Ticio Escobar (born February 9, 1947) is a

Paraguay Paraguay (; ), officially the Republic of Paraguay ( es, República del Paraguay, links=no; gn, Tavakuairetã Paraguái, links=si), is a landlocked country in South America. It is bordered by Argentina to the south and southwest, Brazil to th ...

an lawyer, academic, author, museum director, and former Minister of Culture of Paraguay. He has championed the rights of

Indigenous peoples of Paraguay Indigenous peoples in Paraguay, or Native Paraguayans, include 17 ethnic groups belonging to five language families. ...

, writing about and curating shows on the topic.

Early life and education

Escobar was born on February 9, 1947, in

Asunción Asunción (, , , Guarani: Paraguay) is the capital and the largest city of Paraguay. The city stands on the eastern bank of the Paraguay River, almost at the confluence of this river with the Pilcomayo River. The Paraguay River and the Bay o ...

. His father was jurist Jorge H. Escobar, and his mother is María Rosalba Argaña Ferraro. He graduated in law at the Universidad Católica Nuestra Señora de la Asunción in 1970. Five years later, in 1974, he obtained his

Master's degree A master's degree (from Latin ) is an academic degree awarded by universities or colleges upon completion of a course of study demonstrating mastery or a high-order overview of a specific field of study or area of professional practice.

(''licencia'') here in Philosophy. During his study, he was a member of the Comisión de Defensa de los Derechos Humanos en el Paraguay, a

human rights Human rights are moral principles or normsJames Nickel, with assistance from Thomas Pogge, M.B.E. Smith, and Leif Wenar, 13 December 2013, Stanford Encyclopedia of PhilosophyHuman Rights Retrieved 14 August 2014 for certain standards of hu ...

group.Prince Claus Fund
biography
Prince Claus Fund

/ref>

Academic career

Between 1971 and 1989, Escobar was a university professor in the fields of

philosophy of law Philosophy of law is a branch of philosophy that examines the nature of law and law's relationship to other systems of norms, especially ethics and political philosophy. It asks questions like "What is law?", "What are the criteria for legal val ...

mathematical logic Mathematical logic is the study of formal logic within mathematics. Major subareas include model theory, proof theory, set theory, and recursion theory. Research in mathematical logic commonly addresses the mathematical properties of formal ...

philosophical anthropology Philosophical anthropology, sometimes called anthropological philosophy, is a discipline dealing with questions of metaphysics and phenomenology of the human person. History Ancient Christian writers: Augustine of Hippo Augustine of Hippo wa ...

history of art The history of art focuses on objects made by humans for any number of spiritual, narrative, philosophical, symbolic, conceptual, documentary, decorative, and even functional and other purposes, but with a primary emphasis on its aesthetic vis ...

and

art criticism Art criticism is the discussion or evaluation of visual art. Art critics usually criticize art in the context of aesthetics or the theory of beauty. A goal of art criticism is the pursuit of a rational basis for art appreciation but it is ques ...

.A Quienes Elegimos
Curriculum Vitae
Until 1980, he was an art reviewer for the Museo Paraguayo de Arte Contemporáneo. In 1979 he founded the

Museo del Barro Museo del Barro is a museum located on the outskirts of Asunción, the capital of Paraguay. It began as a private circulating collection and seven years later acquired a permanent location. It includes three separate divisions, a pottery museum, ...

(museum of pottery) in Asunción, with the objective to preserve Paraguayan culture. The same year he also founded the Museo de Arte Indígena, Centro de Artes Visuales (museum for indigenous art, center of visual art). To this museum, of which he was also the director until 2008, he donated his own art collection.

Arts and activism

Between 1978 and 1988, Escobar was the curator for Paraguay at the Biennale of

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 Ga ...

. Furthermore, he was curator for several versions of the

Venice Biennale The Venice Biennale (; it, La Biennale di Venezia) is an international cultural exhibition hosted annually in Venice, Italy by the Biennale Foundation. The biennale has been organised every year since 1895, which makes it the oldest of ...

and the biennales of Cuenca, Trujillo,

San Juan San Juan, Spanish for Saint John, may refer to: Places Argentina * San Juan Province, Argentina * San Juan, Argentina, the capital of that province * San Juan, Salta, a village in Iruya, Salta Province * San Juan (Buenos Aires Underground), ...

Buenos Aires Buenos Aires ( or ; ), officially the Autonomous City of Buenos Aires ( es, link=no, Ciudad Autónoma de Buenos Aires), is the Capital city, capital and primate city of Argentina. The city is located on the western shore of the Río de la Plata ...

