ARTIST - Alívar Villamagua

"Dance of the Duendes" from the 2017 exhibition "My Free Thought"

ARTIST - Alívar Villamagua  (1947 - )


71-year-old Lojano Alívar Villamagua Montesinos is an internationally known talent who has been painting for 50 years.  In an interview with the newspaper El Diaro Cronica, Villamagua said of his early interest in drawing and painting as an expression of his feelings, "My first sketches I did in school where I noticed simple things like watching a butterfly fly or observing the moon."

After graduating in 1970 as a painter and sculptor from the Escuela de Fine Arts of the State University of Cuenca, Villamagua returned to Loja.  He married, had a family, and founded the first school of fine arts in the province.  He eventually became a professor and then director of the School of Fine Arts of at the National University of Loja.

Known for producing highly expressive and dream-like images of his beloved local landscape and its inhabitants in primary colors with a palette knife, when asked about his technique, the artist remarked that, "'The spatula allows free traces, instantaneous strokes, strokes of the moment and do not require touches, he said, remembering that when he worked with a brush, he made rectifications in the works. But with the spatula there is no such possibility." (LaHora, Nov.1, 2017)

In addition to his oil paintings - over 3500 works in 50 years - his larger art commissions around the city are always available to the public.  The murals are on display at the Terrestrial Terminal, adorn the municipal outdoor stage in San Sebastian Square, can be viewed adjacent to the teller windows in the Bank of Loja, or in the atrium of the Municipal Building.  In his long career, he has exhibited widely in Shangai, Bejíng, throughout South America, and the nation of Ecuador.

In recognition of this extraordinary career, the artist was given the inaugural show at the gallery in the Casona Cultural section of the newly renovated Bolivar Theater.  The exhibition honoring him, entitled "My Free Thought,” was also the launch of an art book, "Villamagua," authored by Dr. José Carlos Arias.  The artist donated a picture to be placed on permanent display in the Bolivar theater.  The work is titled  "Freedom,” one of Villamagua’s perpetual artistic themes.


villamagua.com (an older site last updated 2012)
http://www.loja.gob.ec/noticia/2017-11/homenaje-al-maestro-alivar-villamagua-por-sus-50-anos-de-vida-artistica




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