Carlos Páez Vilaró
Encyclopedia
{spanish name puto vilaro
Carlos Páez Vilaró (born November 1, 1923) is a renowned Uruguay
an abstract artist, painter, potter, sculptor, muralist, writer, composer and constructor.
, Uruguay
, in 1923. He took up drawing
in 1939 and relocated to Buenos Aires
, where he worked as a printing
apprentice in the industrial Barracas section of the Argentine capital. Returning to Montevideo in the late 1940s, he developed an interest in Afro-Uruguayan
culture. Settling in Montevideo's primarily black neighborhood of "Mediomundo" ("Middle Earth"), he studied the Candombé
and Comparsa
dances characteristic to the culture.
He composed numerous musical pieces in the two genres and conducted an orchestra. His group's conga
s and bongos
were decorated with their leader's own thematic drawings, as well. His interest in the culture later led him to Brazil
, home to the western hemisphere's largest population of African descent
. Páez Vilaró was invited to exhibit some of this work by the Director of the Modern Art Museum of Paris
, Jean Cassou
, in 1956. He traveled to Dakar
, Senegal
, later that year - his first visit to Africa.
Increasingly well-known, Páez Vilaró was commissioned in 1959 to create a mural for a tunnel connecting a new annex to the Organization of American States
' Washington, DC headquarters, the Pan American Union building. Originally intended to be no more than 50 ft (15 m) in length, the completed mural (Roots of Peace) measured 510 ft (155 m) long and nearly 7 ft (2 m) high when unveiled in 1960. Extensive damage from humidity prompted the artist to repaint the mural in 1975.
He purchased a sea-front property on eastern Uruguay's scenic, then-desolate Punta Ballena, in 1958, building a small, wooden lodge that over time became "Casapueblo
" ("House-Village"). The sprawling compound, a whitewashed cement structure reminiscent of Mykonos
, was built in stages by the artist to resemble the mud nests created by the region's native hornero
birds, and became his home, atelier and museum. Though he resided in Casapueblo - his "living sculpture
" - by 1968, Páez Vilaró continued to add on the structure at his desire, at times adding a room for a particular guest. He later opened a section of Casapueblo to tourism as a hotel.
Páez Vilaró remained active in European and African culture, as well. He remained close with numerous friends from his days in Paris
in the late 1950s, particularly Brigitte Bardot
and Pablo Picasso
, and in 1967, established a film production company ("Dahlia") with the help of European industrialists Gerard Leclery and Gunther Sachs
. He traveled in numerous West Africa
n nations to make a documentary, Batouk, with director Jean-Jacques Manigot and poet Aimé Césaire
.
The artist's first marriage was brief, though the couple had three children. One of them, Carlos "Carlitos" Páez Rodríguez, would later join the Stella Maris College
"Old Christians" Rugby
team; on October 13, 1972, Uruguayan Air Force Flight 571
carrying the team crashed in the forbidding Andes
range, between Chile
and Mendoza Province
, Argentina
. Páez Vilaró joined the search and rescue
mission for the 45 passengers, of which 16 survived, including his son, with whom he was reunited shortly after their December 23 rescue.
Páez Vilaró experienced difficulties in other areas of his life. He met Annette Deussen, an Argentine tourist, in 1976, and she had his child in 1984, though by then she was married to another man. The marriage dissolved in 1986 and she and Páez Vilaró married in 1989; the former spouse, however, continued his legal fight for the child for over a decade, even after Páez Vilaró's paternity was established by tests. The matter was ultimately resolved in the Páez Vilarós' favor in 1999.
He continued to create murals and sculptures for varied government offices, corporate headquarters, private homes, and other buildings. He created 12 murals in Argentina
, 16 in Brazil
, 4 in Chad
, 3 in Chile
, 4 in Gabon
, 11 in the United States
, and 30 in his native Uruguay
, as well as a scattering of works elsewhere in Africa
and in the Polynesian islands. He also designed a non-denominational chapel
for a cemetery without crosses or headstones in San Isidro, Buenos Aires
and rebuilt an abandoned house in nearby Tigre
in 1989 in the manner of Casapueblo; he considers the San Isidro chapel his "greatest work." The artist, a father of six, divides his time between Casapueblo and "Bengala," his Tigre residence.
Carlos Páez Vilaró (born November 1, 1923) is a renowned Uruguay
Uruguay
Uruguay ,officially the Oriental Republic of Uruguay,sometimes the Eastern Republic of Uruguay; ) is a country in the southeastern part of South America. It is home to some 3.5 million people, of whom 1.8 million live in the capital Montevideo and its metropolitan area...
an abstract artist, painter, potter, sculptor, muralist, writer, composer and constructor.
