El arte y Francisco Alvarado Abella: Entre la polémica y la crítica

Abstract

The versatile plastic arts José Francisco Alvarado-Abella (1929-2001) is well-known as cultural agent, professor, pioneer in Art Therapy and artistic recycling, and as a serious critic with an exceptional human quality. In this article, we offer a brief contextualization and biography of this Costa Rican artist and what we pretend is to approach two aspects of his humanistic, polemic and productive life. On the one hand, as critic –auto critic person and criticized artist–; on the other hand, as writer, who used to spread knowledge in the newspapers. In his articles, the same as in his teaching daily life, he tries to transcend the destructive critic in order to disqualify it. This work is divided in three parts. The first one, an analysis of Alvarado-Abella’s informative-didactic commentaries in two newspaper columns; an approach to his direct and controversial critic voice, and finally a proposal of his points of view regarding arts, his production and his own work strategies.