Dec 7th, 2001 by M. A. Bello
Devoción del Pueblo: Religious Folk Art of Guatemala
American Bible Society, 1865 Broadway, New York, NY 10023
5 October – 29 December 2001
The Gallery at the headquarters of the American Bible Society in New York seems an unlikely venue for an exhibition of santos from Guatemala. Its major objective is to showcase art with biblical inspiration, and the 76 hand-carved wood figures currently on display are an expression of Catholic tradition and Maya ritual. The Society is a Protestant institution.
The Gallery does not have a permanent collection. Devoción del Pueblo is on loan from Messiah College, a small Evangelical liberal arts school in Pennsylvania. An illustrated brochure accompanies the show, along with a couple of informative handouts in either English or Spanish. Three special events are part of the program: a lecture by Fatima Bercht of El Museo del Barrio, a roundtable discussion with professors of Art and Religious Studies from Messiah, and a tour with curator David Parkyn.
The installation is a colorful affair. Wall-text is set against either a yellow or red background. There are blue bases and yellow pedestals. Glass cases have red interiors, and some backdrops are orange. These colors introduce various sections of the exhibition. Angels and Archangels are at one end. The Virgin Mary and the Passion of Christ are at another. Between these categories are Indigenous and Traditional Saints. There are also separate areas devoted to the Crafting of Santos and to a family altar.
The San Miguel pictured on the cover of the exhibition brochure reflects this overall color scheme. With blue wings fully spread and a red cape flapping in mid-air, the young and handsome warrior appears frozen in action. He is portrayed standing barefoot on one leg at the moment of battle against evil, sword extended over his head (yellow streaks of light on the blade) and the scales of justice in hand. His powerful arms bulge from an armor-like green tunic trimmed in orange gold. The face concentrated on victory is capped with a head of black curls, parted and swept back. Miguel Sacj ‘Tai, the wood carver from Nahualá, is in full control of his craft.
The organizers of the exhibition do not have an equal grip on their subject. To them, santos still “chronicle a way of life that revolves around celebrations and festivals that give meaning to a people’s Christian faith.” The viewpoint may work for a classroom discussion, but it denies the effects of a sweeping evangélico movement in the country. Conversions alter these traditions.
Devoción del Pueblo is an engaging show. It brings to uptown Manhattan a large cast of Catholic and Maya characters from the Highlands of Guatemala, but their pilgrimage is a puzzle. How do American Evangelical missionaries who convert the indigenous from Catholicism to “Christianity” — rejecting in the process all devotion of traditional images — become themselves collectors of religious folk art?
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Nov 1st, 2001 by M. A. Bello
Blanca de Fanjul: Santos
Casa Santo Domingo, La Antigua Guatemala
3-18 November 2001
Blanca de Fanjul is a self-taught mid-career artist from Guatemala. She does not, as a rule, participate in gallery shows, and she paints without any regard to the art market. Many of her works are in private collections, but the general public, for the most part, is unaware of her creative output. Nonetheless, her paintings are much sought-after, first for their unique style, and then for their scarcity.
Ms. Fanjul is not a primitive or naïve painter, and the absence of such labels is precisely what sets her apart. 
She has no interest in documenting her surroundings or way of life. Instead, her paintings are often summaries of an inner search. She studies a subject or period and translates those findings to her paintings. The manner of expression is a fairly recognizable one. There is an immediacy to her work, a heads-on confrontation. This feeling is achieved by the use of near-flat areas of intense colors.
The exhibition is Ms. Fanjul’s take on Christian iconography. She borrows the Byzantine format as a starting point and paints on wood panels of various sizes. The subjects are a traditional cast of characters: Jesus, Mary, apostles, saints, and angels. However, her icons are purely ornamental in nature and serve no function as sacred objects. The stylized figures are simple reminders of a by-gone era.
The venue for the show, a Dominican convent turned into a luxury hotel, seems appropriate enough. Both the setting and the artworks compliment each other by calling to mind a distant religious past from the here-and-now.
