crítica de arte

hart. Rev. Hist. Teor. Crit. Arte | eISSN 2590-9126 | ISSN 2539-2263

The Art of Counterpoint and Paradox: Artistic Images by Juan Fernando Herrán, Juan Manuel Echavarría, Clemencia Echeverri, Óscar Muñoz, and Doris Salcedo as Contemporary Poetic-Political Mementos

No. 19 (2025-01-29)
  • María Margarita Malagón-Kurka
    Investigadora independiente
    ORCID iD: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-5825-073X
https://doi.org/10.25025/hart19.2025.02

Abstract

This article investigates the fact that alongside their concerns with understanding and confronting traumatic situations in their geographical and historical environments, Juan Fernando Herrán, Juan Manuel Echavarría, Clemencia Echeverri, Óscar Muñoz, and Doris Salcedo coincide in alluding in their works to existential and symbolic dimensions linked to vital and natural cycles. These dimensions suggest significant connections with works and theoretical approaches of previous centuries of the Western tradition, in which special emphasis was placed on the finite conditions of human existence. Such an emphasis simultaneously allowed for an awareness of inexorable aspects of the destiny of every living being and of the possible agency that each being can enjoy during his or her existence.

Keywords: Contemporary Colombian art, Juan Fernando Herrán, Juan Manuel Echavarría, Clemencia Echeverri, Óscar Muñoz, Doris Salcedo, counterpoint, paradox, memento, artistic images, art and politics, secular transcendence

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