Art Sunday; Guatemala

Todays Art Sunday is a celebration of Guatemala


Most of the paintings, photographs and information can be found here

http://www.artemaya.com/index.html

Paintings by  Mario Gonzalez Chavajay

 Maya artists Mario Gonzalez Chavajay  is the emerging Tz'utuhil Maya artist.  He comes fromm a family of artists, his grandfather is the first Tz'utuhil artist, Rafael Gonzalez y Gonzalez, and he is younger brother of Pedro Rafael Gonzalez Chavajay. Mario has been painting for more than twenty years.
He takes his work very seriously, works hard and paints for at least eight hours every day.







Two of his paintings were exhibited with the exhibition, ‘The Courtly Art of the Ancient Maya, at the Fine arts museum of San Francisco.’ His paintings and those of his brother were the only modern works shown with the ancient Maya artifacts. He was among the Guatemalan artists invited to the United States for the opening of the Smithsonian National Museum of the American Indian,

http://www.nmai.si.edu/

and one of his paintings is in their permanent collection.

Unlike most Tz’utuhil artists coming out of one family, Mario did not learn from his brother or father. He learned by painting on his own. For many years he painted specifically for the tourist industry. His work was popular with the tourists, very marketable and in high demand. He sold from the Salvador Reanda’s gallery in Santiago Atitlán. His capacity to produce these colourful, simplistic pictures filled a growing niche in the market. His sense of color and design made him the most saleable of all the artists, who painted for the tourist art galleries. In 2000 Mario stopped working for the tourist market and began exclusively painting original themes.

His painting soon changed from the typical tourist work to paintings set in lush tropical forests depicting the traditional Maya way of life.





























Mario is one of  the hardest working of all the Tz’utuhil artists and certainly among the most promising emerging artists.



































For over two millennium, Maya cloth and clothing have served as artistic expressions.

There is a kind of  visual literacy to these textiles; one must be able to "read" cloth and the manner in which it is worn. The clothing worn by the indigenous people makes an immediate impression. It’s handwoven and embroidered in rainbow colors with geometric, floral, animal, or human designs.



These traditional textiles are still produced on hand looms by weavers for the indigenous markets but the same weavers can adapt their methods and techniques to produce goods for the tourist markets.