Oswaldo Guayasamín (1919-1999) - Grito

Oswaldo GUAYASAMIN (Ecuador 1919-USA 1999) engraved on paper of 46 cm x 40 cm. Signed in pencil by the artist and numbered 407/500. In perfect condition. Oswaldo GUAYASAMIN (Ecuador, 1919-USA, 1999) was born in Quito on July 6, 1919, to a father of Indigenous descent and a mestiza mother. Oswaldo was the first of ten children. His father worked as a carpenter and, later, as a taxi driver and truck driver. The family lived in poverty. His artistic talent awakened at an early age. Before eight years old, he drew caricatures of teachers and classmates. Every week he refreshed the shop signs opened by his mother. He also sold some small paintings made on scraps of canvas and cardboard, with landscapes and portraits of movie stars, in Independence Square. In 1932, despite his father’s opposition, he entered the Quito School of Fine Arts. It was the period of the “war of the four days,” a workers’ uprising. During a demonstration, his great friend Manjarrés died. This event, which would later inspire his work The Dead Children, marks his view of people and society. He continued his studies at the School and in 1941 earned a diploma as painter and sculptor, after also studying architecture. In 1942 he exhibited for the first time in a private gallery in Quito and caused a scandal. Critics regarded this show as a confrontation with the official exhibition of the School of Fine Arts. Nelson Rockefeller, the 41st Vice President of the United States, impressed by the work, bought several paintings and helped Guayasamín in the future. The influence of Mexican muralists, particularly José Clemente Orozco, and also Picasso, is evident in his murals and large-format paintings. In his later figurative paintings he tackles social themes, while simplifying the forms. Between 1942 and 1943 he stayed six months in the United States. With the money earned, he traveled to Mexico, where he met maestro Orozco, who took Guayasamín on as an assistant. He also befriended Pablo Neruda and a year later traveled through various Latin American countries, including Peru, Brazil, Chile, Argentina, and Uruguay, finding in all of them an oppressed indigenous society, a theme that has since appeared in his works. He was elected president of the Ecuadorian Culture House in 1971. His works have been exhibited in the world's finest galleries: Venezuela, France, Mexico, Cuba, Italy, Spain, USA, Brazil, Colombia, the Soviet Union, China, among others. In 1976 he founded the Guayasamín Foundation in Quito, to which he donated his work and his art collections, as he conceived art as a heritage of the peoples. In 1978 he was named a member of the Royal Academy of Fine Arts of San Fernando, Spain, and a year later, an honorary member of the Italian Academy of Arts. In 1982 a 120-meter mural painted by Guayasamín was inaugurated at Barajas Airport in Madrid. That grand mural, created with acrylics and marble dust, is divided into two parts: one devoted to Spain and the other to Hispano-America. In 1984, he portrayed King Juan Carlos and Fidel Castro for the third time, two of the more than three thousand portraits he painted, including major world figures as well as artists and friends. He conducted about 180 solo exhibitions and his output was very prolific in easel paintings, murals, sculptures, and monuments. He has murals in Quito (Government and Legislative Palaces, Central University, Provincial Council); Madrid (Barajas Airport); Paris (UNESCO Headquarters); Sao Paulo (Latin American Parliament). Among his monuments are “To the Young Fatherland” (Guayaquil, Ecuador); “To the Resistance” (Rumiñahui) in Quito. The spirit of Guayasamín can be felt through his own words: "My painting is to wound, to scratch and strike at the heart of the people".

Utropspris:SEK 5,524.43

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