Mabel Arcondo

Mabel Arcondo (1940–1976) was a Paraguayan artist whose work is classified in the art history of Paraguay as being at the intersection between primitivism and surrealism. Her work was characterized by intense color and dream themes.

Biography

Mabel Arcondo was born in Asunción, Paraguay, in 1940. At the age of 17, she contracted polio and became reliant on a wheelchair.

Mabel studied commercial art in Buenos Aires and learned the rudiments of painting from Adán Kunos in Asunción, but she was largely self-taught. Stylistically her work is complex, drawing on a dream-like quality which transforms reality in the manner of Chagall and using color schemes of fauvism, but with an original sense of melancholy, according to Ticio Escobar. Her paintings have strong use of color, good composition and a surrealistic quality. She began to exhibit her paintings in 1964 and has works in both private collections and the Museo Paraguayo de Arte Contemporáneo (The Paraguayan Museum of Contemporary Art). and in 2014 were part of a discussion and exhibit presented by the International Association of Art Critics Paraguay Chapter.

Selected works "Perfíl de Mujer" (1961) "Casamiento Coyguá" (1974) "Las Picardías de un Cura Párroco" (1974) "Tranvía a la Casa de Gaudi" (1975)