Process Junkie: Oswaldo Guayasamin

Tuesday, February 21, 2006

Oswaldo Guayasamin

Guayasamín 1919-1999, Quito-Ecuador.
(Click on images to enlarge)

Abrazos,
-Alberto

16 comments:

Rebekit said...: these are mind blowing gorgeous.

Thanx for introducing me to these

rebecca; February 21, 2006 9:41 AM
1 said...: always been fascinated by him and other latin american masters. interesting to see the heavy european influences with obvious unique interpretations of concepts that were explored by many in his time. he brought a unique life to geometric expression...the colors, certainly speak of his singular experience.

(btw, you have great taste); February 21, 2006 11:09 AM
Oscar Grillo said...: Dios mio. Que artistazo!!!...Yo solo conocia apenas unas cositas de un libro pero esto es todo una revelacion!; February 21, 2006 12:05 PM
Process Junkie said...: Oswaldo was an amazing, genuine artist and teller of truths, towards the last years of his life however, he became (IMO) a cartoon of himself, he merely repeated his successes and became a money making institution, he was more interested in making jewelery and pottery, the fancy Guayasamin galleries starting popping up and churning product mostly geared towards the rich foreign collector and tourists, kind of sad.

I like the work he did in the 50's and 60's, he always had a keen sense for design. As g.d. pointed out, Oswaldo and most notably, Rufino Tamayo were heavily influenced by the german expressionists and other Europeans, Guayasamin being the most geometric of the two felt right at home with them as a painter of "protesta", also his colors were always brighter, even when he painted those horrific faces of " The Age of The Wrath" series ("La edad de la Ira") and at the same time they both owed a lot to the muralist school (Rivera, Siqueiros) I found it a bit ironic that they were the most "European" of most of their contemporaries only because they were both of pure indigenous blood.; February 21, 2006 2:31 PM
Rebekit said...: the second piece and the one with the viola are my favorite I think I am gonna put this one up on my wall.

also on a subject of your playlist. It's my favorite to date.; February 21, 2006 9:42 PM
Process Junkie said...: I think you like all the songs that have the word 'monkey' in them :) just kidding, I can get you a bigger scan of the ones you like, let me know.; February 21, 2006 10:02 PM
Rebekit said...: these are the ones I would like, gracias mi amigo!

guayasamin_09.jpg

guayasamin_03.jpg

I wish I had you as a professor when I was in art school. I'd probably know how to draw by now :)

BTW monkey : I'm learning spanish by singing the spanish songs, I'm hurting peoples ear drums, but I'm learning.; February 21, 2006 10:57 PM
sean said...: so! much! power! I haven't felt that kind of haunting energy since I discovered Shiele way back when. Thanks for sharing it with us!; February 22, 2006 3:23 AM
rubio2d said...: Qué bueno, que gran descubrimiento me has hecho!! Menudo artistazo! thanks a lot, Alberto.; February 22, 2006 4:56 AM
manucha said...: La sensibilidad, solidez y fuerza de los manos me toca profundamente.
De Corazon. . .; February 24, 2006 12:45 PM
william wray said...: I'm getting the book thanks for finding another great one Alberto.; February 26, 2006 9:04 PM
martin wittig said...: These are awesome! --Thanks for posting them.; March 02, 2006 4:07 AM
Sheri Burhoe said...: Very Interesting pieces, I enjoyed looking through them !; March 19, 2006 1:46 PM
alex noriega said...: Sometimes I wish Guayasamin was my father! great post!; March 26, 2006 2:31 PM
Anonymous said...: actually the galleries that "started popping up" are to culturize the people of his country, he was not selling out mearly trying to build up a country (by adding his little grain) that was torn apart so many years ago by the invasion of the Spanish. every school or gallery that was built with his name is to build the country into something more than a third world whatever in South America. By using his name on all these things he is giving the coutry a slightly higher status, using his own fame to elevate the country as well. And the images in his paintings are painted in this maner as a throw back to the indiginous people of that area. The faces are very similar to art done by the Incas, Quichua, and other native indian people of the area. Viva Guayasamin, y VIVA ECUADOR.; December 03, 2006 11:21 PM
Process Junkie said...: That's your opinion and I respect it but I don't subscribe to it. I'm not insulting the man, I really did admire him, I was born and raised in Ecuador and I lived there half my life, my observations have to do with what I have seen and preceived and by looking at his works objectively not because I read what someone else wrote.

