One of the coolest thing I did when I was in Quito was visiting the Museo Guayasamín. Oswaldo Guayasamín (1919-1999) was a Quito native and one of Ecuador’s most famous artists of all time, and probably the most well-known of the past century. He was of mixed and indigenous descent, and is well known for addressing racism, especially the conflicts between whites, mestizos, and indigenous people in Latin America, in his paintings. Towards the end of his life, he built a huge ‘Chapel for Humanity’ on the land near his home (tucked away in a quiet neighborhood in the hills surrounding Quito) and filled it with murals and paintings. He never finished the entire structure and its paintings, and the ceiling remains only partially completed. Some of his paintings are polemic and political, but others are more personal. I visited the Museum with Johanna-the same Embassy worker who I went on the fateful trip to Baños with-and her sister. We had a great visit, despite some fog and rain-only a bit of the museum is outside. You can also visit his home, which is filled with his private collection upstairs in the living area, and a huge collection of his art the former garage and his former studio. Below are a few pictures I took (without a flash) from the museum.
(part of a series of portraits of the ‘Faces of America’ or something similar)
(a self portrait)
(Jesus’ body being attended to by an indigenous, mestizo, and white/European women)
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