Laura Jácome-Orozco
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Laura Jácome Orozco studied Economics at the Universidad del Rosario (B.A.)
and History at the Universidad de los Andes (M.A.) in Bogotá, Colombia. Since
2024 she has been pursuing a PhD in Aesthetics and Art History at the University of São Paulo and
a Cotutelle PhD program with the University of Kassel, supported by a
scholarship from the German Academic Exchange Service (DAAD, Germany). Her
research examines the legitimization of modern art in Colombia between 1950
and 1970.
She has worked as a research assistant on projects related to Colombian social, political and
cultural history and in the archives of Colombian public
radio and television. She is a member of the research group Aesthetic Reception
and Art Criticism (Brazil). Between March and August 2026, she will complete a
research internship at the Lab for Cognitive Research in Art History (CReA), Department
Art History, University of Vienna, supported by a grant from the
Austrian Agency for Education and Internationalization (OeAD).
Her current research project examines the process of legitimizing modern art in
Colombia between 1950 and 1970, focusing on three main aspects: (i) the
exhibitions and competitions organized in different Colombian cities
such as museums, libraries and galleries, and the role of European intellectuals
such as Karl Buchholz and Hans Ungar, owners of galleries and bookstores in
Bogotá, in the dissemination of a modernist taste in art; ii) Colombia's
participation in international events such as the São Paulo Biennial, which highlights the
tensions surrounding modern art both in these global spaces and in the
Colombian art field; iii) the discourse of art critics such as Casimiro Eiger,
Walter Engel and Marta Traba on modern art in the national press. Through the
analysis of these transnational networks, the project aims to shed light on the interplay
of migration, cultural exchange and the institutionalization of modern art in
Colombia in the early decades of the Cold War. This thesis is
written in English.