{{Short description|Chilean painter (1920–2022)}} {{Use dmy dates|date=April 2026}} {{Infobox artist | name = Ximena Cristi | image = Ximena Cristi en Pro Arte.png | alt= A portrait of Ximena Cristi and a painting of a lamp | caption = Cristi and her work, as featured in ''Revista Pro Arte'' in 1954. | birth_name = Lucía Ximena Cristi Moreno | birth_date = 13 December 1920 | birth_place = Rancagua, Chile | death_date = 21 July 2022 | death_place = Santiago, Chile | occupation = {{hlist|Painter|educator|Professor}} | education = University of Chile, 1945 <br/> Accademia di Belle Arti di Roma, 1952 | spouse = {{marriage|Abraham Freifeld| |2011|end=d}} | children = 2 }} '''Lucía Ximena Cristi Moreno''' (13 December 1920 – 21 July 2022) was a Chilean painter, educator and professor.<ref name="AVC">{{cite web |title=Ximena Cristi |url=https://www.artistasvisualeschilenos.cl/658/w3-article-40220.html |website=Artistas Visuales Chilenos |publisher=Chilean National Museum of Fine Arts |access-date=6 April 2026 |location=Santiago, Chile |language=es}}</ref> A representative of the Chilean ''Generation of '40'' ({{langx|es|Generación del Cuarenta}}), Moreno was a co-founder of the ''Group of Five'' ({{langx|es|Grupo de los cinco}}).<ref name="AVC"/>
== Biography == Cristi was born on 13 December 1920 in Rancagua.<ref name="AVC"/> For six years beginning in 1939 she studied at the Arts Faculty at the University of Chile, majoring in painting and graduating with a bachelor's in visual arts.<ref name="AVC"/> While at the university she studied under the painter Jorge Caballero, who influenced her artistic development.<ref name=":3">{{Cite web |title=Vida de Ximena Cristi |url=http://www.portaldearte.cl/autores/cristi1.htm |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170309170637/http://www.portaldearte.cl/autores/cristi1.htm |archive-date=2017-03-09 |website=Portal del Arte |language=es}}</ref>
Cristi became part of the "generación de 1940" ("generation of 1940"), an artistic movement in Chile that also included Francisco Otta, {{Interlanguage link|Israel Roa|es}}, Aída Poblete, Ernesto Barreda, and Carlos Pedraza. This group, which was influenced by the likes of Pablo Burchard, Camilo Mori, and Luis Oyarzún, practiced a style similar to fauvism.<ref>{{Cite web |title=Generación del 40 |url=https://www.artistasvisualeschilenos.cl/658/w3-article-45592.html |access-date=2022-12-08 |website=Artistas Visuales Chilenos |language=es}}</ref>
Later on, thanks to a scholarship from the Italian government, Cristi traveled to Italy to study at the Accademia di Belle Arti di Roma from 1948 to 1952.<ref name=":2">{{Cite journal |last=Dominguez |first=M. Teresa |date=2012-10-12 |title=Ximena Cristi, pintora |url=http://www.bibliotecanacionaldigital.gob.cl/colecciones/MNBA/00/BA000093482/ximena_cristi_pintora_2012.pdf |journal=Hacer Familia |language=es |volume=31}}</ref>
In 1953, she joined with Matilde Pérez, Aída Poblete, Sergio Montecinos, and Ramón Vergara to form the "Grupo de los cinco" ("Group of Five"). This group, which stemmed from a joint exhibition that the artists staged at the Chilean-French Cultural Institute, reflected an inconformity with the traditional mediums of pictorial representation. They dedicated themselves to experimenting with new ways of artistic creativity.<ref>{{Cite web |title=Grupo de los Cinco |url=https://www.artistasvisualeschilenos.cl/658/w3-article-45594.html |access-date=2022-12-08 |website=Artistas Visuales Chilenos |language=es}}</ref> While they did not all work in a cohesive style, the five artists shared similar ideas about the reality of the painting, which they saw as corresponding to a balance of forms rather than to visual reality.<ref name=":3" />
She was also a member of the Rectangle Group ({{langx|es|Grupo Rectángulo}}) alongside Gustavo Poblete, {{Interlanguage link|Ramón Vergara Grez|es}}, Matilde Pérez, Elsa Bolívar, Maruja Pinedo, and Uwe Grumann.<ref>{{cite web |title=Grupo Rectángulo |url=https://www.artistasvisualeschilenos.cl/658/w3-article-45595.html |website=Artistas Visuales Chilenos |publisher=Chilean National Museum of Fine Arts |access-date=2 April 2026 |location=Santiago, Chile |language=es}}</ref> The group's members based their work on geometric and abstract forms, and they maintained that "art is an art of ideas."<ref>{{Cite web |title=Grupo Rectángulo |url=http://www.memoriachilena.gob.cl/602/w3-article-95997.html |access-date=2022-12-08 |website=Memoria Chilena, Biblioteca Nacional de Chile |language=es}}</ref>
Cristi also taught art, including as a professor of painting at her alma mater, the University of Chile, from 1960 to 1982.<ref name="AVC"/>