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Jul 13th, 2001 by M. A. Bello
María José Alvarez and Claudia Gordillo
Instituto Guatemalteco de Cultura Hispánica
Edificio Galerías España, 7a. Avenida 11-63, Zona 9, Guatemala City
5-19 July 2001
Estampas del Caribe Nicaragüense.
María José Alvarez & Claudia Gordillo. Text by María Dolores G. Torres.
Managua: Instituto de Historia de Nicaragua. y Centroamérica, 2000. 159 pages.
ISBN: 99924-0051-X.
The photographs currently on view at the Instituto de Cultura Hispánica depict quite a different Nicaragua. The pictures by María José Alvarez and Claudia Gordillo are records of diversity along the country’s Caribbean coast. Their subjects are the indigenous people of the area: Miskitos, Sumos, Ramas, Garífunas, and Creoles.
The show comes directly from Nicaragua to Guatemala and travels from here to Mexico and Spain. The catalog (in Spanish only) reproduces all the works in the exhibition. It includes a short introduction by Alejandro Aróstegui and a scholarly essay by María Dolores Torres. The project is funded mainly by the Instituto de Historia de Nicaragua y Centroamérica and the Spanish Embassy.
María José Alvarez (b. 1955) and Claudia Gordillo (b. 1954) make the short list of women photographers in Nicaragua. (Other female photographers are Rossana Lacayo, Margarita Montealegre, and Celeste González.) Alvarez has studied in England and the United States. She is a founder of the Instituto de Cine Nicaragüense and the country’s first woman movie director. She is also a teacher, publisher, TV and film producer. Claudia Gordillo has studied in Italy. As a war correspondent, she is credited with the introduction of documentary photography to Nicaragua. Her work has been widely published in several countries. She is a professor at the Universidad Centroamericana and the recipient of a Guggenheim Memorial Foundation prize.
Both photographers offer testimony of a reality far from the rest of society. Their work falls into the category of straight photography. They are not snapshots. These untouched images are visual documents of historical significance. They demand reading and interpretation, not just a passing glance. The so-called estampas summarize 20 years of labor and have been taken “with love and affection but never with indifference.” Alvarez’ walla-gallo series illustrates such effort. The Garífuna ceremony, a healing ritual, is recorded with great precision. The camera follows Doña Valentina’s every step — the drums, the song and dance, the sacrificial rooster, the food offerings. The progression becomes an open invitation to join in the activities. Gordillo’s photographs have their own alluring quality. Her Rama Cay is a haunting print of a woman standing on a cayuco. The dress billows in the wind as she dashes off, a tempting mythical figure above the water. It is a scene of pure magic realism.
The catalog essay by Torres, a Spanish art historian who has lived in Nicaragua since 1966, is a solid discussion of photography. It is appropriately footnoted with a bibliography. The emphasis is on Alvarez and Gordillo and the documentary nature of their work. Portraiture and landscape are also treated in the presentation.
In recent years, a team from INGUAT has attempted comparable documentation of musicians in Guatemala, but there has been no published account of their field work. The photography exhibition at the Instituto de Cultura Hispánica — and the catalog — are both an inspiration and challenge to local artists.
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Jun 1st, 2001 by M. A. Bello
Carlos Valenti: Colección Dr. Manuel Morales
Casa M.I.M.A., 8a. Avenida 14-12, Zona 1, Guatemala City
23 April – 16 June 2001
Carlos Valenti, obra y vida.
Rosina Cazali, General Editor.
Guatemala: Ediciones Dr. Manuel Morales, 2000. 60 pages.
ISBN: none.
Carlos Valenti (1888-1912) is a figure of great mythic proportions in Guatemala. The painter’s friendship with Carlos Mérida and his suicide at age 24 in Paris make for a good story. Works by Valenti are rare, and few of them are on public view. The one major collection in the country is that of Dr. Manuel Morales, and the core of his holdings are currently on exhibit at Casa M.I.M.A. in the Centro Histórico. To mark the event, the Morales family has underwritten the publication of a catalog.
