Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
Painting
Precolonial
No discussion of painting in Guatemala would be complete without a mention of the fab-
ulous mural work that the Maya created long before the Spanish arrived. Most have been
severely worn by time and vandals, but a few archaeological sites such as San Bartolo and
Río Azul have paintings that remain surprisingly vivid.
Early Postcolonial
One of the earliest postcolonial painters of note was Tomás de Merlo, widely credited as
the father of the 'Antigua Baroque' movement. You can see many of his works in the Na-
tional Museum of Colonial Art, in Antigua and hanging on church walls in Antigua, too.
Modern Maya Painting
One truly Guatemalan genre of painting, dubbed 'Maya naïve art' was spearheaded by
Andrés Curruchich, a native of San Juan Comalapa near Lago de Atitlán. Curruchich's
works depicted the simple rural scenes of the Guatemalan countryside you can still see
today. There is a permanent exhibition of Curruchich's work in the Ixchel museum in
Guatemala City. While the artist died in 1969, his legacy continues - there are an estimated
500 artists working in San Juan Comalapa today, many of them trained by Curruchich him-
self. Juan Sisay was another Maya primitivist painter from the Atitlán region to gain inter-
national fame (see the boxed text,
Click here
)
.
Efraín Recinos
Of all modern Guatemalan artists, the architect, muralist, painter and sculptor Efraín Reci-
nos is probably the most famous. His murals grace Guatemala City's National Music Con-
servatory and he is also responsible for the facade of the National Library and the design of
the Centro Cultural Miguel Ángel Asturias, both also in Guatemala City. Recinos was
awarded Guatemala's highest honor, the Order of the Quetzal, in 1999, and the country
went into mourning when he died in 2011.
To find out about up-and-coming Guatemalan rock bands, the best place to go is
www.rockrepublik.net
.
