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Alejandro Obregón
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Alejandro Obregón
Alejandro Jesús Obregón Rosės (4 June 1920 – 11 April 1992) was a Colombian painter, muralist, sculptor and engraver.
Obregón was born in Barcelona, Spain. He was the son of a Colombian father and a Catalan mother. The Obregón family owned a textile factory in Barranquilla, Colombia. Most of his childhood was spent in Barranquilla and Liverpool, England. After returning to Barranquilla, he decided to become an artist. He studied fine arts in Boston for a year in 1939, then returned to Barcelona to serve as Vice-consul of Colombia for four years. He married Ilva Rasch-Isla, the daughter of poet Miguel Rasch-Isla, during his time in Spain. In 1948, he became Director of the School of Fine Arts in Santafé de Bogotá, where he was influenced by the fresco style of artists Pedro Nel Gómez and Santiago Martinez Delgado. [citation needed] He left the School of Fine Arts and moved to France with his second wife, Sonia Osorio; he later married his third wife, English painter Freda Sargent. After traveling around Europe, he returned to Barranquilla in 1955. Obregón died on April 11, 1992, succumbing to a brain tumor. He lived and worked in Cartagena for the last 22 years of his life, from 1970 until his death in 1992.[citation needed]
Obregón presented his first solo exhibition in Colombia in 1945. He participated in the fifth and sixth Salón de Artistas Colombianos in 1944 and 1945, which attracted attention from press and critics. In 1945, Obregón settled in Barranquilla where he won the first prize for Dorso de mujer at the first Salón Anual de Artistas Costeños and showed his second solo exhibition in February 1946. During the same year, he moved to Paris and exhibited work throughout France, Germany and Switzerland.[citation needed] Then he moved to Alba, near Avignon, where he remained until 1955. In 1955, Souvenir of Venice (1954) was acquired for the Museum of Modern Art New York, making Obregón one of the few Colombians in the museum's collection. He won the Salón de Artistas Colombianos Prize in 1962.[citation needed]
Obregón was primarily a painter. His compositions are usually divided horizontally into two areas; style was characterized by use of color and impasto. Landscapes were translated into geometric symbols of Colombia. Obregón is an example of the abstract Surrealist trend in Latin America.
Critic Marta Traba identified a series of characteristic elements in Obregon's work: personal poetic values; self-sufficiency in regard to freedom of form; search for identity based on the landscape, zoology, and flora; elliptic space people by magic elements; and contempt for urban culture. Obregon made extensive use of his personal imagination and vitality.
Between 1942 and 1946, Obregón assimilated different influences. His painting shows the influence of Picasso and Graham Sutherland, although these are only points of departure. Between 1947 and 1957, influenced by Goya and Picasso, he painted themes such as lunatic asylums, madmen in cafes, and dogs. He was witness to the popular revolt of April 9, 1948, and became especially interested in interpreting that event, which would reach its maximum expression in his oil Violencia. In his third period, from 1958 to 1965, Obregón made another trip to Europe and the United States. During the 1960s, Obregón used a pictographic system of his own invention, with formal and chromatic symbols. This system was recognized at the Ninth São Paulo Biennial, where he represented Colombia in his own pavilion and was awarded the Francisco Matarazzo Sobrinho Grand Prize for Latin America.[citation needed] After 1966, once he earned wide recognition at home and abroad, he switched from oils to acrylic.
Obregón took influence from European culture, while retaining an Andean imagery and stylistic creation, using guitars, bulls, and the Andean condor in his pieces. In 1959, Obregón painted his first condor, which has since appeared in almost fifty canvases during his career. While alluding to the nation, as the condor figures in Colombia's coat of arms, in Obregón's work, the condor also refers to the exaltation of the might of American nature, the ideal of liberty, and the power of vitality. The use of guitar iconography may have come from the influence of Picasso, whose Cubist influence was the starting point for Obregón's artwork.
At different times throughout his career, Obregón produced works related to political violence in Colombia, such as La Violencia, since 1948. Estudiante Muerto, awarded the national prize for Colombia at the 1956 Guggenheim International Exhibition,[citation needed] belonged to a group of paintings commemorating students and popular leaders who lost their lives during this period of social unrest.
