Some Art

We have found some pleasing art recently on our adventures. In the hills overlooking Quito we visited the Guyasamin museum. Oswaldo Guayasamín is a well-known C20th Ecuadorian painter. The collection is housed in a pretty colonial house and as well as his paintings there is also a room of indigenous art and a room of colonial art. Unfortunately the artist's great project 'The Chapel of Man' was closed- despite being next door to the museum it opens on different days. Very South American. So we didn't see the Chapel that symbolises not only man's cruelty to man but also the potential for greatness within humanity. Pity.
There are lots of sculptures like this happy chappy in the indigenous section.
We interacted with some of the art in a light hearted manner.



The work of Guayasamin from his 'Age of Wrath' was the highlight. The paintings were produced from the 60's to the 80's and influenced by the political injustices, atrocities and military rule across much of South America at the time, especially the Pinochet regime in Chile. We both liked it very much.



Colonial Art means religious Art, heavily featuring bleeding Christs. Interesting to see the scale and gruesomeness of it but once you've seen one..


In Cuenca we went to the modern art museum which was also in a great old colonial building. It had been a monestary, prison, asylum and old people's home in its time. The art was fairly random and of mixed quality but it was a very interesting place to explore.