Cecilio Guzmán de Rojas (24 October 1899[a] – 14 February 1950) was a Bolivian painter and a leader of the indigenous art movement.[1] He is considered Bolivia's preeminent artist from the first half of the 20th century.[2]
Cecilio Guzmán de Rojas | |
|---|---|
 | |
| Born | 24 October 1899 |
| Died | 14 February 1950 (aged 50) |
| Education |
|
| Notable work | Self-portrait (1919)
The Triumph of Nature (1928) The Kiss of the Idol (1929) Inca Princess (1931) |
Life
editGuzmán de Rojas was born in Potosí, Bolivia.[3] His father, Cecilio Guzmán Blanco, was a Spanish teacher from Cochabamba, and his mother, Justa Rojas, loved painting and instilled him with an artistic sensibility from a young age.[1]
When he was 12 years old, his family moved to Cochabamba, where he became a student of Avelino Nogales and George Mattewie, and by the age of 19, he became skilled enough to produce a series of oil paintings, including his first self-portrait, in which he is depicted smoking, wearing a rose in his lapel and a bowler hat; the painting is considered to be in the style of the decadent movement.[1]
He went to Spain in 1921,[b] where, in most accounts, he received a scholarship to the Royal Academy of Fine Arts of San Fernando.[1][2] Some sources, however, say that his trip was financed by his family, which had recently become wealthy.[2] In Spain, he studied with Julio Romero de Torres,[3][4] José Moreno Carbonero, and Manuel Benedito. During his time there, he made reproductions of Spanish Golden Age painters.[1] Later he traveled to Paris and enrolled in the Arts et Métiers ParisTech, where he studied impressionism and cubism.[1]
In 1929, Guzmán de Rojas returned to La Paz, Bolivia, where he took a job as director of the Academy of Fine Arts and lecturer.[2] He became a public figure and leader of the Bolivian indigenous art movement at this time, and was known for mixing Art Nouveau and Art Deco styles with Indigenist imagery.[4]
Guzmán de Rojas taught the American modernist painter Evelyn Metzger, while she was living in South America.[5]
He was the father of the noted mathematician, scientist and linguist Iván Guzmán de Rojas.[6]
He died by suicide in the bucolic landscape of Llojeta, La Paz, shooting himself twice in the chest.[7][3][2] He did not leave a suicide note, and it is not known for certain why he took his own life.[2]
The Triumph of Nature (Spanish: El Triunfo de la Naturaleza) by Cecilio Guzmán de Rojas (1928)
Self portrait at the age of 19 (1919)
Notes
editReferences
edit- 1 2 3 4 5 6 Bolivia, Opinión (14 September 2014). "Cecilio Guzmán de Rojas, precursor de la pintura indigenista". Opinión Bolivia (in Spanish). Retrieved 2 May 2026.
- 1 2 3 4 5 6 "Cuestiones abiertas acerca de la vida y la obra de Cecilio Guzmán de Rojas – CHASKA" (in Spanish). 1 May 2026. Retrieved 2 May 2026.
- 1 2 3 "Guzmán de Rojas, Cecilio". Union List of Artist Names Online. J. Paul Getty Trust. Retrieved 19 October 2012.
- 1 2 "Interview of Cecilio Guzmán de Rojas". LatinArt.com. Retrieved 8 November 2024.
- ↑ "A Finding Aid to the Evelyn Borchard Metzger papers, 1959-1968 | Archives of American Art, Smithsonian Institution". www.aaa.si.edu. Retrieved 7 November 2024.
- ↑ DEBER, EL. "Muere a los 88 años Iván Guzmán de Rojas, uno de los notables de la Corte Electoral". EL DEBER (in Spanish). Retrieved 2 May 2026.
- ↑ "Bolivianos ilustres" (in Spanish). Bolivia.com. Retrieved 21 October 2012.