Oswaldo Viteri (born Ambato,

Ecuador Ecuador ( ; ; Quechua: ''Ikwayur''; Shuar: ''Ecuador'' or ''Ekuatur''), officially the Republic of Ecuador ( es, República del Ecuador, which literally translates as "Republic of the Equator"; Quechua: ''Ikwadur Ripuwlika''; Shuar: ' ...

, 1931) is an Ecuadorian neo-figurative artist. Viteri gained recognition for his assemblage work, but has worked in a wide variety of media, including painting, drawing, printmaking, and mosaics. He began his education as a student of architecture at the Central University of

Quito Quito (; qu, Kitu), formally San Francisco de Quito, is the capital and largest city of Ecuador, with an estimated population of 2.8 million in its urban area. It is also the capital of the province of Pichincha. Quito is located in a valley on ...

in 1951. Viteri worked in the workshop of Oswaldo Guayasamín and in 1959 assisted him on a mural commission for the Ministry of Public Works. During the 1960s he focused on painting and studying anthropology and folklore. In 1966, Viteri finished his degree in architecture and was appointed director of the Ecuadorian Institute of Folklore. He began to explore more experimental techniques of making art by incorporating

collage Collage (, from the french: coller, "to glue" or "to stick together";) is a technique of art creation, primarily used in the visual arts, but in music too, by which art results from an Assemblage (art), assemblage of different forms, thus creat ...

and objects into his canvases. He made his first assemblage works in 1968 and appeared in his first "happening" that same year in

. He began to exhibit his work internationally in the 1960s, including in the 1964 Biennale of Córdoba,

Argentina Argentina (), officially the Argentine Republic ( es, link=no, República Argentina), is a country in the southern half of South America. Argentina covers an area of , making it the List of South American countries by area, second-largest ...

, and in the 1969

São Paulo São Paulo (, ; Portuguese for ' Saint Paul') is the most populous city in Brazil, and is the capital of the state of São Paulo, the most populous and wealthiest Brazilian state, located in the country's Southeast Region. Listed by the GaW ...

Biennial for which he received honorable mention. His work became more sculptural in the 1970s as he began his Multiples series of assemblage works that use rag dolls and found objects. He has been twice candidate to the Prince of Asturias Awards. Mr. Viteri's house in northern Quito is now
museum
welcoming visitors by appointment.

Notable Exhibitions

* Museo Nacional - Buenos Aires, Argentina (1986) * Museo Rufino Tamayo - Mexico, D.F. (1988) * National Museum - Moderna Museet - Stockholm, Sweden (1989) * Museo Marco - Monterrey, Mexico (1995) * Museo Nacional de Bellas Artes - Buenos Aires, Argentina (2002) * Museum of Latin America Art (2003)

References

* Sullivan, Edward J., ''Latin American Art in the Twentieth Century''. Phaidon Press Limited; London, 1996. * Barnitz, Jacqueline, ''Twentieth-Century Art of Latin America''. University of Texas Press; Austin, TX, 2001. * http://www.latinart.com * http://www.viteri.com.ec 1931 births Living people People from Ambato, Ecuador Modern painters Ecuadorian painters Ecuadorian sculptors 20th-century sculptors {{Ecuador-painter-stub