Oswaldo Guayasamín was an Ecuadorian eminent painter and sculptor whose heritage traces back to Quechua and Mestizo indigenous populations.
Background
Ethnicity:
His mother was Mestiza, and his parents were both of Kichwa descent.
Guayasamín was born on July 6, 1919, in Quito, Ecuador, to a native father and a Mestiza mother, both of Kichwa descent. His family was poor and his father worked as a carpenter for most of his life. Oswaldo Guayasamín later worked as a taxi and truck driver. He was the first child of ten children in his family.
Education
Oswaldo's earliest paintings were mostly caricatures of his friends and teachers and he used to see these paintings to various tourists in order to collect enough money for education. Although his parents didn’t support his decision, he enrolled at the School of Fine Arts in Quito, where he remained for seven years and received the title of painter and sculptor in 1941. He was the best student in his class.
Career
In 1942, Oswaldo held his first exhibition in Quito, which caused a great scandal, because Guayasamin wasn’t reserved about decisive social criticism. Shortly after this exhibition, he moved to Mexico for several months, where he worked with the great muralist Orozco, who helped Guayasamin related to the birth his own aesthetic language.
In 1943, Guayasamin spent seven months in the United States, touring various museums in order to study the works of Goya and El Greco, among other masters of painting. In the early 1940s, the ecuadorian befriended Pablo Neruda and made a long trip through Chile, Peru, Argentina, Bolivia and Uruguay, during which he took notes for his great series called The Trail of Tears. This series revolves around the theme of indigenous, black and mestizo populations in America. The realization of this important work was possible thanks to the support of Benjamin Carrion from the newly created House of Culture. The Trail of Tears was exhibited for the first time in 1952, at the Museo de Arte Colonial Quito and throughout the year at the Pan American Union of Washington and in Barcelona in Spain.
During the Biennial in Barcelone, Guayasamin was awarded the Grand Prize for his painting achievements, which combine the elements of cubism and expressionism.
In 1958, Guayasamin made two important murals: The Discovery of the Amazon River, made in Venetian mosaic, and The History of Man and Culture, for the Faculty of Law at the University of Ecuador. After several years of hard work, in 1968, he presented in Mexico City his second large series, called The Age of Anger. This series consists of 260 works grouped within smaller categories, such as Hands, Heads, The man’s face, Concentration Camps, Women Crying and so on, in which the painter gathers various elements of his own life experience and translates them into a dazzling succession of contemporary dramas and tragedies. The Age of Anger has been considered one of the greatest achievements in the twentieth-century painting inspired by politics. After the initial display in Mexico, the series was presented in Barcelona, Prague and Paris.
In 1989, Guayasamin was in the period of painting his final series: The Age of Tenderness. Considered to be more hopeful and brighter than his previous series. These paintings were based off of the reflections of his life, as well as it being dedicated to his maternal figures. Consisting of over 100 paintings, Guayasamin dedicated these final paintings as a tribute to his mother, and to the betterment and hope of humanity.
In 1973, Guayasamin was named president of the House of Culture of Quito, which was a position that allowed him to carry out an extensive program of cultural diffusion. During 1977, as a tribute to his work, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs organized in Quito a retrospective of his work. A couple of years later, in 1981, the House of Representatives of Ecuador recognized the major significance of his work, by creating the Guayasamin Foundation. Guayasamin died in 1999 and this was considered a great loss.
Politics
He was a passionate supporter of the communist Cuban Revolution and Fidel Castro.