Casa museo guayasamin

3/20

The day before we flew out for the Galapagos, we visited the Casa Museo Guayasamín, the home of and museum dedicated to Oswaldo Guayasamín, considered Ecuador's most influencial painter and artist.  A humanitarian who was a vocal critic of the US and a fan of Cuba, his art centered on the suffering of the lower classes and of indigenous South Americans in particular. We started with "Capilla del Hombre," the Chapel of man, a building specifically designed to display Oswaldo's art in the most dramatic possible way.  It meets that goal admirably.  Finished in 2002 (after his death), it's a  two level complex with a collection of many of his largest pieces (some of which had to be done in sections and assembled into the final product, like the dome shown below).

From there, we moved to Casa Museo Guayasamin, the artist's former home.  It contained more of his art, some of which was displayed in his studio, but it also included art he collected.  Surprisingly, it was mostly Catholic symbology and religious art rather than the pre-Columbian art one might expect, with other eclectic (and in some cases famous) contemporay pieces mixed in.

From the main house, we walked through the art studio and saw personal photos (some of him with Fidel Castro, which was interesting) and a preserved picture of what it looked like when he was in the process of painting.  From there, we headed into a basement that had more of his work on display.

Back to the main Quito page