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O] ETURIIOR
RAFAEL SQUIRRU
a Latin American artist reaches the fullest grovuth of his
genius, it is customary (especially with European or U.S. critics,
and even Latin American ones) to say that he is one of the greats
in Latin American art. Few-very few indeed-dare to assign this degree
of excellence without the restrictive qualification-as if in a universal
comparison it were not possible for the highest level of quality in such a
respectabfe reafm as artistic creation to manifest itself in a "developing"
hen
area.
We do not, of course, w4nt to indulge in exaggerated praise or set up
sports championships to evaluate the work of the plastic artist. Such approaches only reveal, in most cases, the pedantry and the inferiority complexes of those who adopt them. But without resorting to this kind of
childishness, still there is no doubt that through more than one means art
criticism establishes hierarchies in the international er6lgr-which do not
fail to incfude, among other units of measure, the very eloquent price list.
While it is true that every culture has its own style and that within it
each artist displays his particular personality, it is also true that international contests, museums, art biennials, and publications help to set up
comparisons that are not exactly meaningless.
It is in comparisons of this kind that-with due respect for cultural
and personality differences-the Latin American masters' force, vitality,
technical command, and creativity become more evident by the day, their
emphatic presence bursting beyond the framework of their respective
areas.
In this category we find Oswaldo Guayasamin of Ecuador, whose work,
particularly that of the last decade, stands up well against that of any
other master of his generation anywhere in the world. lt remains to be
seen only how many others there are whose work stands up to that of
Guayasamin.
And so our Latin America continues to contribute universal greats-be
they the Mexican muralists or Rufino Tamayo, Antonio Berni of Argentina
or C6ndido Portinari of Brazil, Robedo Matta of Chile or Wilfredo Lam of
Cuba, or indeed the subject of our present concern, Oswaldo Guayasamin
of Ecuador.
What is more, we believe, without any patriotic bias, that no other
single cultural area in the world has had in the last years such a rich and
varied proliferation of talents in the plastic a;[s-sl'ylong whom let us not
forget sculptors of the rank of the Argentine Sesostres Vitullo or architects such as the Mexicans and the Brazilians. With Guayasamin we feel
that the time has come once and for all for us to recognize the magisterial
greatness of our artists and assign them the universal standing to which
they are entitled.
/n/l /f7!^
salros )aEuV
p eEV aql luecel aql ruol I 'Uerqod-ltas
Above, Hands at Prayer, lower left, Hands in Anguish,
and lower right, Hands in Pain, all from The Age of Anger series
mong the arguments most often used to belittle the original contribution of Latin Americans is that their works are derived from the
European. And why shouldn't they be? As "Latins" are we not automatically legitimate heirs to the very richest of Old World artistic tra-
ditions? lsn't ours a mestizo culture, born under the aegis of these
traditions and richly admixed, according to the different areas, with our
lndian and African antecedents? Wasn't the Mediterranean culture a
mestizo one as well?-and for that very reason so enormously rich?
A Phoenician and Semitic alphabet, an Arabic mathematics, a Greek system of thought, Gothic traditions, a Hebrew religion-all these came
together to give us the powerful and vigorous culture that we know as
European. The art of Guayasamin is from the same bloodline as Mexican
muralism, and both can trace back their ancestors to the masters of
the ltalian Renaissance. But the roots are one thing and the fruit quite
another.
Without America and without its pre-Columbian past, these manifestations would be very different indeed. The black lines in the sharp imagery
of the Mexican engraver Jos6 Guadalupe Posada recall the chiseled tooling of 'far-ott totem poles on the Pacific Northwest Coast.
There is a banal tendency to speak of the influence of Picasso-as if
the great Spanish master had not in his turn been influenced by African
art, or, in the case of the famous Guernica, caught the same spirit that
moved the Mexican muralists!
Guayasamin, free spirit that he is, draws from any source that will
slake his thirst to build new images for fresh awarenesses. Precisely
because he, like Picasso, is not hemmed in by any kind of complexes, he
takes up like a sponge any and all plastic solutions that can be assimilated by his personality, and in this process he forges his own style, which
starting tn L962 was to reveal definitely his genius in the series The Age
of
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Anger.
