Art and industrial exhibits and national exhibits as forerunners of the colombian national artists’ salon

The first Colombian Artists’ Salon (1931) is commonlyconsidered as the only antecedent to the official NationalArtists’ Salon founded in 1940. Nevertheless, annualnational exhibitions where held between 1904 and 1931,that should be considered as forerunners. The inquiryinto the general conditions that embodied those exhibits,in contrast with the institutional definition of an artsalon (provided by the 18th century French Academy),allows the author to provide new antecedents for theNational Salon and a better understanding of Colombianart during the first decades of the 20th century.El Primer Salón de Artistas Colombianos de 1931 es tomado como el único antecedente del Salón Nacional de Artistas fundado en 1940. Sin embargo, entre 1904 y 1931 se realizaron exposiciones nacionales anuales que deben ser consideradas como antecedentes. La indagación de las condiciones generales que propiciaron tales exposiciones, en contraste con la definición institucional de salón originada en Francia en el siglo XVIII, permite establecer los antecedentes del Salón Nacionaly, de paso, comprender mejor el arte colombiano de lasprimeras décadas del siglo XX