Towards the end of his career there was nothing remotely different, new or vital about his work, just repetition, I speak from my own experience having seen his art, myself.

I think he did a lot of good to put Ecuador on the map and to raise the awareness of Ecuadorian art and its artists but I also think he sold out in the end, that's my opinion.

Every gallery with his name does a great diservice to the country by encouraging sameness and repetition, in Ecuador 90 percent of the artists paint the same themes over and over, they all mimic and nobody creates. Everybody draws and paint indigenous themes for money. You call that "culturizing"?

Thanks for commenting, next time show your real name, I dislike anonymity.

-A; December 03, 2006 11:46 PM

Post a Comment

The artist is the creator of beautiful things.

To reveal art and conceal the artist is art's aim.

The critic is he who can translate into another manner or a new material his impression of beautiful things.

The highest as the lowest form of criticism is a mode of autobiography. Those who find ugly meanings in beautiful things are corrupt without being charming.

This is a fault.

Those who find beautiful meanings in beautiful things are the cultivated. For these there is hope.

They are the elect to whom beautiful things mean only beauty.

The moral life of man forms part of the subject-matter of the artist, but the morality of art consists in the perfect use of an imperfect medium. No artist desires to prove anything. Even things that are true can be proved.

No artist has ethical sympathies.

An ethical sympathy in an artist is an unpardonable mannerism of style. No artist is ever morbid. The artist can express everything.

Thought and language are to the artist instruments of an art.

Vice and virtue are to the artist materials for an art.

All art is at once surface and symbol.

Those who go beneath the surface do so at their peril.

Those who read the symbol do so at their peril.

It is the spectator, and not life, that art really mirrors.

Diversity of opinion about a work of art shows that the work is new, complex, and vital.

When critics disagree, the artist is in accord with himself.

We can forgive a man for making a useful thing as long as he does not admire it. The only excuse for making a useless thing is that one admires it intensely.

All art is quite useless.

_____________________________________

While one should always study the method of a great artist, one should never imitate his manner. The manner of an artist is essentially individual, the method of an artist is absolutely universal. The first is personality, which no one should copy; the second is perfection, which all should aim at .

Oscar Wilde.

I prefer drawing to talking. Drawing is faster, and allows less room for lies.

Le Corbusier.

"There is no such thing as a good influence, Mr. Gray. All influence is immoral--immoral from the scientific point of view."
"Why?"
"Because to influence a person is to give him one's own soul. He does not think his natural thoughts, or burn with his natural passions. His virtues are not real to him. His sins, if there are such things as sins, are borrowed. He becomes an echo of some one else's music, an actor of a part that has not been written for him.
The aim of life is self-development. To realize one's nature perfectly--that is what each of us is here for.
People are afraid of themselves, nowadays. They have forgotten the highest of all duties, the duty that one owes to one's self. Of course, they are charitable. They feed the hungry and clothe the beggar. But their own souls starve, and are naked. Courage has gone out of our race. Perhaps we never really had it.
The terror of society, which is the basis of morals, the terror of God, which is the secret of religion--these are the two things that govern us. And yet I believe that if one man were to live out his life fully and completely, were to give form to every feeling, expression to every thought, reality to every dream -- I believe that the world would gain such a fresh impulse of joy that we would forget all the maladies of mediaevalism, and return to the Hellenic ideal-- to something finer, richer than the Hellenic ideal, it may be."

Oscar Wilde.

Tuesday, February 21, 2006

Oswaldo Guayasamin

16 comments:

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