Born in Quito in 1919 and taken up with paints and brushes since
childhood, Guayasamin followed a solid course of development over his
first thirty-odd years, which, as it can be seen in retrospect, clearly laid
the foundation and erected the supports that would enable him to reach
the giddying heights at which he finds himself today. Traveling through
such stages as synthetic cubism or the decorative figurativism so dear to
the Paris School, experimenting with wide ranges of color (as in his mural
The Jungle painted with casein on wood) or limiting his palette to the
earthen tones corresponding to the monstrous spirit of Dead Children,
Guayasamin always preserves his lndian heritage-a mixture of lucid
suffering and of the capacity to enjoy the good things that life on our
planet has to offer.
ut it is since L962 that we can say that Guayasamin has come into
his own. The Age of Anger is rather something like an immense
kinetic mural that the artist goes about developing in successive
chapters, subdivided as it were into so many giant frames (as large as
four yards square) each of which in its own way testifies to man's tragic
destiny in our alienated and alienating world.
Guayasamin, the bold and candid witness who looks out from his 1963
self'portrait with darksome eyes, is not content to be a passive spectator.
Rather a witness in the archaic sense of martyr (one who gives testimony),
he passes judgment, and in judging points the accusing finger. The dif-
Jailer, from
The Age of Anger series
Persecuted Jew, f rom The Age of Anger series
ferent hands in his yrqrks-contorted with greed, tremulous in supplication,. paralyzed with fright-point up the contrast between the hypersensitivity of his delicate lines and the consummate tragedy of human
suffering while they alternately strike out or caress with pity.
Guayasamin has passionate compassion, sharing pain with those who
suffer. But his passionate compassion is not condescending. Quite the
contrary: it is rebellious. Guayasamin, like the author of the Gaucho classic, Jos6 Herndndez, does not ask us to listen, he tells us to. His accusation, like that of the Argentine poet, is of evils of such enormity that the
echoing years of eternity are challenged to obliterate them. But he cbuld
easify add: "They are likethis, indeed, in real life." The corrupt politician,
the military officer who betrays his vocation by subjugating the spirit in'
stead of defending it, the reprobate who knows no other law but that of
his own concupiscence-all of them share the lashes of Guayasamin's
brush, which condemns them just as did Dante, or Michelangelo in the
Last Judgment-to an inferno from which they will never escape.
Unlike the tortured and oppressed, who are painted with the most limited of palettes (whites, blacks, grays), the oppressors are portrayed,
symbolically, in the bright hues of the rainbow, since it is they who plqy
the star roles in the drama of life.
Perhaps the time may come when Guayasamin will add to his gallery
of puppets characters who, while still defiling wisdom, have a greater
appearance of innocuousness.
But it is not the subject matter, separated out from plastic considerations, that gives force to Guayasamin's work. There are many who wave
similar banners of inspiration who are nothing but circumstantial pamphleteers. The subject is and is not what makes the artist. lt is, to the
gxtent that it acts as a legitimate springboard for his expressive vocation;
it is not, if the subject, as far as the idea itself is concerned, goes beyond
the plastic quality that has to sustain it in order to keep it from being a
mere illustration.
Intensity of sentiment-which in Guayasamin becomes a hunger and
The Desperate Ones No.
oil on canvas, 1966
I,
The Machete Wielder,
oif on canvas, 1949
a thirst after justice, as in the Gospels, of which he is skeptical for
being badly explained-is a necessary condition, but not a sufficient one,
for the definition of art at its highest level. Moreover, it is necessary to
have that visual wisdom, that precise emplacement of each color in time
and space, and that clarity of compositional statement which are born of
hard work and a lifetime of dedication to the subtle and arduous handling
of the medium.
uayasamin triumphs because he is essentially a painter-a painter
who likes to deal in basic things. The style of his latest compositions
places him among the neofigurative expressionists, but yet without
the degree of pictorial action of a Willem de Kooning or the ambiguity of
a Francis Bacon. We could say that Guayasamin is more classic, less
subjective-or even, less capricious. His images are constructed.with the
rigor of a Nature that is subdued but respected. His drawing penetrates
the depths of the grotesque without becoming a caricature, in whose
intention there is room for laughter.
