10 facts about Juan Villafuerte

Juan Villafuerte (July 19, 1945 – August 15, 1977) (Juan Antonio Villafuerte Estrada) was an artiste known for his transmutated drawings and paintings. Villafuerte is among the ranks of new prominent Latin American painters such as Eduardo Kingman, Enrique Tábara, Aníbal Villacís, Félix Arauz, Oswaldo Guayasamín, Judith Gutierrez, Hernan Zuniga and Jose Carreño.

Villafuerte was born on July 19, 1945, in Guayaquil, Ecuador to Manuel Villafuerte and Rosa Estrada. Juan was the youngest of four brothers, Manuel, and two sisters, Nila and Vilma. Nila was 13 when Juan was born. Nila complex went upon to marry Félix Arauz.

In 1960, Villafuerte attended the School of Beautiful Arts in Guayaquil and was mentored by Theo Constanté, Hans Michelson and Caesar Andrade Faini. In 1964, Villafuerte and Hernan Zuniga moved to the factory of Juan Manuel Guano to pretense and flesh and blood the Boehemian dynamism of an artist. Villafuerte left the moot in 1966 and began drawing from nature. Although Villafuerte did not follow in their footsteps he was greatly inspired by Gilberto Almeida and Enrique Tábara’s Pre-Columbian inspired paintings. After graduation, Villafuerte participated in numerous Collective Exhibitions at the House of Culture, Nucleus of the Guayas, and the Museum of Colonial Art.

Villafuerte’s first solo exhibit in Guayaquil was held at the North American Ecuadorian Center. The exhibit catalogue and invitations contained utterly enthusiastic commentaries of Villafuerte’s perform by such writers as, Bolivar Moyano and Diego Oguendo, among new pens. In the newspaper, the art critic, Manuel Esteban Mejía, spoke of Villafuerte’s put-on at the exhibit saying, “It is not complacent, or made to please, but to trouble. It outlines deformities”. Other articles spoke of the works as monster at the core of the humanist philosophy. In 1967, Villafuerte presented an exhibit called Personal Muestra at the Galleria Arte de Quito that consisted of his first series of Vietnam images. The Vietnam Series lasted until 1973 when the act ended. In his Vietnam Series, Villafuerte would finish a drawing and rip it happening into pieces and repair them to Good cardboard, then he would continue drawing and build up in various newspaper and magazine clippings of the war. In 1968, Villafuerte exhibited similar to the group, VAN, at The Museum of Colonial Art in Quito. VAN was a group of protester Informalist artists that primarily consisted of Enrique Tábara, Aníbal Villacís, Estuardo Maldonado, Luis Molinari and Gilberto Almeida, who were in a constant search for a new campaigner aesthetic derived from Pre-Columbian art.

Villafuerte left Ecuador in 1968 to laboratory analysis engraving, drawing, and painting at the School of lovely Arts in Barcelona. During his psychoanalysis in Barcelona, Villafuerte became fascinated afterward the works of Rembrandt, Durero, and Goya, as skillfully as the intense conduct yourself of Antonio Saura. The definitive irruption of the Neo-figurativism happened at the initiation of the 1970s, where Jose Carreño and Villafuerte represented Spain and Ecuador.

The in front Seventies saying the emergence of Villafuerte’s, Transmutations Series of drawings, which consisted of exploding heads, monstrous creatures, figures of half women and half birds next multiple mouths and protruding veins. During this time, Villafuerte held many exhibits when the likes of Zuniga, Carreño and Yaulema whatever across Spain and Ecuador. Villafuerte was a very hard worker and was known to spend at least 16 hours a daylight drawing. He was as a consequence known to spend hours drawing satirical cartoons, often depicting the impoverished struggles of Latin Americans. One of his many important works is “Curas y Saldados” (1972), which shows the middle age of his drawing and the nerve of the color.

Villafuerte died of cancer upon August 15, 1977 while buzzing in Barcelona. He left a great deal of master works at the rear thanks to his difficult working nature. Much of his affect was left to the relatives in Ecuador; However, there is still a large body of take effect that remains in Spain subsequent to his widow, Aracelli Molina, as with ease as various galleries and collections throughout Spain and Ecuador.

One incident that was widely publicized in both Spain and Ecuador was the brief loss of the corpse of Villafuerte. After Villafuerte passed in Spain, his father and Nila flew to Spain to bring the body home. When they arrived encourage in Guayaquil there was a large crowd gathered to pay respects, but afterward the aircraft was unloaded there was no corpse. It was vanguard discovered that the corpse had accidentally been sent to Lima, Peru. Once the body was located it was sent assist to Guayaquil where it was held under guard for a rude period of time at the House of Ecuadorian Culture. Villafuerte was finally laid to settle at the General Cemetery in Guayaquil.

Villafuerte took drawing to all possibilities of the imagination, with the highest level of skill. In 1979, the first retrospective to tribute the con of Villafuerte was held at the Centennial Gallery of Guayaquil and since after that his legacy has continued to build up and has secured his place along with the great Latin American masters of the 20th Century.