Nitrato do Chile
A long time ago I made a geological fieldtrip to Spain. In an abandoned quarry I came across an old shot-holed metal advertising board for a fertilizer product called ‘Nitrato de Chile.’
I watched the picture with awe and took a photograph (which unfortunately got lost). It showed a horseman, or better the black silhouette of a horseman and his horse plotted against a yellow morning sky (Spanish version: de Chile, Portuguese: do Chile).
It revoked in my mind the legends of the Gauchos, the horsemen who rode into a chilly sunrise with the bitter mate taste in their throats - reflections synonymous of a lost era of simplicity, honor and dignity.
The logo 'Nitrato de Chile' belonged to a company that traded guano fertilizer from Chile on the Iberian Peninsula during the 1920th and 1930th. It was a rough time in Europe, and also in the new world. Impoverished farmers fought to survive. Only by using fertilizers one could squeeze a bit of food, a bit of money from Europe’s starved, depleted farmlands. The nitrate extracted from the guano fowl’s excrements was then the only ray of hope.
I wonder how these pictures were made- I guess probably using two, or three paint/spray moulds. Watching the picture, you can actually perceive it in two different ways: The horseman is either riding toward you, approaching from the left, or turning away from you to the right.
‘Nitrato de Chile’ belonged to a category of Art Deco that maximized impression by a stylistic reduction to the bare essential of artistic expression. The ‘Veterano Osborne’ bull that looms over the plains of Spain is another example for that kind of art.
Needless to say, that the ‘Nitrato de Chile’ picture influenced me a lot, and I kept it in my mind. Finally, and some 25 years later, I made an effort to look the picture up on the web. The one I found gives me the same chill, the same impression of honor, noblesse and masculine virtue I felt in 1978. I love this picture, and made it the logo of my photo page.
How can 'trivial' art inspire that much? Because it links the mind to a period of history, where life was brutal, but certainly less complicated compared to our time? Or is there a deeper, encrypted message in pictures, as some psychologists advocate?
Be it as it may, I collected what I was able to find on the web. Come and have a look at www.flickr.com/photos/matahari, or click the link at the bottom of my page.
The photograph shown above was shot by A. Guet, 1998, in Portugal’s impoverished Alentejo province. I’ve copied for the interested reader a few (mainly Spanish) sites below:
www.tee-usa.com/ele1959.html
www.elve.net/padv/en/agri.htm
www.imaginarymagnitude.net/blog/img/fall04/files/IMG_5.html
www.exordio.com/1939-1945/ paises/Latinoamerica/chile
www.kzgunea.net/images/Boletin/boletin14_en.htm - 28k -
www.soria-goig.com/Biblioteca/autores/au_21.htm - 7k
© 2005 by Franz L Kessler
In Montreal in 1990, while perusing a poster shop I was struck by a print which depicted a caricatured Zorro, smiling heartily and bending back his foil as if to snap it straight.
The poster also depicted in one corner a villainous-looking man with a receding hairline and beady eyes. In another corner a sultry flamenco dancer sits with her legs crossed behind her. In another corner is a silhouette of Zorro on his horse at a full gallop - his cape aflying. There is also a dramatic cartoon of Zorro kissing the dark-haired beauty with a rose behind her ear. All the images on the print were organized like different parts of the story, on an Egyptian movie poster.
And in the upper right-hand corner were the words NITRATO DE CHILE. Like the title of a movie.
I was floored by this poster. It made me want to head straight for the Andes. I couldn't even grasp why it affected me so powerfully. A year later I was in Chile, walking, hitchhiking journeying all over that country. I especially felt drawn to the northern deserts and railhead towns. I was looking for the place that poster in the shop on St. Denis street depicted. My imagination saw dashing horsemen, old Spanish steam locomotives screaming through the desert at night; cases of dynamite and dark plans. And of course beautiful dark ladies with roses in their hair.
I bought the poster, but then became separated from it five or six years ago. I still have a postcard of the print, created by Fernando Vicente. But when I google that name, all I get is hits on a Spanish tennis player. So this article was pretty exciting for me.
Viva Nitrato de Chile
I had just logged out of authorsden, when I came accross the title of your article... and it simply pulled me back in, irresistibly! I have grown with this publicity surrounding me, in true works of art, all over the walls of my country. Here in Portugal, as you may recall, they were set mostly in tiled panels (like the one in your picture)on walls of buildings bordering the main roads, and as we drove through the country we would be offered endless opportunities of enjoying some awesome art displays. Of course, by then I was too young to appreciate the artistic value of these adds in its fullness, but nowadays, when I come accross any of the last chipped samples still remaining of this unique style of publicity, I experience a great thrill. You may enjoy looking up, within the same domain, the old adds of Porto Sandeman and Licor Beirão. I don't know if there are any images of their old tiled adds still available on their websites, but it sure could be an interesting search.
What a great read this was, thank you!
Alexandra*