Nearer, then, to William Hogarth or to Francisco Goya than to Honor6
Daumier or James Gillray, Guayasamin has eliminated the element of
humor from his world view. One gets the same impression as from Goya's
Disasters of War, even though Guayasamin exaggerates more in order to
emphasize his ideas. The quality of his impasto attracts attention-sometimes so thin that the weave of the canvas shows through, at other times
the play of textures is exquisite.
Although it may seem contradictory, given the brutality of his images,
Guayasamin uses great delicacy in his handling of the medium, as he
does also in the strokes of his drawings. Descended from the great tradition of Western art, supported by the backbone of the American Andes,
Oswaldo Guayasamin announces through his painting the new man, redeemer of values that make for the survival of a better species. tr
Raf ael Squirru, Argentine art critic, essayist, and poet, was the first director of the Museum of Modern Art in Buenos Aires and tormerly headed
the OAS Department of Cultural Aftairs. A trequent contributor to
Americas, he is now writing and lecturing in the Hemisphere. The article
was translated from the Spanish.
16
Amqrir;.ag, F'eb. L975
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RAFAEL SQUIRRU
latinoamericano alcanza el m6s alto nivel en la
genio es costumbre (sobre todo entre criticos
maduraci6n
de
su
I
I europeos o norteamericanos, y a0n latinoamericanos) decir que se
trata de uno de los grandes valores del arte de Latinoamdrica. Son pocos,
muy pocos, los que se atreven a destacar este grado de excelencia sin el
restrictivo calificativo, como si en la confrontacion universal no cupiese
que en 5reas de "subdesarrollo" se manifestase la m5s alta calidad en
terreno tan respetable como el de la creacion est6tica.
No se trata, por supuesto, de caer en el ditirambo ni de establecer campeonatos de estilo deportivo para analizar la labor del artista pl6stico.
Tales actitudes no hacen sino revelar, en la mayoria de los casos, el pedantismo y los complejos de inferioridad de quienes las asumen. Pero sin
entrar en ese tipo de infantilismo, no cabe duda que la critica de arte
establece, a traves de m6s de un medio, jerarquias en el orden internacional, en las que no est6n ausentes entre otras unidades de medida
la muy elocuente lista de precios.
Si bien es cierto que cada cultura tiene su propio ritmo y que dentro de
la misma cada artista hace gala de su propia personalidad, tambi6n lo es
que las competencias internacionales, los museos, las bienales de arte,
las publicaciones, todo, coadyuva a establecer comparaciones que no son
precisamente inocentes.
Es en este tipo de cotejos (respetando las diferencias culturales y de
personalidad) donde cada dia se hace mds evidente la pujanza, la vitalidad, el dominio tdcnico y la creatividad de los maestros latinoamericanos,
cuya contundente presencia es imposible seguir embretando en el marco
de sus respectivas 5reas.
A este g6nero pertenece Oswaldo Guayasamin, del Ecuador, cuya obra,
particularmente la de los 0ltimos dos lustros, se sostiene airosamente
frente a la de cualquier otro maestro de su generaci6n en cualquier parte
del mundo. Restaria ver cu5ntos son esos otros maestros cuya obra se
sostiene frente a la de Guayasamin.
En tal sentido, nuestra America sigue aportando valores universales,
ll6mense muralistas mexicanos o Tamayo; Berni, de la Argentina o Portinari, del Brasil; Matta, de Chile, o Lam, de Cuba, !, efl el caso que nos
ocupa, Oswaldo Guayasamin, del Ecuador.
Lo que es mds, pensamos, sin ninguna clase de patrioterismo barato,
que ninguna drea cultural definida ha manifestado en los 0ltimos aflos
tan rico y variado proliferar de talentos en esta rama especifica que son
las artes plSsticas, y en las que no olvidamos escultores de la talla de
Vitullo ni arquitectos como los mexicanos y los brasileros. Al ocuparme
de la obra de Guayasamin creo que ha llegado la hora de que caigamos
de una vez por todas en la cuenta de la presencia magistral de nuestros
artistas a fin de valorarlos al nivel universal que sus obras demandan.
