One of Ecuador's most renowned artists, Oswaldo Guayasamin dedicated his life to painting and sculpting works to express the injustices of the modern world. The bold colors, dynamic play between light and shadow, and gripping subject matter of Guayasamin's paintings evoke the "cruelties and injustices of a society that discriminates against the poor, the indigenous, the Afro-Ecuadorian and the weak" as described by the Guayasamin Foundation.
Guayasamin was born in Quito on July 6, 1919. Son of a Native Ecuadorian father and a Mestiza mother, Oswaldo grew up in a world of prejudice and discrimination. Influenced by contemporaries Eduardo Kingman, Angel Botello, Fernando Botero, Francisco Zuniga and Rodolfo Morales, Guayasamin created over 4,000 Pre-Columbian sculptures, colonial works, and contemporary pieces.
In his contemporary works, created between 1964 and 1984, Guayasamin takes on many injustices including the Nazi invasion and concentration camps, the bombing of Hiroshima, the Vietnam War, the CIA's secret invasion of Panama and the Dominican Republic, and unknown tortures and genocide at the hands of dictators all over the world.
In Patio Interior, an oil painting created early in Guayasim's career, the artist depicts the inner realm the domestic sphere. His choice of subject matter reflects his appreciation for the household realm, so connected with notions of family, ancestry, and culture. The staircase, trapped somewhere between the inner and the outer, challenges and interacts with the viewer, prodding them to make a selection; up or down, in or out?