Pecha Kucha Charlotte Vol. 16

Editor's Notes

1. In the year before the new millenia, the world also lost Ecuadorian master painter Oswaldo Guayasamin, who died that March.
2. Five months after his death, a class of ‘99 high school graduate arrived in Ecuador for a year of teaching. This was beginning of what my philosophy professor would later call developing “barnacles on the ship of my worldview,” as I lost my sense of calling as a missionary and began to see a broader world - the world Guayasamin saw.
3. Oswaldo Guayasmin was born in 1919 to an indigenous father and mestizo mother. Coming from poverty and without parental support, he graduated from the School of Fine Arts in Quito in 1940. Shortly thereafter, Nelson Rockefeller met the artist and was so impressed with his work he invited him to tour the United States.
4. From there, Guyasamin traveled to Mexico where he met José Clemente Orozco, under whom he studied fresco painting. Guayasamin and Orozco traveled throughout Latin America together and bore witness to the poverty and oppression of indigenous peoples.
5. In his native tongue of Quechua, Guaysamin’s name means white bird. Guyasamin, who was mixed-race, was personally impacted by the racism he experienced due to his indigenous heritage. Then, a major turning point in his life occurred when he witnessed a stray bullet kill his best friend during a political protest.
6. After this time, his painting entered the era of Huacayñan, or “Trail of Tears” in Quechua. This series painted from 1946-51, depicts the misery and injustice suffered by racial and ethnic groups, particularly indigenous people, in Latin America.
7. The phase of work following Huacanan is known as "La edad de la ira," or “the Age of Rage,” from 1952-1993. This phase depicts major tragedies of the twentieth century: the war in Vietnam, the Nazi Holocaust, those suffering under dictatorships, and the anguish of the mothers.
8. Guyasamin himself was witness to the atrocities and horrors of war in Latin America, and his paintings bear witness and offer resistance. He said, “My painting is to hurt, to scratch and hit inside people's hearts. To show what man does against man."
9. This period is most famous for several series of works: “The Hands” 12 murals of emotional anguish; “The Mutilated,” six oil paintings dedicated to the tragedy of Hiroshima; and “The Meeting in the Pentagon,” five paintings that critique American politics.
10. The Chilean poet Pablo Neruda wrote of his friend: "Guayasamín is a creator of humanity in its broadest sense, of the living and historical imagination. His universe is sustaining although it threatens us like a cosmic disaster. Think before approaching his painting because it will not be easy to withdraw."
11. In his work to highlight political injustice, Guayasamin painted portraits of Latin American political figures including Cuban leader Fidel Castro and Nobel prize winner Rigoberta Menchu, Guatamalan indigenous rights activist. His work offers sharp resistance to American Cold War politics in Latin America.
12. This protest is particularly evident in a mural he painted in 1988 in the Congress building of Ecuador, depicting a Nazi helmet with the CIA acronym on it. Of Guyasamin, Rigoberta Menchu said, “He was a man of Latin American conviction and a fighter for democracy.”
13. As Latin America struggled against American imperialism and destruction of its environment by US corporations, Guyasamin said, ¨For the children that death took while playing, for the men that weaken while working, for the poor that fail while loving, I will paint with the gun scream, with the thunder potency and with the eagerness of battle.”
14. Ultimately, Guayasamin moved into what he called La Ternura, “The Tenderness” in his paintings, with a brighter color palette and with subjects focused around the love of mothers and children. He dedicated this work to his own mother.
15. Through this period, from 1988-1999, he emphasizes the importance of protecting life and working towards the improvement of mankind. The period reflects his search for reconciliation after a life of fighting injustices.
16. Due to his lifelong work to expose the plight of the indigenous peoples, Guayasamín is considered the pioneer of "indigenist expressionism.” He said of his work, “My art is a form of prayer, a cry...and the most elevated result of love and solitude.”
17. At the end of his life, Guyasamin expressed his ultimate faith in humanity through his design and construction of Capilla del Hombre or Chapel of Humankind. He said, “there are many chapels built for God, but who has built a chapel in honor of the human spirit?”
18. When he died, Guayasamin was mourned by the indigenous people of Ecuador and his death was marked with days of strikes Then, just months later during the time I lived in Quito, the indigenous peoples staged a peaceful sit-in to remove the President of Ecuador, and his successor was named with no bloodshed.
19. Guyasamin’s life work reminds us we must have no doubt that the ripples of protest art extend far beyond the pebble dropped in the pond. His love and advocacy for the indigenous of Ecuador brought this beautiful people to light, gave them hope to organize, and empowered them to fight for their rights.
20. There is a quote by Guyasamin on the chapel walls which reads, “Mantengan encendida una luz que siempre voy a volver,” which means, “Keep a light burning for I will always return.” May we as a community move together from tears and political rage, to tenderness, and together may we keep the light burning for the human spirit Guyasamin so beautifully illuminated.