;uando un artista
ntre los argumentos que m5s se esgrimen para restarle mdritos a
nuestro aporte original en tanto latinoamericanos, est6 el de que
nuestras obras tienen derivacion formal de lo europeo. ;Y por qu6 no
habrian de tenerla? O es que la calificacion de latinos no nos hace autom6ticamente herederos legitimos de la m5s rica dentro de esas tradiciones
est6ticas?
eQue la nuestra es una cultura mestiza, nacida al amparo de esa tradi-
ci'6n, ricamente mezclada con nuestros antecedentes indigenas y atricanos, segf n las distintas dreas . . . ? Tambi6n fue mesttza la cultura del
Mediterr5neo, y por ello su enorme riqueza. Alfabeto fenicio semita, matemdtica arfbiga, pensamiento griego, tradiciones godas, religion hebrea,
todo coadyuv6 para darnos esa potente cultura que llamamos "europea".
El arte de Guayasamin entronca con el muralismo mexicano y 6ste a su
vez con los maestros del Renacimiento italiano. Pero una cosa son las
raices y otra es el fruto.
Sin Am6rica y sin su pasado precolombino muy distintas serian estas
manifestaciones. La imagineria contundente del grabador Posada asoma
su linea negra con ecos que llegan hasta los postes tot6micos del Pacifico
norte. Es preocupaci6n banal hablar de influencias picassianas, como si
el gran maestro espaffol no estuviese a su vez influido por el arte africano,
o, en el caso de su obra de mayor aliento, el famoso Guernica, no hubiese
recogido la preocupaci6n de los muralistas mexicanos.
Guayasamin, espiritu abierto, se nutre de cuantas fuentes se avienen
con su sed de constructor de imSgenes nuevas para conciencias nuevas.
Precisamente, por no estar atado a ningf n complefo inferiorizante, como
no lo estS Picasso, absorbe como una esponja toda idea pldstica asimilable a su propia personalidad, y en este proceso de crecimiento va forjando su propio estilo que, a partir de L962, ird plasmando su genio
definitivo en la serie de "La edad de la ira".
Nacido en Quito en 1919 y volcado a los pinceles desde la nifrez, su
s6lida trayectoria durante unos treinta aflos parece, vista retrospectivamente, como el armaz6n de cimientos que le permitiria alcanzar esta
vertiginosa cumbre en la que hoy se encuentra. Por etapas, atravesando
un cubismo sint6tico casi planim6trico, o una figuraci6n de sabores decorativos, tan caros a la Escuela de Paris, ensayando gamas multicolores,
como en su mural "La selva", pintado en caseina sobre madera, o restringiendo su paleta a los terrosos que acompaflan el espiritu monstruoso de
sus Nifros muertos, siempre rescata Guayasamin su propia estirpe indo'
americana, mezcla de sufrimiento lricido y de capacidad para gozar de
aquello que de bueno tiene la vida en este planeta.
ero es a partir de 1962 cuando podemos decir que Guayasamin entra
en la posesion definitiva de lo suyo. "La edad de la ira" constituye
algo asi como un inmenso mural cin6tico que el artista va desarrollando a trav6s de sucesivos capitulos, subdivididos en m0ltiples telas de
gran tamaflo (hasta de cuatro metros cuadrados) que van testimoniando
una trSgica vision del destino del hombre en nuestro alienado y alienante
mundo.
Testigo que contempla desde su autorretrato de 1963, los ojos ensombrecidos por lo que ven, como tal testigo, veraz y valiente, Guayasamin
no se contenta con el rol pasivo del espectador. Antes bien, testigo en su
otra connotaci6n de mdrtir (el que da testimonio) Guayasamin juzga, y
porque juzga denuncia.
Carcelero, de la serie
La edad de la ira
"
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!$r
Judio perseguido, de la serie La edad de la ira
La serie de las manos, crispadas por la codicia, tr.6mulas en la plegaria,
paralizadas por el espanto, contrastan con la hipersensibilidad de una
linea dibujistica refinada con la hecatombe del flagelo que a su vez
fustigan o compadecen.
