collection of plastic individualities led by the Nicaraguan
Arte Costarricense (MAC) exerted its official leadership
artist Alberto Icaza during a five-year period
from the Galerfa Nacional de Arte Contemporaneo, also
The SO's
contemporary samples that impacted the local artistic
known as GANAC, opened in 1983 There, high-quality In the transition from the 70's to the 80's, the scene
milieu
changed dramatically The development model, based
Chacon's curatorship.
of that decade were exhibited,
under Luis
on the substitution of imports, protectionism towards an
At this gallery the Neoexpresionismo Aleman exhibit,
inefficient industry and subsidized agriculture, and the
organized by the Sprengel Museum of Hanover and the
model of a restricted common market reached their limit
MAC in 1984, became a landmark upon promoting some
of possibilities. A grand-scale discussion over a change
years later in 1992, the ambitious Kunst aus Costa Rica
in the development model began This coincided with
exhibit, which traveled through several German cities
the international foreign-debt crisis, which had very
and analyzed how the German expressionism influenced
severe characteristics in Costa Rica, plus the onset of
the Costa Rican visual arts.
the Central American conflict. Even though the country
In the private sector the Lachner & Saenz Corporation
remained relatively isolated from this phenomenon, it
set another landmark by creating the Bienal de Pintura
marked the international environment severely.
L & S in 1984 and developing an art collection with an
The collapse of the development model, the economic
emphasis on emerging artists. There was competition,
crisis
painting prevailed, and the references were mainly
which
administration traditional
worsened
with
( 1978-82)
political
the
groups
the
Rodrigo
Carazo
problems within the
figurative.
and
From the creators' side of the street, a group of artists
the
challenge
represented by the regional conflict were outstanding
came together in 1988 under the name of Bocaraca
during that decade.
Without
aesthetic
ideologies
creeds
or
political
Around the middle of it, a new development model,
ideologies, as it was customary in the past (the Grupo
having a more open market and a reduction in the
Ocho and the
Grupo Taller) these "promises of the
State's role, started to be forged This was reflected in
decade" made a strategic alliance, created a mark and
the cultural sector which since 1970 with the creation of
embarked
themselves
into
conquering
outside
the Ministry of Culture, Youth and Sports, had been
legitimacy.
strongly subsidized, but in the following decade had to
They were pragmatic as a group they would be able to
face a more unfavorable reality in the wake of a State
have more representative force on the outside It was
and a country impoverished by the economic crisis.
necessary to explore the international circuit of galleries
President Oscar Arias set the main point of inflection
and
towards the new decade, that of the 90's, with his
modify the image of a country whose plastic market was
museums -having
the official
approval-
and
and
limited, scarce and anonymous. Pedro Arrieta, Luis
reconciliation of the area, and a relative success in the
Chacon, Leonel Gonzalez, Miguel Hernandez, Fabio
successful
initiatives
for
the
pacification
handling of the foreign debt.
Herrera, Roberto Lizano, Mario Maffioli, Ana Isabel
The visual arts scene looked promising The Museo de
Marten, Jose Miguel 341
Rojas, Ott6n Solis and