Eduardo Kingman began his career as an expressionistic and figurative painter, protesting against the aesthetic popularly taught in Ecuador’s art academies and eschewing the picturesque aesthetic favored by his peers. He decided instead to pursue a style of simplified and angular forms, attempting to address the social plights of the indigenous populations and the impoverished classes in Ecuador. In his later works, Kingman attentively exaggerated depictions of hands, which became for him a symbol of suffering and despair. His political and socially conscious paintings and murals were influenced by the Mexican Muralists, as well as the work of Oswaldo Guyasamín. Kingman’s better known works also include a number of prints; he was also an active writer and social activist.