Carlos Valenti, obra y vida is an important contribution to art literature in Guatemala. It is not a lengthy book, but the essays by Luis Villacorta, Silvia Lanuza, Rosina Cazali, and Guillermo Monsanto are well-written and to the point, and the photography by Daniel Chauche is first-rate. Villacorta provides background information on Morales (1874-1969) and the collection. As physician to the Valenti family, Morales has ready access to the emerging artist and his work. These early acquisitions become the principal loans for a show at the Academia Nacional de Bellas Artes following Valenti’s death. Lanuza’s contribution is a biographical sketch. Besides highlighting crucial dates and events, she points to Valenti’s diabetes as leading to depression and loss of sight — eventually causing the artist to shoot himself. Cazali focuses on Valenti’s legacy and his unfinished body of work. She dismisses drawings or prints based on a European model, as well as Impressionist-like landscapes. Her preference is to take a more thematic approach. Monsanto’s cronología narrada is a history of Guatemala City and its monuments during Valenti’s lifetime.
The breadth of the Morales Collection is made clear by the plates and illustrations. Its assets are a testament to a career cut short. Among these treasures is Desnudo de niña, an unconventional portrait for its underlying sensuality. The work is Valenti’s challenge to a prevailing genre. His concern is with shape, light, and color — and not with the female figure itself. There is no primness. Honesty and clarity evoke an atmosphere of intimacy in the composition.
Both the exhibition and catalog introduce Carlos Valenti to a new generation. Lanuza admits to Valenti not being a familiar household name. To Cazali, society has long snubbed and neglected the artist for taking his own life. Monsanto sees in Valenti the stuff of legends. All three writers agree on one thing: Valenti is an important figure in 20th-century art in Guatemala.
The Morales Collection has suffered much damage over the years, but many of the artworks have been restored recently for the current show. Casa M.I.M.A. offers a unique opportunity to view them and to acquire the catalog. Anything related to Carlos Valenti is scarce and is not to be missed by a new and appreciative audience.
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Apr 6th, 2001 by M. A. Bello
José Carlos Flores: Zonas Adyacentes
Sol del Río, 5ta. Avenida 10-40, Zona 9 and 14 Calle 2-51, Zona 10, Guatemala City
16-31 March 2001
The recent opening of Zonas Adyacentes at Sol del Río’s two locations was in itself an art performance — and certainly the first of its kind in Guatemala. A school bus transported gallery goers back-and-forth between Zones 9 and 10 in order to view a range of works by a Who’s-Who list of the younger set of artists: María Dolores Castellanos, Darío Escobar, Luis González Palma, Aníbal López, Diana de Solares, and Irene Torrebiarte among them. The idea was for the gallery to erase physical constraints of space and for participants to travel unhindered into an art dimension. There seemed to be something for every taste during the inaugural event (painting and sculpture, photography and digital art, installations and performances). The strongest showing was not by one of the familiar names. The photographs of people and their tattoos by José Carlos Flores took center stage. His images beckoned viewers to an exotic and seductive world of human skin recorded in sepia tones.
Flores is a photographer with a low profile, but he is not a newcomer to his craft. He studied with Diego Molina and has had over 50 shows in the last 20 years. Since 1997, he has documented the faithful of La Antigua during Lent and Holy Week observances. He won first prize in last year’s International Great Picture Contest sponsored by Popular Photography with a vintage-like image of a procession. His winning entry in the Travel/Scenic Category was one of 60,000 submissions by 10,000 photographers from around the world.
The tattoo series at Sol del Río is a new direction for Flores, who like Diane Arbus is attracted to characters on the fringe. 
His portraits reflect changing perceptions of beauty in settings marked by light and darkness. In a somewhat documentary fashion, the prints are a guided tour of illicit territory. Most of the subjects turn away from the camera to expose various markings on their bodies. A woman shows her naked back as she sits cross-legged on an animal skin rug, or a man looks over his shoulder in a posture of self-embrace. Others, like the young indigenous with a loincloth, face the camera straight-on. A very powerful sensuality comes across in all these pictures.