Lima Lima ( ; ), originally founded as Ciudad de Los Reyes (City of The Kings) is the capital and the largest city of Peru. It is located in the valleys of the Chillón, Rímac and Lurín Rivers, in the desert zone of the central coastal part of t ...

and

Porto Alegre Porto Alegre (, , Brazilian ; ) is the capital and largest city of the Brazilian state of Rio Grande do Sul. Its population of 1,488,252 inhabitants (2020) makes it the List of largest cities in Brazil, twelfth most populous city in the country ...

, and for a number of expositions in

Latin America Latin America or * french: Amérique Latine, link=no * ht, Amerik Latin, link=no * pt, América Latina, link=no, name=a, sometimes referred to as LatAm is a large cultural region in the Americas where Romance languages — languages derived ...

and

Europe Europe is a large peninsula conventionally considered a continent in its own right because of its great physical size and the weight of its history and traditions. Europe is also considered a subcontinent of Eurasia and it is located enti ...

. At the beginning of the 1990s, he joined two movements for Indigenous peoples' rights: the Asociación Indigenista del Paraguay and the Asociación Apoyo a las Comunidades Indígenas del Paraguay (ACIP). From 1991 to 1996 he was Director of Culture of the city of Asunción. In 1996 he won a national contest to edit a bill on culture, which was later adopted by parliament as ''Ley Escobar 3051/06''. From 2008 to 2013 he was the Minister of Culture of the government of

Fernando Lugo Fernando Armindo Lugo Méndez (; born 30 May 1951) is a Paraguayan politician and laicized Catholic bishop who was President of Paraguay from 2008 to 2012. Previously he was a Roman Catholic priest and bishop, serving as Bishop of the Dioce ...

.Circulo de Bellas Artes
biography
He was a chairman of the Paraguayan section of the International Association of Art Critics, and has written more than ten books.

Recognitions

Escobar received several international awards, including: *1984: Latin American Art Critic of the Year, from the Argentinean department of the International Association of Art Critics *1991: Premio Sudamérica of the Centro de Estudios Históricos, Antropológicos y Sociales of

*1997: Commander in the

Order of Rio Branco The Order of Rio Branco (''Ordem de Rio Branco'') is an honorific order of Brazil instituted by decree 51.697 of February 5, 1963. It is named in honor of the Brazilian diplomat José Paranhos, Baron of Rio Branco. The President of Brazil serve ...

*1998: Scholarship of the Guggenheim Foundation *1998: Key to the city of

Havana Havana (; Spanish: ''La Habana'' ) is the capital and largest city of Cuba. The heart of the La Habana Province, Havana is the country's main port and commercial center.

*1998: Prince Claus Award,

Netherlands ) , anthem = ( en, "William of Nassau") , image_map = , map_caption = , subdivision_type = Sovereign state , subdivision_name = Kingdom of the Netherlands , established_title = Before independence , established_date = Spanish Netherl ...

*2000: Basilio Uribe Prize of the Argentinean Association of Art Critics *2003: Honorary Professor of the Instituto Universitario Nacional de Arte (IUNA), Buenos Aires *2004: Bartolomé de las Casas Prize of the Casa de América,

Madrid Madrid ( , ) is the capital and most populous city of Spain. The city has almost 3.4 million inhabitants and a metropolitan area population of approximately 6.7 million. It is the second-largest city in the European Union (EU), an ...

*2005: Order of May,

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 second-largest country in South America after Brazil, t ...

*2009: Knight in the

Ordre des Arts et des Lettres The ''Ordre des Arts et des Lettres'' (Order of Arts and Letters) is an order Order, ORDER or Orders may refer to: * Categorization, the process in which ideas and objects are recognized, differentiated, and understood * Heterarchy, a system ...

France France (), officially the French Republic ( ), is a country primarily located in Western Europe. It also comprises of overseas regions and territories in the Americas and the Atlantic, Pacific and Indian Oceans. Its metropolitan ar ...

*2011: Prize for Distinguished Contribution to Art Criticism, International Association of Art Critics (AICA) * 2013: Beloved Son of Asuncion Distinction, Asuncion, Paraguay * 2015: Master of Art, Asuncion, Paraguay

Notes

{{DEFAULTSORT:Escobar, Ticio 20th-century philosophers 21st-century philosophers 1947 births Art critics Paraguayan critics Art historians Paraguayan curators Living people Mathematical logicians Museum directors Paraguayan academics Paraguayan politicians Paraguayan male writers People from Asunción Philosophers of law Philosophical anthropology Paraguayan philosophers Universidad Católica Nuestra Señora de la Asunción alumni