Judith Gutiérrez Moscoso (22 December 1927 – 1 March 2003) was an

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painter who lived and worked in Ecuador and Mexico. Along with other female artists, she formed part of the Guayaquil School for Contemporary Plastic Arts (Escuela de Guayaquil en las Artes Plásticas Contemporáneas) and was active in militant groups such as the Union of the Women of Guayas (Unión de Mujeres del Guayas), a precursor to Ecuadorian feminist organizations. In 1964, after Gutiérrez' first solo exhibitions at Ecuadorian galleries such as the Casa de la Cultura "Benjamín Carrión" in

Quito Quito (; ), officially San Francisco de Quito, is the capital city, capital and second-largest city of Ecuador, with an estimated population of 2.8 million in its metropolitan area. It is also the capital of the province of Pichincha Province, P ...

, her second husband, the writer Miguel Donoso Pareja, was captured along with other intellectuals by Ecuador's military regime. She accompanied him to Mexico when the regime expelled him there, and she remained there for long periods of her career. In 1982, Gutiérrez was invited by the Ecuadorian government to exhibit some of her paintings in the National Museum of the Central Bank of Ecuador. This was her first major showing after her return to Ecuador. She died in

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of a heart attack.

Early life and education

Gutierrez was born on 22 December 1927 in

Babahoyo Babahoyo (), founded May 27, 1948, by legislative decree, is the capital of the Los Ríos province of Ecuador. Its population is cited around 98,000. It is bordered by two rivers, the San Pablo and the Caracol, which join to form the Babaho ...

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. She was raised

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. At an early age her father, a sailor and agriculturalist, sent her to a convent in the Andean city of

Riobamba Riobamba (, full name San Pedro de Riobamba; Quechua: ''Rispampa'') is the capital of Chimborazo Province in central Ecuador, and is located in the Chambo River Valley of the Andes. It is located south of Ecuador's capital Quito and situated at ...

, 30 km from the base of the

Chimborazo Chimborazo () is a stratovolcano situated in Ecuador in the Cordillera Occidental (Ecuador), Cordillera Occidental range of the Andes. Its last known Types of volcanic eruptions, eruption is believed to have occurred around AD 550. Although not ...

volcano. The Mexican writer Juan Hadatty Saltos argued that her religious background coupled with the colors and images of the countryside where spent her childhood, greatly influenced her painting style.

Influences

She studied at the School of Fine Arts in

Guayaquil Guayaquil (), officially Santiago de Guayaquil, is the largest city in Ecuador and also the nation's economic capital and main port. The city is the capital (political), capital of Guayas Province and the seat of Guayaquil Canton. The city is ...

, Ecuador, where her most influential professor was Caesar Andrade Faini, someone with whom she had also established a "great friendship," according to scholars writing after her death. Her studies under Faini, which took place after the end of her first marriage, led to a series of early exhibitions in both Guayaquil and Quito. Gutiérrez worked within a school described by

El Universo ( Spanish for "The Universe") is one of the largest daily newspapers in Ecuador. It was founded in 1921 and the first edition was published September 16 of the same year. Its headquarters are located in Guayaquil. The newspaper has been publi ...

as "modern primitivist," rejecting European forms in favor of natural, essential ones. The natural forms and Christian themes in her work, would intensify upon her move to Mexico and became one of the major motifs in her career, as exemplified by the ''Paraísos'', paintings of Eden-like gardens with groups of nude figures.

Important works

Along with the ''Paraíso'' and ''Nocturno'' series, some of Gutierrez's other major works are: ''Dancer's Memory of the Artist'', ''Book for The Blind,'' and ''The Christ of Santa Elena''.

Major themes

Gutiérrez worked in multiple media including painting, sculpture, graphics, decoratives and applied installation. She also made puppets, costumes, and scenery for puppet shows. Gutierrez was known for ingenious composition of figures, incorporating symbols, mystical scenes, as well as some

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characteristics ("Bizantino Tropical" as an art critic once suggested): nature, men, women, the cosmos, are all the general components of her works. The critic Jorge Dávila Vásquez said that her work featured "the primitivism of those furtive encounters of man with the little demons of his childhood, nurtured by the religious Christian imaginary."

Exhibitions

Gutierrez held numerous individual exhibitions and is represented in many galleries and museums in

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, Panamá, and

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References