Oswaldo Guayasamín

Oswaldo Guayasamín (1919 - 1999) was a very influential artist from Ecuador. His body of work consists of pieces that speak to the social and political injustices the artist perceived in the world around him. The United Nations awarded him a prize for an "entire life of work for peace." Guayasamín was heavily influenced by the Cuban Revolution and was a huge supporter of Fidel Castro. When Guayasamín died in 1999, much of Ecuador's work force went on strike and held vigils for the man who spent his life supporting the indigenous peoples of the country.

I am strongly impacted by his work, I find it to be wholly unique the cohesiveness is impressive to me. It is fascinating to sort through his work and follow his progression... I also find it interesting that he never really strayed from his decided subject matter, you don't really get that with other artists very often. I am also really stricken with the way in which he paints hands. Hands appear time and time again in his works, and they are incredibly expressive.

I find the fact that he dedicated his entire career to those who needed him to be worth mentioning, and he is still regarded as a national hero in Ecuador, as well he should be.

May 5

today is cinco de mayo.
that is worth mentioning.

i'm not sure about the stamp...

Tina Modotti

Tina Modotti (1886 - 1942) was an Italian-born photographer. She started out acting in silent films, and soon moved to America, and later to Mexico. I think one of the funniest things I have read about her is that she often said her profession was men. She was married to a producer in America, whom she left when she began an affair with photographer Edward Weston. Weston's work is more widely known than Modotti's, but she is featured in several of his most famous works. She is also a subject in five of Diego Rivera's murals and Lupe Marin blamed Modotti's affair with Rivera for their split. Enough about her personal life....

Modotti was a member of the Mexican Communist Party and was politically active for many years. She joined the party in 1927 and her work took a sharp turn toward more socially and politically minded subject matter; many of her works appeared in the leftist journal El Machete. The second photograph I have included in this post is from that same year and is anything but understated.

Rivera's mural entitled The Distribution of Arms features Modotti (at right) along with Siqueiros and Frida Kahlo handing out weapons to Mexican revolutionaries. And Kenneth Rexroth said he was terrified of Modotti, but called her "the most interesting person in Mexico City." Quite a compliment.

José Sabogal

Peruvian artist José Sabogal (1888 - 1956) was one of Peru's premier indigenistas. Sabogal was of Spanish, rather than Indian descent, but that didn't stop him from becoming one of the most active artists promoting the life and culture of the indigenous peoples of Peru.

The work at left is called "Arquitecto Quechua." This page includes a brief bio and several of Sabogals' works.

Sabogal became involved in the indigenista movement and began considering himself an indigenista after a trip to Mexico in 1922, where he saw the impact of the murals of artists like Rivera, Siqueiros, and Tamayo. As a teacher, he urged his students to ignore the European movements like Fauvism and Cubism, and to focus on the methods and techniques native to their people. Sabogal was initially rejected for the indigenist themes that he was later celebrated for, and there are still those who reject his work. People like this think his work depicts the "proud and grand Inca instead of a depiction of the actual misery within which Indians lived."

No one tries to deny the huge influence he has had on Latin American art. Or art as a whole, for that matter.