Focus on: Manuel Iturri Guzman

At Lots Road Auctions we take great interest in offering works by important but lesser known 20thC international artists from developing countries. In this weeks fine interiors auction on Sunday 2nd July we will be offering this beautiful and engaging work by Bolivian artist Manuel Iturri Guzman (La Paz Bolivia, 1928-1973) as lot 70.
Guzman was the son of another renowned artist, Pablo Iturri Jurado, also known as Ramon Katari who was undoubtedly an influence on the young Manuel, drawing him to the life of the artist.
Manuel took all the inspiration he could from his father but wanted to forge his own path. After studying at the “Hernando Siles” school of arts in La Paz he left home to study and teach in Buenos Aires and Chile before heading to France, Spain and Belgium to bathe in the European Arts Culture. He entered the Antwerp Academy of Fine Arts in the early 1960’s.
Here he was greatly influenced by Picasso, Braque, Debuffet and the Russian Abstract expressionists. He mastered all the forms of visual art as painter, illustrator, printmaker and sculptor.
When he returned to La Paz in the late 1960’s, he opened a gallery to represent the artists of Bolivia. He continued to paint up until his early death in 1973.
As an artist he assimilated all the influences that had spoken to him in his travels and bound them with his core belief that the Latin American artist was the manifestation of the Native Indian standing before the magnificent Andean Landscapes. He believed that the Indian was full of universal mysteries and that he could infuse those mysteries into all he could create.
The work we offer is depicting a subject that Iturri Guzman visited many times, a Harlequin, the amorous servant, holding and looking upon flowers, the passionate comedian thwarted by unrequited love.