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| The artist's living room. That's his painting of the City of Quito on the wall, at the left. |
It was nice sunny late morning/early afternoon. I walked past what I call "Calle de Pollo," the "Street of Chicken."
Three chicken restaurants all in a row. First was KFC, which they still call Kentucky Fried Chicken because Ecuadorians love both chicken and fried. Then, next to it, was Texas Chicken. Which was strange because in the USA, we don't associate Texas with chicken. Then next to that was Campero Pollo, Campero Chicken. This is most definitely chicken-eating country.
I walked past Plaza Argentina, which looked like it had some interesting statuary.
Then I started to climb.
All walks in Quito are uphill.
Both ways.
Finally, I received a sign that I was heading in the right direction to Capilla Del Hombre, the Chapel of Man:
Actually, it was a street sign. But task accomplished. After a major uphill climb, I learned that I still knew how to read a paper map and that I was heading in the right direction.
And here it is, La Capilla del Hombre.
It's not a chapel as in a church-chapel. It is a museum housing the works of the most renowned Ecuadorian artist of the 20th Century: Oswaldo Guayasamín. No. I do not know who were the other competitors for that title. I'm sure the competition was stiff. Like maybe that guy on the side of the road from the drive to Quilatoa yesterday:
Yeah, maybe him.
Anyway, before touring Capilla Del Hombre, I was shunted off to join the English language tour of the Fundación Guayasamín, the artist's home, which doubles as a museum. The tour had started about 10 seconds earlier, so I missed very little.
This is the formal dining room, where the tour began.
For a modern artist, whose politics seemed to run comfortably to the left of Bernie, maybe even bleeding over into full-bore communism, there was a surprising amount of religious art.
Is "full-bore" the right word to describe someone's communism? Having read Orwell's "Animal Farm," shouldn't that be "full boar"?
This is our guide. Guiding us through the collection.
An armless crucifix. Which raises the question: how did he stay up there if he had no arms? And the answer is: divinity.
And from one extreme to the other:
Guayasamín's collection of ancient, pornographic pottery. The third shelf is from Mexico. The fourth is from Peru. The fifth is from Ecuador. The top two were probably also Mexico, which surprised me, because I always thought Peru was the largest producer of ancient pornographic pottery.
The front room.
The guitar was from Spanish flamenco guitarist Paco de Lucia. We'll be seeing him again soon.
This is the artist's in-home studio.
This is his portrait of Paco de Lucia.
He elongated the face because he thought the guitarist's skull was like a cathedral. Seriously. There is a video of him saying exactly that. Well, not exactly. He said it in Spanish.
This is the head of Oswaldo Guayasamín himself.
His skull is not elongated. I guess he didn't see himself as a cathedral.
This is seven women. The theme is the horrors of war.
Seven women for the seven days of the week, according to the guide. But let's take a closer look at the one I will call "Wednesday":
She has man hands! In fact, all of the women in the art of Guayasamín have huge elongated bear claws for hands. He must see those hands as cathedrals, which each finger a soaring bell tower.
Here is the artist himself, well his sculpted un-elongated head, looking at another multi-piece mostly black and white work of his art:
And that concludes the tour of the interior.
Let's have a look-see at the exterior.
The swimming pool with a fabulous view of Quito.
For a friend of Castro and Salvador Allende, and an acquaintance of Mao, he sure did live the high life.
Three chicken restaurants all in a row. First was KFC, which they still call Kentucky Fried Chicken because Ecuadorians love both chicken and fried. Then, next to it, was Texas Chicken. Which was strange because in the USA, we don't associate Texas with chicken. Then next to that was Campero Pollo, Campero Chicken. This is most definitely chicken-eating country.
I walked past Plaza Argentina, which looked like it had some interesting statuary.
Then I started to climb.
All walks in Quito are uphill.
Both ways.
Finally, I received a sign that I was heading in the right direction to Capilla Del Hombre, the Chapel of Man:
Actually, it was a street sign. But task accomplished. After a major uphill climb, I learned that I still knew how to read a paper map and that I was heading in the right direction.
And here it is, La Capilla del Hombre.
It's not a chapel as in a church-chapel. It is a museum housing the works of the most renowned Ecuadorian artist of the 20th Century: Oswaldo Guayasamín. No. I do not know who were the other competitors for that title. I'm sure the competition was stiff. Like maybe that guy on the side of the road from the drive to Quilatoa yesterday:
Yeah, maybe him.
Anyway, before touring Capilla Del Hombre, I was shunted off to join the English language tour of the Fundación Guayasamín, the artist's home, which doubles as a museum. The tour had started about 10 seconds earlier, so I missed very little.
This is the formal dining room, where the tour began.
For a modern artist, whose politics seemed to run comfortably to the left of Bernie, maybe even bleeding over into full-bore communism, there was a surprising amount of religious art.
Is "full-bore" the right word to describe someone's communism? Having read Orwell's "Animal Farm," shouldn't that be "full boar"?
This is our guide. Guiding us through the collection.
An armless crucifix. Which raises the question: how did he stay up there if he had no arms? And the answer is: divinity.
And from one extreme to the other:
Guayasamín's collection of ancient, pornographic pottery. The third shelf is from Mexico. The fourth is from Peru. The fifth is from Ecuador. The top two were probably also Mexico, which surprised me, because I always thought Peru was the largest producer of ancient pornographic pottery.
The front room.
The guitar was from Spanish flamenco guitarist Paco de Lucia. We'll be seeing him again soon.
This is the artist's in-home studio.
This is his portrait of Paco de Lucia.
He elongated the face because he thought the guitarist's skull was like a cathedral. Seriously. There is a video of him saying exactly that. Well, not exactly. He said it in Spanish.
This is the head of Oswaldo Guayasamín himself.
His skull is not elongated. I guess he didn't see himself as a cathedral.
This is seven women. The theme is the horrors of war.
Seven women for the seven days of the week, according to the guide. But let's take a closer look at the one I will call "Wednesday":
She has man hands! In fact, all of the women in the art of Guayasamín have huge elongated bear claws for hands. He must see those hands as cathedrals, which each finger a soaring bell tower.
Here is the artist himself, well his sculpted un-elongated head, looking at another multi-piece mostly black and white work of his art:
And that concludes the tour of the interior.
Let's have a look-see at the exterior.
The swimming pool with a fabulous view of Quito.
For a friend of Castro and Salvador Allende, and an acquaintance of Mao, he sure did live the high life.
Four legs good. Two legs better.
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