14 IMPORTANT ECUADORIAN PAINTERS AND THEIR LEGACY - ART - 2024

The Ecuadorian painters are an important link in the national culture thanks to its great legacy pictorial. From its exponents of the Baroque as Manuel Samaniego to representatives of the neo-figurativists such as Oswaldo Viteri, all have had their importance in the art of Ecuador.

It should be noted that, during the colonial period, the Quito School was developed, which obtained great prestige during the 17th and 18th centuries. Such was its fame, that King Carlos III assured that this school had nothing to envy the Italian Michelangelo.

Later he lived the influence of Fray Jodoco Ricke during the Renaissance and at the end of the 19th century the indigenous movement was awakened.

In the 20th century, important painters came to light who resisted being part of the current of social realism that denounced the living conditions of the aborigines and sought to adopt new styles from abroad.

14 very prominent Ecuadorian painters

1- Oswaldo Guayasamín

Oswaldo Guayasamín was the son of an indigenous father and a mestizo mother. Against his will he enrolled in the School of Fine Arts in Quito, establishing himself as a painter and sculptor.

From the beginning of his career, his work showed signs of social protest, an aspect that made him distance himself from the School.

In an expressionist style, his canvases presented the injustices and pain that humanity faced in the 20th century, especially under the two world wars.

2- Camilo Egas

He was born in Quito around 1889. He was part of the indigenous movement and combined costumbrista painting with other currents of contemporary art.

His prolific work beyond this mix and critics consider him representative of social realism, surrealism, neo-cubism and abstract expressionism.

He was recognized for his impressive murals like the one he made for the New York World's Fair in 1939.

3- Gonzalo Endara Crow

His work is an aesthetic representation of the Andean culture and its people, his most recognized work being El Tren Volador. The train, together with the bells, the spheres or the rain are overexposed elements in landscapes or cities affirming a surrealist style.

As a sculptor, Endara Crow created the El Choclo and El Colibrí monuments, representing the natural beauty and agriculture of the Ecuadorian Sierra.

4- Bolívar Mena Franco

He was born in Ibarra in 1913 and was a representative of social realism. Throughout his career he worked to achieve a personal style by refusing to be part of the indigenous movement. This intention led him to become a Neo-Expressionist artist.

He painted faces, hands with elongated fingers, and the woman's body with an emphasis on narrow waists and generous hips.

5- Humberto Moré

He was born in 1929 in the city of Esmeralda. He was a painter, sculptor and muralist and became known as Lalot Rivadeneira Plata.

He obtained the award at the Salón de Julio in Guayaquil in 1962 thanks to his post-cubist style. Before he experimented with expressionism and had a certain tendency to geometrization, where he woke up to the use of color with a strong presence of red and blue.

6- Diogenes Paredes

Known as "The Aboriginal Painter", Paredes was born in Tulcán in 1910. He understood art as an expression of the masses and fought to make this a reality.

He was obsessed with the idea of ​​helping the unprotected and documented them in various everyday situations. His work is framed in social realism.

7- Eduardo Kingman Riofrío

Known as "The painter of the hands", because they always appear in his paintings, he differentiates himself by expressing in his works political and social ideas related to indigenous pain and abuse.

His work is charged with a strong feeling of sadness and hopelessness, a product of social injustice.

8- Oswaldo Viteri

Oswaldo Viteri was born in Ambato, Tungurahua province, in 1931. His work uses various techniques such as drawing, engraving and mosaic, and he was a recognized neo-figurative painter in the decade of the 60s, of the 20th century.

His sculptural assemblages made with rag dolls and scrap material were successful in the 1970s.

9- Victor Mideros

A kind of cultural syncretism is what can be seen in the work of Víctor Mideros, born in Ibarra in 1888.

Religious and esoteric figures are sometimes replaced by indigenous silhouettes. In any case, its representation was traditional.

Despite his trips to Europe at the beginning of the 20th century, he failed to be influenced by Impressionism and instead became interested in symbolism and mystical painting.

10- Enrique Tábara Zerna

Born in 1930 in Guayaquil, Tábara has established himself as the artist of experimentation.

His Ecuadorian roots are present in a recurrent way in his works, initially expressed in the lower extremities of the human being and later through nature.

11- Edgar Balseca Toral

This realist and surrealist painter was born in 1942. His love for bulls is reflected in dozens of plastic and sculptural works.

12- Gilberto Almeida Egas

Gilberto Almeida was born in Ibarra in 1928. In a first stage, Almeida did landscaping; later and for five years he developed what is known as “The era of the gates”, because he painted the facades of convents and rural houses.

Later he followed the trend of informalism adding various external elements to his works; and finally founded the vanguard movement VAN.

13- Antonio Salas Avilés

He lived between the 18th and 19th centuries, in the Ecuadorian independence era. From a traditional tradition, he exhibits religious images, portraits and everyday situations in his works. The mysticism of the colonial era and landscapes of nature are recurrent in his work.

Towards the year 1810 he was considered the most important painter in Ecuador and with great influence on those who were beginning to discover art.

14- Leonardo Tejada

He was born in the city of Latacunga in 1908. He developed his work using techniques such as watercolor, oil and engraving.

With the first two techniques he represented social themes and the engraving was used on wood to represent aspects of indigenous folklore. From the decade of the 70s, he incorporated recyclable materials into his works.

References

1. Bargellini, C. (2016). The Art of Painting in Colonial Quito / The art of painting in colonial Quito ed. by Suzanne L. Stratton-Pruitt. The Catholic Historical Review, 102 (2), pp: 438-439.
2. Otero, M. (2011). The Open Veins of Guayasamín's Paintings (Doctoral dissertation) pp: 23-30.
3. Pérez, MT (1987). The Indian in the 1920's Painting of the Ecuadorian Painter Camilo Egas (Doctoral dissertation, University of Texas at Austin). pp: 45-47.
4. Pérez, T. (1995). Appropriation of the popular indigenous in Ecuadorian art of the first quarter of the century: Camilo Egas (1915-1923). Academic and Popular Arts of Ecuador, 143-164.
5. Navarro, JG (1925). Art in Ecuador. Bull. Pan Am. Union, 59, 800. pp: 342-345.