“Pecados y Virtudes” series

The series

The “Pecados y Virtudes” [Sins and Virtues] series from 1993 is made up of fourteen lithographs with watercolour highlights in which the Chilean artist represents the seven deadly sins – pride, greed, lust, wrath, gluttony, envy and sloth – along with their opposing virtues – humility, kindness, chastity, patience, temperance, charity and diligence. In them we see her characteristic female figures dressed in voluminous robes, tunics and coifs, transporting us to medieval times.

The predominance of line and rationalised drawing, along with the composition and use of vanishing points consciously reminds us of Flemish painting. Aldunate thereby tries to retrieve the canons of beauty that once defined classical beauty. Alongside this, the use of colour in her work gives it the appearance of enigmatic atmospheres and psychological states that we see in these lithographs.

In contrast with the subtlety and delicacy of colour and line, she represents severe and harsh faces which appear masklike, and the clothing turns into a kind of armour that hides the human being that resides underneath.

Aldunate’s work, with an amiable presence but critical content, uses sarcasm and humour to denounce the oppression of the female sex that suffers and has suffered for centuries. She therefore depicts female figures with idealised faces and forms under elegant and flowing clothing, in reference to the demanding and irrational canons of beauty to which women have been subjected throughout history.

The exploration of individual psychology and states of the soul are also a recurring theme in her work. This series, “Pecados y Virtudes”, precisely reflects on the power of religion and the dominance of society, and of the role of women within it.

Silvia Sánchez Ruiz
Curator