Compasi6n, con pasi6n, es una de las categorias por las que se mueve
Guayasamin compartiendo el dolor de los que sufren. Tan solo que su
compasi6n (con pasi'6n) no es condescendiente. Por el contrario, es rebelde. Guayasamin, como HernSndez, no nos pide, nos "manda" que lo
escuchemos. Es que su denuncia, como la del aedo criollo, es de males
de tal tamafio que bien puede retar a todos los aflos para que traigan el
olvido.
Y tambidn podria afiadir: "Esto es pura realidad". El politico
desal-
mado, el militar que traiciona su vocacion subyugando al espiritu en vez
de defenderlo, el malvado que no conoce otra ley que la de la propia
concupiscencia, a todos reparte latigazos el pincel de Guayasamin, condendndolos, como el Dante o Miguel Angel en su "Juicio Final", a un infierno del que no escapardn.
A diferencia del mundo de los torturados y oprimidos pintados en la
m6s restringida de las gamas (blancos, negros y grises), los opresores si
registran los colores del arco iris, a titulo simbolico, pues ellos son los
que protagonizan los papeles estelares de la vida.
Quizd llegue el momento en que Guayasamin amplie su galeria de mufrecos con caracteres que con mayor apariencia de inoauidad tambi6n
ensucian el aire de la sabiduria
Pero no es la tem5tica, desprendida del resto de consideraciones est6ticas, la que da vigencia al arte de Guayasamin. Muchos son los que
enarbolan parecidas banderas de inspiracion sin superar el nivel planfletario de lo circunstancial. El tema es y no es lo que hace al artista. Lo es
en la medida que act0a como legitimo resorte para poner en marcha
su vocacion expresiva; no lo es si el tema, en cuanto idea, supera la
densidad pl5stica que debe sustentarla para no transformarse en mera
ilustraci'6n.
Los desesperados N"I,
oleo sobre tela, 1966
o; 1.
Machetero, oleo
sobre tela, L949
l-
del sentimiento, que en Guayasamin se hace hambre y sed
I a intensidad
justicis
lo quiere ese Evangelio del que Guayasamin desde
I
-6es1o
por
confia
mal
explicadoes condicion necesaria pero no suficiente
precisa
de la
nivel.
obra de arte a su mds alto
Ademds, se
esa sabiduria
visual, ese amasar en tiempo y en espacio cada color, ese tener claridad
en los planteos compositivos, claridad que nace del esfuerzo y la dedicacion de una vida al sutil y arduo manejo de la materia.
Guayasamin triunfa porque es esencialmente pintor, pintor a quien
gusta cantar "en cosas de fundamento". El estilo de sus riltimas composiciones lo coloca entre los expresionistas neofigurativos, pero sin el
grado de acci6n pictorica de un De Kooning, ni la ambigUedad de un
Bacon. Podriamos decir que Guayasamin es m6s cl6sico, menos subjetivo,
o a0n, menos caprichoso. Sus im6genes estdn construidas con el rigor de
la naturaleza, sometida pero respetada. El dibujo cala con la .hondura
de lo grotesco, sin llegar a la actitud del caricaturista en cuya intencionalidad cabe la risa.
M6s cerca, pues, de Hogatth g de Goya que de Daumier y de Gillray,
Guayasamin ha eliminado el humor de su cosmovision. En los desastres
de la guerra de Goya, recuerdo haber respirado atmosfera similar, aun
cuando Guayasamin deforme m5s para tijar ideas. Me llama la atencion
la calidad de su empaste, por momentos tan leve que se aproxima
al teflido de la tela, en otros casos haciendo jugar la textura con la
modalidad de lo exquisito.
Aunque parezca contradictorio, dada la brutalidad de la imagen, Guayasamin es un gran refinado en el manejo de los medios formales, vdlido
tambi6n para los raspados de su dibujo. Entroncado a la gran tradicion
del arte de Occidente, sostenido por la espina dorsal del Ande americano, Oswaldo Guayasamin anuncia a trav6s de su pintura al hombre
nuevo, rescatador de valores que hacen a la supervivencia de una especie
meJor.
Ratael Squirru, critico de arte, poeta y ensayista argentino, ha sido
director del Museo de Arte Moderno de Buenos Aires y del Departamento
de Asuntos Culturales de la OEA. Escribe frecuentemente en Am6ricas.