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Alejandro Obregón
Alejandro Jesús Obregón Rosės (4 June 1920 – 11 April 1992) was a Colombian painter, muralist, sculptor and engraver.
Obregón was born in Barcelona, Spain. He was the son of a Colombian father and a Catalan mother. The Obregón family owned a textile factory in Barranquilla, Colombia. Most of his childhood was spent in Barranquilla and Liverpool, England. After returning to Barranquilla, he decided to become an artist. He studied fine arts in Boston for a year in 1939, then returned to Barcelona to serve as Vice-consul of Colombia for four years. He married Ilva Rasch-Isla, the daughter of poet Miguel Rasch-Isla, during his time in Spain. In 1948, he became Director of the School of Fine Arts in Santafé de Bogotá, where he was influenced by the fresco style of artists Pedro Nel Gómez and Santiago Martinez Delgado. [citation needed] He left the School of Fine Arts and moved to France with his second wife, Sonia Osorio; he later married his third wife, English painter Freda Sargent. After traveling around Europe, he returned to Barranquilla in 1955. Obregón died on April 11, 1992, succumbing to a brain tumor. He lived and worked in Cartagena for the last 22 years of his life, from 1970 until his death in 1992.[citation needed]
Obregón presented his first solo exhibition in Colombia in 1945. He participated in the fifth and sixth Salón de Artistas Colombianos in 1944 and 1945, which attracted attention from press and critics. In 1945, Obregón settled in Barranquilla where he won the first prize for Dorso de mujer at the first Salón Anual de Artistas Costeños and showed his second solo exhibition in February 1946. During the same year, he moved to Paris and exhibited work throughout France, Germany and Switzerland.[citation needed] Then he moved to Alba, near Avignon, where he remained until 1955. In 1955, Souvenir of Venice (1954) was acquired for the Museum of Modern Art New York, making Obregón one of the few Colombians in the museum's collection. He won the Salón de Artistas Colombianos Prize in 1962.[citation needed]
Obregón was primarily a painter. His compositions are usually divided horizontally into two areas; style was characterized by use of color and impasto. Landscapes were translated into geometric symbols of Colombia. Obregón is an example of the abstract Surrealist trend in Latin America.
Critic Marta Traba identified a series of characteristic elements in Obregon's work: personal poetic values; self-sufficiency in regard to freedom of form; search for identity based on the landscape, zoology, and flora; elliptic space people by magic elements; and contempt for urban culture. Obregon made extensive use of his personal imagination and vitality.
Between 1942 and 1946, Obregón assimilated different influences. His painting shows the influence of Picasso and Graham Sutherland, although these are only points of departure. Between 1947 and 1957, influenced by Goya and Picasso, he painted themes such as lunatic asylums, madmen in cafes, and dogs. He was witness to the popular revolt of April 9, 1948, and became especially interested in interpreting that event, which would reach its maximum expression in his oil Violencia. In his third period, from 1958 to 1965, Obregón made another trip to Europe and the United States. During the 1960s, Obregón used a pictographic system of his own invention, with formal and chromatic symbols. This system was recognized at the Ninth São Paulo Biennial, where he represented Colombia in his own pavilion and was awarded the Francisco Matarazzo Sobrinho Grand Prize for Latin America.[citation needed] After 1966, once he earned wide recognition at home and abroad, he switched from oils to acrylic.
Obregón took influence from European culture, while retaining an Andean imagery and stylistic creation, using guitars, bulls, and the Andean condor in his pieces. In 1959, Obregón painted his first condor, which has since appeared in almost fifty canvases during his career. While alluding to the nation, as the condor figures in Colombia's coat of arms, in Obregón's work, the condor also refers to the exaltation of the might of American nature, the ideal of liberty, and the power of vitality. The use of guitar iconography may have come from the influence of Picasso, whose Cubist influence was the starting point for Obregón's artwork.
At different times throughout his career, Obregón produced works related to political violence in Colombia, such as La Violencia, since 1948. Estudiante Muerto, awarded the national prize for Colombia at the 1956 Guggenheim International Exhibition,[citation needed] belonged to a group of paintings commemorating students and popular leaders who lost their lives during this period of social unrest.