Trade: A Rich Canvas To Paint On
Central America shimmers with the creative impulse of diverse cultures and histories

By Blake Schmidt
Managua

Central American art is the confluence of European, African and indigenous influences blended together and refined over the centuries into a harmonious palette of colors on the region´s cultural canvas.

From ceramics by the Lenca people in western Honduras to Picasso and Rembrandt exhibits at Costa Rica´s Central Bank museum, art lovers will find that each country has its own unique style. As much a cultural bridge as a geological link uniting two continents, the isthmus of Central America has carved out an international name for itself as a producer of crafts and folk art with strong indigenous influence.

Ubiquitous in Guatemala, indigenous art is easily found even in Costa Rica, considered to have the least indigenous influence in the region. From hand-stitched textiles made by Panama´s Kuna to Salvadoran and Honduran wood carvings, hand-crafted art comes in numerous styles and forms. The region´s cosmopolitan capitals attract campesinos selling their work as well as an eclectic slew of museums and galleries serving as venues for everything from Kenyan stone carvings to Salvador Dali paintings. Central America, one of the world´s fastest-growing tourism industries, is also creating a diverse appetite for art.

Honduras

“I receive letters daily asking for paintings,” said Paul Holsen, owner of Honduraspaintings.com, “Buyers are all kinds of people [with all kinds of] interests. Parents buy for their kids, doctors for their offices, you name it.”

Holsen, an American pilot who started collecting Honduran paintings while visiting the region decades ago, said the renowned Honduran painter Jose Antonio Velásquez, known for his mountainous scenes of Honduran villages, is a hot seller. The late Velásquez, whose paintings are selling online for upwards of $40,000, has become a cultural icon for a country whose art scene that is nipping at the heels of neighboring El Salvador or Guatemala. Other Honduran painters include Roque Zelaya Acosta, Carlos Garay, and Ezequiel Padilla.

In San Pedro Sula, local crafts abound at the shops across the street from Gran Hotel Sula and famous Honduran painters´ works can be browsed at the MAYMO art gallery near San Pedro Sula´s Central Park.

In Tegucigalpa, the capital city of Honduras, the National Art Gallery displays art spanning the country´s history from the colonial period to the present time. The Sixth Biannual Central American Visual Art Festival (www.bavh08.com) will be held in Tegucigalpa this November. The event will bring together the region´s top painters, sculptors, and visual artists.

El Salvador

In neighboring El Salvador, the northern town of La Palma has come to represent the country´s renowned, color-rich crafts. Artist Fernando Llort, who founded nothing less than an art movement here based on colorful ceramics and pueblo-inspired paintings, owns an art gallery in San Salvador and exports non-traditional products to foreigners and Salvadorans living abroad.

“We´re converting (La Palma) into an area that represents the country´s wood crafts and tourism potential. It´s the patrimony and pride of all Salvadorans,” Llort said in a statement released by Nicaragua´s Foreign Ministry. He added that La Palma´s landscapes, people and colors inspired him to help La Palma promote itself as an artistic center in El Salvador. “Our art works are made with the love and passion of the entire Salvadoran people intertwined, and it brings together the affection of Salvadorans living abroad,” Llort said.

Nicaragua

Equally as proud of its cultural traditions, Nicaragua flaunts them every chance it gets. Visual arts are no exception. Traditional paintings of colonial Nicaraguan towns like Granada and Leon can be found at small markets and sidewalk vendors throughout the country. The Masaya crafts market offers such works en masse, as well as locally made textiles and hammocks. In Managua, a number of art galleries have popped up in recent years in quaint neighborhoods like Reparto San Juan. In the colonial city of Granada, resident and painter Indira Gutiérrez recommends the Bellas Artes gallery for visitors looking to experience local art. The gallery, located at the end of the dining strip called Calzada street, is run by local painter Pedro Vargas and also houses a painting school.

The primitivist style of painting in Central America has its roots in the Solentiname archipelago in southern Lake Nicaragua, where a peculiar island-based artistic movement dates back to the Sandinista revolution. It was fomented by Nicaraguan priest, poet and former Sandista Culture Minister Ernesto Cardenal, who spent time on the islands supporting local artists.

Guatemala

Art galleries are ubiquitous in ritzy districts of Guatemala city—Zones 10 and 14 to name two—and in the colonial town of Antigua. But it´s the primitivist paintings of daily Mayan life that are hugely popular in Guatemala. Brought to life with oil and brilliant colors, these paintings by famous Tz´utuhil artists Rafael González y González and Pedro Rafael González Chavajay can be found in the Lake Atitlán area.

Guatemala boasts rich artistic traditions, which can be explored online at www.artemaya.com. The site, owned by an American art lover who began bringing Guatemalan art home to Michigan in 1985, features paintings from the Northern highlands and sells a popular Mayan calendar featuring Mayan day signs. In a country where about half the population is indigenous, the Maya produce weavings, embroidery and textiles for visitors and locals alike.

Panama

Panamanians are also big on their own native art, particularly hand-stitched molas and polleras. The former are textiles made and worn by Kuna women who inhabit the Caribbean coast and San Blas Islands; the latter are festive dresses with origins in the Azuero peninsula that Panamanian will don in celebrations of national pride.

“Kuna women illustrate thought, all aspects of their culture, and elements from outside their culture in their molas,” according to a statement by the San Diego Museum of Man, one of many galleries and museums outside of Panama that has held displays on vibrant Kuna art.

There are a handful of art galleries throughout Panama. The Museum of Contemporary Art, located next to the Legislative Palace in Panama City, is one of the most popular among visitors. This September and October, the Museum will hold the 8th Art Biennial in Panama, which has been exhibiting local artists for 15 years running. The main exhibit will be curated by Magali Arriola from Mexico, who has invited a slew of Panamanian artists to contribute. This year, the Biennial will feature foreign artists as well, according to the event web site.

Other institutions, like the Panama City Renaissance School, hold exhibitions and events that range from Chinese New Year celebrations to modern art shows that remind visitors that the home of the hemisphere´s biggest canal is truly multicultural.

Costa Rica

With a strong interest in promoting Costa Rica´s eco-friendly image, the booming tourism industry of this most developed country in Central America has created a market here for naturalist art.

“I live next to the sea, next to the birds and fish,” said José Sancho, a renowned Costa Rican sculptor who chisels forms inspired by the country´s tropical flora and fauna. “The insects, the snakes, they inspire me”. Sancho´s clients include INBioparque, a park and research center north of San José, as well as the luxurious Four Seasons resort in the northwestern province of Guanacaste. Many clients decorate their lawns and gardens with his pieces.

Costa Rica is known for having the least indigenous cultural influence in the region, but there is a large market for native-made crafts such as colorful masks from the southern Boruca tribe. There is also a strong European influence here, and San José shows it off it in its museums and galleries. Art exhibits and performances can be seen at the National Theater building downtown, itself an architectural gem. Next door, inconspicuously buried beneath the pigeon-covered Culture Plaza, is the Central Bank museum. It exhibits some of the best European and local paintings and sculptures in the region, such as works from renowned Spanish painters Salvador Dali and Pablo Picasso to the most recent exhibit that set off “Rembrandt fever” in San José.

“Starting opening day, we had massive amounts of visitors,” Dora Maria Sequeira, Director of the Central Bank, said. Lines snaked out into the Culture Plaza as a daily average of 600 people came to see 48 of Picasso´s original works. “We´re pleased to see that this [museum] has sparked the interest of children, young adults and the elderly,” Sequeira said.

 

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