Oswaldo Guayasamín was a painter and political activist whose expressionistic depictions of the plight of Indigenous populations earned him great acclaim in the mid- to late-twentieth century. In Cabeza de Hombre Llorando (1957), a man made up of angular forms and elongated features weeps. The paint near his eyes is cracking, imbuing the figure with a deep sense of fatigue and weathering. This is only heightened by the picture’s flattened perspective which creates a sense of entrapment and anxiety. He is painted in greys, browns, blacks, and reds – earthy tones that look as if they were made of natural pigments, and which the artist associated with precontact visual cultures. The man looks defiantly back at the viewer; amidst his anguish, dignity remains. This artwork is emblematic of Guayasamín’s unique brand of Expressionism in which he uses colour and a distortion of form to depict downtrodden figures. While many European Expressionists used colour and form to respond to the anxieties of an increasingly industrialised society, Guayasamín used Expressionism as social protest, depicting the oppression faced by many native cultures in Latin America.
This is the first time the work of Oswaldo Guayasamín is presented at Biennale Arte.
—Diego Chocano