Flores is not a gimmicky photographer. He is honest in the treatment of his medium. There is no overpaint, no cut and scrapes, and no tears on any of his prints. These staged portraits have a definite edge to them and break from any preconceived notions of photography in Guatemala today.
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Mar 2nd, 2001 by M. A. Bello
Alfredo Ceibal
The New Year has started with much fanfare for Latin American art in the United States. Major publications such as ARTnews, Art in America, and BOMB have focused on the subject, either with features on artists and collectors or with reviews and other items. Art & Antiques has pegged all the current fuss as the Latin American moment and has even singled out five artists worth watching: Mario Pérez, Elsa Mora, Alfredo Ceibal, Edouard Duval-Carrié, and Emi Winter. Ceibal is Guatemalan. The other four are from Argentina, Cuba, Haiti, and Mexico.
The magazine’s choice of Alfredo Ceibal is a good one. He has lived and worked in New York City for many years, and aside from an exhibition at Sol del Río in the Capital, he has not been part of the country’s art scene. Yet, Ceibal is probably the artist producing the most Guatemalan of paintings on the international front. He is a provocative storyteller with a tight focus. His colorful canvases are filled with huge interiors, tiny people, and an ever-present magical landscape just out-of-doors. There is something of the naïve about these whimsical settings where rituals and celebrations of everyday life become complicated folk melodies. A nod to Francisco Tún seems evident in some of these paintings.
Ceibal is not a newcomer to the art world. He has had many solo exhibitions, including one at the famous Galería Nina Menocal in Mexico City. He is also the 
winner of the prestigious Premio MARCO awarded by the Museo de Arte Contemporáneo in Monterrey.
The MARCO entry, El espejo perfecto, is a series of interlocking horizontal and vertical construction blocks. The setting seems equally strange and familiar with small figures positioned throughout the structure. Glimpses of a surreal scenery beyond the various openings creates tension between real and imaginary zones and suggests other dimensions of time and space. It is not quite a subtle tonality, but it works as texture for the pictorial surface. The composition resembles a very colorful and tightly woven textile. Ceibal achieves similar effects in a painting called Prophylaxis. He explains: “My paintings attempt to reveal my fascination for a series of multi-faceted worlds occurring somewhere in an imprecise time.”
Alfredo Ceibal merits all the current praise. His peculiar style reflects Guatemalan sources and blends puzzling imagery into works of great poetic beauty. The paintings appeal to a universal interest in the otherworldly far beyond the national borders.
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Jan 19th, 2001 by M. A. Bello
NEOS Guide. Guatemala — Belize.
Greenville, SC: Michelin Travel Publications, 2000. 384 pages.
ISBN: 2-06-855801-7.
Michelin has recently published a new guide for Guatemala and Belize. Part of its NEOS Collection,the book differs from its green predecessor in more than just color and shape. Guatemala is no longer a mere 24-page afterthought in the tourist guide for Mexico. The new publication with its eye-catching zapote cover is almost 400 pages, and it includes over 20 maps, plus plenty of photographs and watercolor illustrations. Belize plays the secondary role this time.
The NEOS Collection targets travelers to the more unusual or unconventional destination. Other countries already in this series are Cuba, Réunion-Mauritius-Seychelles, Syria-Jordan, Tunisia, and Turkey — upcoming are Indonesia, Rajasthan, and Sri Lanka-Maldives.
The new travel guide follows the Michelin rate system: three stars for Must-See, two for Worth Seeing, and one for Interesting. La Antigua, Chichicastenango, Lake Atitlán, and Tikal all rate three stars. In the two star category are Livingston, Quezaltenango, Quiriguá, Sololá, and Todos Santos. Guatemala City rates only one star. The book also suggests several tour itineraries according to the number of days in the country, and unlike its more traditional green counterpart, the NEOS lists accommodations, restaurants, bars and discos, as well as a shopping guide. Distances are given in kilometers, and prices are quoted in dollars.
