Alejandro Mario Yllanes (1913–1960) was an Aymara painter and printmaker from

Bolivia Bolivia, officially the Plurinational State of Bolivia, is a landlocked country located in central South America. The country features diverse geography, including vast Amazonian plains, tropical lowlands, mountains, the Gran Chaco Province, w ...

. He disappeared from the public spotlight in 1946, after he was awarded, but did not claim, the

Guggenheim Fellowship Guggenheim Fellowships are Grant (money), grants that have been awarded annually since by the John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation, endowed by the late Simon Guggenheim, Simon and Olga Hirsh Guggenheim. These awards are bestowed upon indiv ...

.Raynor, Vivien
ART; Works by a Vanished Bolivian Painter.
''New York Times.'' 5 April 1992 (retrieved 2 May 2009)

Art career

Alejandro Yllanes was born in Oruro in 1913. He first worked as a tin miner.Arts and Literature.
''The Social Studies Lab.'' (retrieved 2 May 2009) His art career began with an exhibition in his hometown in 1930 when he was only 17 years old. He went on to show in

La Paz La Paz, officially Nuestra Señora de La Paz (Aymara language, Aymara: Chuqi Yapu ), is the seat of government of the Bolivia, Plurinational State of Bolivia. With 755,732 residents as of 2024, La Paz is the List of Bolivian cities by populati ...

and other cities, including

Mexico City Mexico City is the capital city, capital and List of cities in Mexico, largest city of Mexico, as well as the List of North American cities by population, most populous city in North America. It is one of the most important cultural and finan ...

. As an easel painter, Yllanes was extremely militant and portrayed the Bolivian government's mistreatment of Indians in his paintings.Barnitz 97 The Bolivian government exiled the artist due to his political stance. In the 1940s, Yllanes served as a cultural attache to the Bolivian Embassy in Mexico. During this time he had a solo exhibition at the

Palacio de Bellas Artes The Palacio de Bellas Artes (Palace of Fine Arts) is a prominent cultural center in Mexico City. It hosts performing arts events, literature events and plastic arts galleries and exhibitions (including important permanent Mexican murals). "Bella ...

, and

Diego Rivera Diego Rivera (; December 8, 1886 – November 24, 1957) was a Mexican painter. His large frescoes helped establish the Mexican muralism, mural movement in Mexican art, Mexican and international art. Between 1922 and 1953, Rivera painted mural ...

wrote the introduction to the show's catalog. Yllanes moved to 419 West 115th Street in

New York City New York, often called New York City (NYC), is the most populous city in the United States, located at the southern tip of New York State on one of the world's largest natural harbors. The city comprises five boroughs, each coextensive w ...

. He returned to Mexico, leaving his artwork behind in New York. It is thought he died there in 1960, but in fact, not much is known of his later years. ''Who's Who in Art'' continued to list him until 1972. His work is in the collection of the

Museum of Modern Art The Museum of Modern Art (MoMA) is an art museum located in Midtown Manhattan, New York City, on 53rd Street (Manhattan), 53rd Street between Fifth Avenue, Fifth and Sixth Avenues. MoMA's collection spans the late 19th century to the present, a ...

, and he received much critical acclaim during his lifetime. Nicholas Clemente curated a show of Yllanes' work in New York in 1992, entitled, "Being Discovered: The Spanish Conquest from the Amer-Indian Point of View." He says that Yllanes remains a highly popular artist in Bolivia.

Obras

Yllanes was inspired by Bolivia's precolumbian heritage and the native peoples of his homelands. His stylized, figurative work often includes Andean clothing, such as woolen helmets. He also painted landscapes, often on humble supports, such as burlap. Yllanes also draw in graphite, charcoal and ink, and printed with woodblocks and lithography. His palette tended towards warm earth tones In 1934, he painted tempera murals on the schoolhouse walls of Warisata, a rural commune on the Bolivian shores of

Lake Titicaca Lake Titicaca (; ; ) is a large freshwater lake in the Andes mountains on the border of Bolivia and Peru. It is often called the highest navigable lake in the world. Titicaca is the largest lake in South America, both in terms of the volume of ...

. Although never fully completed, these murals portray the daily labors of the commune and focused on sustainable productivity. The murals included scenes of ferryman crossing Lake Titicaca on reed boats and Aymara people farming, working with leather, and having a picnic. Other murals portrayed Andean history and cultural beliefs.

Published work

* Mario Yllanes, Alejandro and Linda Weintraub. ''Being discovered: the Spanish conquest from the Amer-Indian point of view: Alejandro Mario Yllanes: from the collection of Edward and Teresa Ford.'' Annandale-on-Hudson, New York: Edith C. Blum Art Institute, 1992.Alejandro Mario Yllanes.
''Google Books.'' (retrieved 21 August 2009) *Mario Alejandro Yllanes, A Bolivian Muralist, Catalogue Raisonné of Paintings Drawings and Graphic Works by Victoria Combalia for Martin du Louvre, Paris. https://www.martindulouvre.com/publications/catalogue-mario-alejandro-yllanes/

Notes

References

*Barnitz, Jacqueline
Twentieth-century art of Latin America.
Austin: University of Texas Press, 2001:97-87 (retrieved through Google Books, 2 May 2009). *Nystrom, Andrew Dean and Morgan Konn. ''Bolivia.'' Oakland, CA: Lonely Planet, 2004. .

External links