Alejandro Obregón

Alejandro Jesús Obregón Rosės (4 June 1920 – 11 April 1992) was a Colombian painter, muralist, sculptor and engraver.

Biography Obregón was born in Barcelona, Spain. He was the son of a Colombian father and a Catalan mother. The Obregón family owned a textile factory in Barranquilla, Colombia. He studied fine arts in Boston for a year in 1939, then returned to Barcelona to serve as Vice-consul of Colombia for four years. He married Ilva Rasch-Isla, the daughter of poet Miguel Rasch-Isla, during his time in Spain. In 1948, he became Director of the School of Fine Arts in Santafé de Bogotá, where he was influenced by the fresco style of artists Pedro Nel Gómez and Santiago Martinez Delgado. He left the School of Fine Arts and moved to France with his second wife, Sonia Osorio; he later married his third wife, English painter Freda Sargent. After traveling around Europe, he returned to Barranquilla in 1955. He lived and worked in Cartagena for the last 22 years of his life, from 1970 until his death in 1992.

Career Obregón presented his first solo exhibition in Colombia in 1945. Obregón is an example of the abstract Surrealist trend in Latin America. In 1959, Obregón painted his first condor, which has since appeared in almost fifty canvases during his career. While alluding to the nation, as the condor figures in Colombia's coat of arms, in Obregón's work, the condor also refers to the exaltation of the might of American nature, the ideal of liberty, and the power of vitality.

At different times throughout his career, Obregón produced works related to political violence in Colombia, such as La Violencia, since 1948. Estudiante Muerto, awarded the national prize for Colombia at the 1956 Guggenheim International Exhibition, belonged to a group of paintings commemorating students and popular leaders who lost their lives during this period of social unrest.

La Violencia works

Velorio (Wake), also known as Estudiante fusilado (Executed Student) and other similar names, was one of Obregón's most prominent commentaries on La Violencia. In this piece, Obregón displays his early cubist influence, evident in the reduction of details and objects into elemental shapes. While the simple image appears to display a body, with bandages covering the man's body and a partially severed leg, the context of the piece provides more information.

Exhibitions and awards 1956 Cattle Drowning in the Magdelena River, Gulf Caribbean Competition, Houston, Texas. First prize 1956 Estudiante muerto, Solomon R. Guggenheim Foundation International Exhibition. National prize 1962 Salón de Artistas Colombianos 1999 Arte y violencia en Colombia desde 1948, Museo de Arte Moderno, Bogotá, Colombia 2009 50 Years, 50 Works: Art of Latin America, Caribbean of the 20th Century, Museo de Antioquia in Medellin, Colombia

Selected artworks Tierra, Mar, y Aire, 1957 Estudiante Muerto, 1956 Tropical Jardines, 1962 Last Condor, 1965 Torocondor Approaching Cyclone, 1960 Carnivorous Flowers Huesos de mis bestias: el alcatraz, 1966 Cosas de Aire, 1970