The NEOS is divided into four sections: Setting the Scene, Meeting the People, Practical Information, and Exploring Guatemala. There is much useful material on these pages, and the three introductory sections make for interesting reading both before and after a visit to the country. A basic description of weaving and a key to Maya costumes are handy references. There is also a selective list of recent books on Guatemala under the general heading of Holiday Reading. Among the titles are Rigoberta Menchú’s autobiography and David Stoll’s reaction to the Nobel laureate’s life story. The last section outlines a comprehensive travel plan starting from Guatemala City. It includes the Highlands, the Pacific Coast, El Petén, and the road to the Caribbean. Optional side trips are noted along the way.
Tourists have a choice of travel guides, and Michelin’s NEOS is probably one of the best currently on the market. It is not without a few errors and omissions, but this new little book is an indispensable companion on a trip to Guatemala — and perhaps even to Belize.
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Nov 24th, 2000 by M. A. Bello
Ramón Avila: Una revisión de su presencia artística en Guatemala, 1963-2000
Compañía de Jesús, La Antigua Guatemala
6 October – 31 December 2000
It is difficult to enjoy the current show of Ramón Avila’s work at the Compañía de Jesús in La Antigua. There is simply too much on view.
Avila is well known in Guatemala as a painter and graphic artist who boasts over 200 solo and group exhibitions. Originally from Barcelona, he has lived in the country since the early 1960s and is a naturalized citizen. The family-run Arte Papel in San Lucas Sacatepéquez is a reputable source for serigraphs.
The Avila exhibition is billed as a retrospective covering the last 37 years, but it is really an exposición/venta, and as such, it is more like a garage sale. Every unsold item in storage (over 300) seems to be on display at the colonial convent without much curatorial effort. The installation is a maze of artworks in mixed media and dimensions. There is literally no room to step back and appreciate any of the pieces. The large inventory is nothing less than a self-promotional tour de force.
Avila’s production is hugely over-rated in Guatemala. What is often considered innovative and influential in the country is labeled as derivative on an international level. Among the best-in-show are the bulls. Large-scale portraits and bells rank as the worst and bring to mind paint-by-number kits from early childhood. In between are countless series of abstractions. They differ little from one another and are both hard to describe and recall shortly after viewing them.
The 35-page softcover catalog is a foot square. It is beautifully illustrated in color and black-and-white. The essay by Guillermo Monsanto is general and sweeping in scope. It is well researched and succeeds in providing a historical perspective. There is no detailed discussion of specific works. The text in three languages (Catalán, English, and Spanish) nicely stretches the presentation. The English translation is incomprehensible without a command of Spanish.
The exhibition is dedicated to the memory of Avila’s son Fernando, and this gesture, along with the boy’s portrait, is a loving tribute from a father artist.
There seems to be plenty more of Avila still in bodega. Another retrospective is scheduled for 2001 by the Museo Nacional de Arte Moderno in Guatemala City.
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Oct 13th, 2000 by M. A. Bello
Distant Voices IV: Images of the Other America
The Puffin Room, 435 Broome St., New York, NY 10013
10 September – 15 October 2000
Again, there is a show in New York of photographs from Guatemala, and these pictures are not of the pretty kind. Vince Heptig’s images of massacre sites and military personnel document a sad period of the country’s history. It is not an unbiased political message. The camera aims and shoots with accuracy at its target, reflecting an outsider’s perception of an internal struggle. The work on display, La 
Lucha Maya, meets the expected requirements of an activist mindset. Absent from the presentation are references to the peace accord and democratic process.
Heptig’s recent book, The Maya Struggle, is perhaps a more balanced portrayal of Guatemala and its people than the current exhibition at the Puffin Room in SoHo. The difference may be a matter of curatorial decisions. Besides Heptig’s pictures, there are two other photo essays on view at the same time — one by Maya women of Chiapas, Mexico and another of the Macuxi from Brazil by Robyn Kapp. The choice of photographs is based on preconceived notions of the indigenous.