In 2020, to mark her 100th birthday, the Chilean undersecretary of culture and art launched a project to research and study the work of Ximena Cristi, which culminated in the publication of a book titled ''Catálogo de obra razonada'' ("Catalog of Reasoned Work") in 2022.<ref>{{Cite web |date=2022-01-26 |title=Ximena Cristi: Catálogo de obra razonada |url=https://www.cultura.gob.cl/publicaciones/ximena-cristi-catalogo/ |access-date=2022-12-08 |website=Ministerio de las Culturas, las Artes y el Patrimonio |language=es}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |date=2022-01-25 |title=Los 100 años de Ximena Cristi: publican libro que recopila su trabajo |url=https://www.latercera.com/culto/2022/01/25/los-100-anos-de-ximena-cristi-publican-libro-que-recopila-su-trabajo/ |access-date=2022-12-08 |website=La Tercera}}</ref>
== Work == According to Cristi, her inspiration always came from nature: "If I have a still life, a chair, an object, or a tree, it's very objective, very real, born from there."<ref>{{Cite web |date=2011-07-13 |title=Entrevista a Ximena Cristi: "Mi talento innato es la sensibilidad del color". |url=http://www.plumaypincel.cl/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=637:entrevista-a-ximena-cristi-qmi-talento-innato-es-la-sensibilidad-del-colorq&catid=39:debate |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20111109233309/http://www.plumaypincel.cl/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=637:entrevista-a-ximena-cristi-qmi-talento-innato-es-la-sensibilidad-del-colorq&catid=39:debate |archive-date=2011-11-09 |website=Pluma Y Pincel |language=es}}</ref> While she applied her personal vision to her paintings, she acknowledged that she never painted from her imagination, always using something objective as her guide. Her work is primarily based on interiors, gardens, still lives, and human figures.<ref>{{Cite web |title=Trayectoria de Ximena Cristi |url=http://www.portaldearte.cl/autores/cristi2.htm |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170309170641/http://www.portaldearte.cl/autores/cristi2.htm |archive-date=2017-03-09 |website=Portal del Arte |language=es}}</ref> Some of her signature works can be found at the Chilean National Museum of Fine Arts, including ''Jugadores de rugby'', ''El árbol del jardín'', and ''Sillón de espaldas''.<ref>{{Cite web |date=2020-12-18 |title=MNBA celebra el centenario de Ximena Cristi |url=https://www.mnba.gob.cl/noticias/mnba-celebra-el-centenario-de-ximena-cristi |access-date=2022-12-08 |website=Museo Nacional de Bellas Artes |language=es}}</ref> Other works are featured at the Casa del Arte, {{Interlanguage link|Museum of Visual Arts (Chile)|lt=Museum of Visual Arts|es|Museo de Artes Visuales}}, and various other museums and private collections.<ref name="AVC"/>
Among more than a dozen awards received throughout her career are, notably, the Altazor Award in 2011<ref>{{Cite web |date=2011-06-03 |title=La artista Ximena Cristi recibió el premio Altazor 2011 |url=https://www.uchile.cl/noticias/72390/la-artista-ximena-cristi-recibio-el-premio-altazor-2011 |access-date=2022-12-08 |website=Universidad de Chile}}</ref> and the Pablo Neruda Order of Artistic and Cultural Merit in 2022.<ref>{{Cite web |last=Silva |first=Marcelo |date=2022-01-25 |title=Ministerio de las Culturas entrega reconocimiento a Ximena Cristi por su destacada trayectoria en las artes visuales |url=https://www.emol.com/noticias/Espectaculos/2022/01/25/1044931/ministerio-culturas-reconocimiento-ximena-cristi.html |access-date=2022-12-08 |website=Emol |language=Spanish}}</ref>
==Personal life== Cristi was married to Abraham Freifeld, a Chilean-Romanian sculptor, professor and engineer.<ref name="Poblete">{{cite news |last1=Poblete Krug |first1=Silvia |title=Ximena Cristi, premio de la crítica: "Hay que estar atento a estar vivo" |url=https://www.bibliotecanacionaldigital.gob.cl/colecciones/MNBA/00/BA000093482/hay_que_estar_atento_a_estar_vivo.pdf |access-date=6 April 2026 |work=El Sur |date=26 December 1981 |location=Concepción, Chile |language=es}}</ref><ref>{{cite web |title=Abraham Freifeld |url=https://www.artistasvisualeschilenos.cl/658/w3-article-40248.html#biografia |website=Artistas Visuales Chilenos |publisher=Chilean National Museum of Fine Arts |access-date=6 April 2026 |location=Santiago, Chile |language=es}}</ref> Cristi and Freifeld had two sons.<ref name="Poblete"/>
On 21 July 2022 Cristi died in Santiago, aged 101.<ref name="AVC"/><ref name=":1">{{Cite web |last=Opazo |date=2022-07-22 |title=Luto en las artes visuales: A los 101 años partió Ximena Cristi, destacada pintora chilena |url=https://www.elciudadano.com/artes/luto-en-las-artes-visuales-a-los-101-anos-partio-ximena-cristi-destacada-pintora-chilena/07/21/ |access-date=2022-12-08 |website=El Ciudadano |language=es}}</ref>
== References == {{Reflist}}
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{{DEFAULTSORT:Cristi, Ximena}} Category:1920 births Category:2022 deaths Category:Post-impressionist painters Category:Expressionist painters Category:People from Rancagua Category:Chilean women centenarians Category:University of Chile alumni Category:Academic staff of the University of Chile Category:20th-century Chilean painters Category:20th-century Chilean women painters Category:Chilean educators