Smythe, Francisco

He earned a degree in Art from the Faculty of Fine Arts at the University of Chile, where he served as a Painting and Drawing Instructor from 1974 to 1981. Starting in 1978, he received various Art Scholarships, including the Italian Government Scholarship and the Italo-Latin American Institute Scholarship in Rome, Italy, which led him to settle in Florence for several years. Among his most important exhibitions was his first retrospective titled “Smythe: 56 Graphic Works” at the Compañía de Teléfonos Art Gallery, his participation in the 1986 Venice Biennale in Italy, and the V American Biennale at the La Tertulia Museum of Modern Art in Cali, Colombia. He was also present at the III International Contemporary Art Fair in Milan and the V Biennale of Contemporary Sacred Art. In 1991, he participated in the Cuenca Biennale (Ecuador). In 1992, he had a retrospective at the National Museum of Fine Arts in Santiago, titled “Francisco J. Smythe: Twenty Years of Creativity,” for which he received the National Critics' Award. Between 1996 and 1997, he actively worked on one of his last major works: “Milky Way,” the mural at the Baquedano Metro Station. In 1998, shortly before his death, he held his final retrospective exhibition titled “Smythe: Travel Diary IV. The 90s” in the CTC building.