Of the 19 pictures by Heptig, many are from his book. There are some heartbreaking images of skeletal remains and of families crying for their dead, but none of these illustrations is as disturbing as that of two children at Army Day celebrations. The 
photograph captures a moment of transition, a changing of the guard — a boy and a girl representing the future of a nation. They are not white middle-class children. The faces betray a ladino heritage. Wearing military uniform and carrying weapons (fingers on the trigger), they strike an adult pose by a cannon on an empty field. Their make-belief world is reflected in the pomp and ceremony of the background. These are not ordinary children. They are a product of conflict, tyranny and violence.
The three groupings of photographs and accompanying films — A Place Called Chiapas, School of the Americas, and Enemies of War — are projects of the Puffin Foundation. The once endangered bird serves as its symbol. The goal of the Foundation is to “initiate and strengthen the creative spirit that has been trampled or lost.” The SoHo space is its center for the arts and activism.
The photographs from Guatemala at the Puffin Room cater to politically correct audiences. These images reinforce their vision of a country still at war. It is time to show a more current reality. The indigenous, too, are affected by tourism. Weaving and other folk arts cannot be sustained by a local economy. To perpetuate an ugly past is no longer an option. The socially responsible approach is to encourage people to visit Guatemala, not to instill fear of travel. It is difficult — and even dangerous — to erase these negative perceptions. Photojournalists like Vince Heptig, who are passionate about the country, face such a challenge.
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Aug 3rd, 2000 by M. A. Bello
Rae Leeth: Bronce y mármol en armonía
El Attico, 4ta. Avenida 15-45, Zona 14, Guatemala City
2 August – 5 September 2000
To the art community in Guatemala City and La Antigua, Rae Leeth may be known affectionately as la escultora americana, but the label can be a somewhat misleading one. Leeth, like Leonora Carrington in Mexico, truly belongs to Guatemala. She speaks fluent Spanish, has lived and worked in the country for many years, and is represented by the most respected galleries in the nation. She has flourished as an artist entirely in Guatemala.
Leeth can be a prolific sculptor. In Guatemala, besides countless gallery shows, she participates regularly in the Bienal de Arte Paiz, the Certamen de Juannio, and the Subasta del Club Rotario. In the United States, her work has been exhibited in Arizona, Florida, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, and Texas. Her sculptures have also been exhibited in El Salvador.
Bronce y mármol en armonía, the current show at El Attico, is a sample of Leeth’s most recent sculptures. Although the 15 pieces on display are mainly bronze and marble, some are terra-cotta. These materials are the real theme of the exhibition, and the various figures and forms are simply expressions of their texture and quality. Leeth works with marble from the Zacapa area. Bronze casting is done either by Byron Ramírez in Guatemala City or Larry Sterling at San Andrés Ceballos. Her new subjects range from a regal bust, fleshy and sensuous buttocks, and a bride to a dancing quinceañera, twirling hostesses, and frolicking mermaids. The portrayal of women is a recurring motif for Leeth.
The most endearing piece in the show is a bronze and marble female figure, a mere 12 inches high, on a square base. Leeth calls it Oraciones, and it is the rendering of a very private and intimate moment. A young woman kneels and leans forward in a prayerful and submissive posture — long loose hair over the left shoulder and legs crossed behind her. She is barefoot and anchored to the ground by her left toes. The right foot is perched on the left heel, creating an almost fragile balance. Her stretched arms and clenched fists plead for deliverance. A skirt of white marble separates the upper and lower body and gives weight to the composition. There is something familiar about this sculpture, and Edgar Degas’ famous Little Dancer comes to mind: the danseuse on her knees in Guatemala.
Rae Leeth ranks among the country’s leading sculptors, and a solo performance of her recent works is an occasion. El Attico has a tradition for nurturing artists like Leeth and providing them with an appropriate venue. In their latest endeavor, Bronce y mármol en armonía, they strike the perfect chord.
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