Enrique Efraín Recinos Valenzuela

Efraín Enrique Recinos Valenzuela (May 15, 1928 – October 2, 2011) was a Guatemalan contemporary architect, muralist, urbanist, painter and sculptor. Recinos' works adorn the facades and interiors of many of Guatemala's landmark buildings, being best known for his work in the National Theater of Guatemala. However, he is best known as the architect of the Centro Cultural Miguel Ángel Asturias, which serves as the county's national theater and largest cultural complex, opened in 1978. Recinos designed the large, white structure set on a hill to resemble a jaguar, using inspiration from more traditional Mayan motifs. Recinos was born in Quetzaltenango, Guatemala, in 1928.

Career Recinos started to make a name for himself with his murals. His early murals were commissions for schools and small buildings. His first big project was the murals for Parque de la Industria, in 1961. The site was a space for conventions, concerts, and other events. In 1966, Recinos got a commission for the new national mortgage loans building (Credito Hipotecario Nacional). The work was carved on the exterior concrete walls in which abstraction and the history of exchange were predominant. The building stands out from the rest in the civic center. The year after, 1967, he got a commission for the national library (Biblioteca Nacional). Recinos decided to make the mural outside rather than inside since he wanted to make a parallel between the quietness from inside the library and the urban noise form outside. The mural portrayed the everyday life of a typical Guatemalan however, some got censored.

In his paintings, sculptures and public works, he exposed the social issues that were happening. Some examples of his discomfort can be seen in his painting "Estado de Sitio" and his sculpture "Presidenta Cuartelazo". Recinos tried to do a mural at the Biblioteca Nacional (national library), but weeks after he started working the Ministerio de Comunicaciones y Obras Públicas (ministry of communication and public works) allowed him to keep working but censored some content. Later in 1979, he tried to make it again by working in the basement. However, after six months, a minister heard about the project and ordered it to be shut down. Shortly after his work disappeared. In his paintings, a vocation towards the baroque stacked characters and recreations of the national landscape. That same sense of interior and exterior baroque translated into his sculptures, using different materials like lacquer oils, varnishes, iron, concrete, plexiglass, everything the artist founded in hand.

Major works

Murales del Parque de la Industria, 1961. Esculturas de la Fuente del parque de la Industria, 1961. Monumento de la Industria, 1961. Teatro al Aire Libre, 1962–1967. Murales del Crédito Hipotecario Nacional, 1963. Murales de la Biblioteca Nacional, 1967. Murales interiores y exteriores de la Terminal Aérea, 1968. Parques del Centro Cultural, 1967–1970. Teatro Nacional, 1970–1978.