Background

Camilo Egas was born in 1889 in Quito, Ecuador. He was the son of Camilo and Zoila Silva Egas.

Education

Camilo received his primary education at the Academia de Bellas Artes in Ecuador. He also studied at the Real Academia in Rome, San Fernando Academia in Madrid, and Academie Colarrosie in Paris.

Career

After returning from Europe in 1926, Egas launched Ecuador’s first art periodical, Helice. The magazine included literature, short stories, cartoons and art opinions. In 1927 he moved to New York City, where he befriended José Clemente Orozco. At this time he also became interested in anthropology and archeology and played a pivotal role in forming of the Indigenist Movement. He first showed his works in the United States at an exhibition at the New School for Social Research in October 1931. Alvin Johnson, the director of the school, invited him to paint a mural for the anteroom of the dance studio of the new building of the school at 66 W. 12th Street. “Ecuadorian Festival,” which wasn’t a true mural but rather an oil painting on canvas, was finished in 1932 and greeted dancers and choreographers working at the school such as Martha Graham and Doris Humphrey. Two other murals he painted for the school have been lost. In 1939 he made a mural for the Ecuadorian Pavilion of the New York World Fair, and in the following decades he exhibited his works in Caracas, Quito, and New York.

Egas taught at the New School from 1932 until his death in 1962, where he became the Director of the Art Workshops in 1935 and later Director of the Art Department. Throughout his 30 years at the New School he taught workshops in Modern Art, as well as Painting, Oil, and Drawing workshops. During World War II in 1943, he taught a class free of charge for students at the government’s request entitled “The Plastic Arts and the War.” From 1946 to 1951, he co-taught Advanced Painting and Composition with Robert Gwathmey.

Achievements

• Camilo Egas was one of Ecuador’s most important 20th century artists. He played a pivotal role in founding the Indigenist Movement in Ecuador and the art movement of Pictorial Indigenism.

Works

More photos

• painting

  • Lessons

  • Portrait of a peasent

  • Ecuadorian Festival

    1932

  • Indian Head

  • Indian Festival

    1922

  • The Indigenist Movement

    1926

  • Pareja

    1927

  • Festival Dance

  • Mother and Child

  • Figures in a Mountainous Landscape with Flute Player

  • Peruvian Market Scene

  • Manner

  • Water

  • Family

  • Collection of Maize

  • Rest Carriers

  • Peasants with flute

  • Spine

  • Reflexión

  • South African back

    1925

  • Standing shepherds

  • Procesión

  • Homeless workers

  • 14th Street

  • Working day

  • Sanjuanito

  • Self Portrait

  • Self Portrait

  • Civil War in Spain

    1940

  • Romeros

    1924

Views

Egas worked in various styles throughout his career. Beginning with Social Realism, he later incorporated Surrealism and Neo-Cubism in his oeuvre and, finally, Abstract Expressionism. Egas was deeply interested in anthropology and archeology. By merging European artistic traditions with local indigenous themes, he provided a new type of representation of the Indian as a symbol of Ecuador’s national identity, in line with the nationalist and modernist projects of the beginning of the 20th century in many Latin-American countries. Andean themes and the struggles of indigenous people remained the focus of his art throughout his life.

Connections

Camilo married Alice Nelson in 1942. They divorced in 1949. He married for the second time to Claire Plowden on October 4, 1951.

Father:

Camilo Egas

Mother:

Zoila Silva (Larrea) Egas

Spouse:

Claire Plowden

ex-spouse:

Alice Nelson

friend:

José Clemente Orozco - painter