Blog Post Thirteen: Guayasamin's Museum

Guayasamin’s art was extremely powerful on both the aesthetic and political levels. Aesthetically speaking I thought his art grabbed your attention and focus easily and often. With each painting, you could sense the emotion and depth he was attempting to portray. This made the images and colors pop even more than when you initially looked at them.

Politically speaking, as I mentioned earlier, Guayasamin did a great job of getting his message across to the viewer. Much of Guayasamin’s art was politically influenced. Some of his major influences were world hunger and war. I vividly remember one piece of his that was depicting the gas chambers used by the Nazis. It is in response to a story of Hitler having his soldiers kill every male over the age of fifteen in a village in search of someone hiding from him. The remaining women and children of
the village were taken to concentration camps. The artwork itself shows the faces and emotions of children within the gas chambers. Some of the faces were screaming in fear while others were stoic, understanding and accepting their impending death. A lot of his art was extremely dark similar to this piece, but it got his message across.

Guayasamin's gas chambers.

Guayasamin is an important Ecuadorian artist for multiple reasons. Some of the reasons are mentioned above regarding the aesthetics, the politics, and the depth behind his art. What I consider the most important reason though is how he built and sustained Ecuadorian art. A majority of the art made by famous Ecuadorian artists, including Guayasamin himself, was not in Ecuador. It had been bought by collectors from Europe, North America, and other parts of the world. Due to this, Guayasamin made it a point to begin bringing artwork back to Ecuador. Much of that art is now stored in his former home, turned museum, where Ecuadorians can come and admire it.

Guayasamin's piece on Pinochet. 

Guayasamin’s depiction of former Chilean dictator Augusto Pinochet was most likely considered so controversial because it shows Pinochet beaten, bloodied, and hanging from a noose. When Chileans visited the museum they were offended by this, which led to the piece being removed.