Oswaldo Vigas

Oswaldo Vigas (1923 Valencia, Venezuela – 2014 Caracas, Venezuela) was one of the most prominent Latin-American avant garde artists. He actively helped to shape the cultural life in his country and played a key role in the Parisian art scene between 1952 and 1964.

Profusely inspired by the origin of life, the Venezuelan landscape, its history and mythology and foremost the people surrounding him Oswaldo Vigas chooses the vocation of a painter. His work is rooted in a number of styles, such as cubism, surrealism, constructivism, informalism and neo-figuration, all applied in a personal way. Prompted by a search for his mestizo identity Vigas remains faithful to his own convictions, which leads to an authentic artistic imagery.

Vigas’ examples are great masters like Pablo Picasso, Paul Gauguin and Paul Cézanne together with anonymous Native American and African artisans. He is the first Venezuelan artist to draw on the country’s forgotten pre-Columbian and African cultural patrimony, interweaving it with European and American modernism. His work therefore can be placed next to that of fellow leading Latin American artists such as Fernando de Szyzslo, Roberto Matta, Wifredo Lam and Rufino Tamayo, who were also strongly committed to the indigenous legacy of their countries. Vigas’ oeuvre is furthermore considered to be an important counterpart to the prevailing geometrical, kinetic and optical art in Venezuela.

The work of Vigas encompasses painting, sculpture, printmaking, ceramics and tapestries. He has made more than one hundred solo exhibitions and his work is present in numerous institutions, such as the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, Texas, USA; the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, California, USA; the Michigan State University Art Museum, Michigan, USA, the Art Museum of the Americas, OAS, Washington, USA; the Musée Jean Lurçat et de la Tapisserie Contemporaine, Angers, France; the Musée Des Beaux Arts D'Angers, France; etc.

Submitted by Art Of The World Gallery