Life and work
Carlos Páez Vilaró was born in MontevideoMontevideo
Montevideo is the largest city, the capital, and the chief port of Uruguay. The settlement was established in 1726 by Bruno Mauricio de Zabala, as a strategic move amidst a Spanish-Portuguese dispute over the platine region, and as a counter to the Portuguese colony at Colonia del Sacramento...
, Uruguay
Uruguay
Uruguay ,officially the Oriental Republic of Uruguay,sometimes the Eastern Republic of Uruguay; ) is a country in the southeastern part of South America. It is home to some 3.5 million people, of whom 1.8 million live in the capital Montevideo and its metropolitan area...
, in 1923. He took up drawing
Drawing
Drawing is a form of visual art that makes use of any number of drawing instruments to mark a two-dimensional medium. Common instruments include graphite pencils, pen and ink, inked brushes, wax color pencils, crayons, charcoal, chalk, pastels, markers, styluses, and various metals .An artist who...
in 1939 and relocated to Buenos Aires
Buenos Aires
Buenos Aires is the capital and largest city of Argentina, and the second-largest metropolitan area in South America, after São Paulo. It is located on the western shore of the estuary of the Río de la Plata, on the southeastern coast of the South American continent...
, where he worked as a printing
Printing
Printing is a process for reproducing text and image, typically with ink on paper using a printing press. It is often carried out as a large-scale industrial process, and is an essential part of publishing and transaction printing....
apprentice in the industrial Barracas section of the Argentine capital. Returning to Montevideo in the late 1940s, he developed an interest in Afro-Uruguayan
Afro-Uruguayan
Afro-Uruguayan refers to Uruguayans of Black African ancestry. Almost a third is found in Montevideo.-History:It is often asserted in the academic literature on Uruguay that the presence and role of Africans in the development of this nation are overlooked. However, Afro-Uruguayans greatly...
culture. Settling in Montevideo's primarily black neighborhood of "Mediomundo" ("Middle Earth"), he studied the Candombé
Candombe
Candombe is a musical genre that has its roots in the African Bantu, and is proper of Uruguay, Argentina and Brazil .Uruguayan Candombe is the most practiced and spread internationally and has been recognized by UNESCO as Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity...
and Comparsa
Comparsa
A comparsa is the band which plays a conga during a Latin American Carnival celebration. It consists of a large group of dancers dancing and traveling on the streets, followed by a Carrosa where the musicians play...
dances characteristic to the culture.
He composed numerous musical pieces in the two genres and conducted an orchestra. His group's conga
Conga
The conga, or more properly the tumbadora, is a tall, narrow, single-headed Cuban drum with African antecedents. It is thought to be derived from the Makuta drums or similar drums associated with Afro-Cubans of Central African descent. A person who plays conga is called a conguero...
s and bongos
Bongo drum
Bongo or bongos are a Cuban percussion instrument consisting of a pair of single-headed, open-ended drums attached to each other. The drums are of different size: the larger drum is called in Spanish the hembra and the smaller the macho...
were decorated with their leader's own thematic drawings, as well. His interest in the culture later led him to Brazil
Brazil
Brazil , officially the Federative Republic of Brazil , is the largest country in South America. It is the world's fifth largest country, both by geographical area and by population with over 192 million people...
, home to the western hemisphere's largest population of African descent
Afro-Brazilian
In Brazil, the term "preto" is one of the five categories used by the Brazilian Census, along with "branco" , "pardo" , "amarelo" and "indígena"...
. Páez Vilaró was invited to exhibit some of this work by the Director of the Modern Art Museum of Paris
Musée d'Art Moderne de la Ville de Paris
Musée d'Art Moderne de la Ville de Paris is the City of Paris Museum of Modern Art dedicated to the arts of the 20th/21st centuries. It is located at 11 Avenue du Président Wilson in the 16th arrondissement of Paris.-Description:...
, Jean Cassou
Jean Cassou
Jean Cassou was a French writer, art critic, poet and member of the French Resistance during World War II.- Biography :Jean Cassou was born at Deusto, near Bilbao,...
, in 1956. He traveled to Dakar
Dakar
Dakar is the capital city and largest city of Senegal. It is located on the Cap-Vert Peninsula on the Atlantic coast and is the westernmost city on the African mainland...
, Senegal
Senegal
Senegal , officially the Republic of Senegal , is a country in western Africa. It owes its name to the Sénégal River that borders it to the east and north...
, later that year - his first visit to Africa.
Increasingly well-known, Páez Vilaró was commissioned in 1959 to create a mural for a tunnel connecting a new annex to the Organization of American States
Organization of American States
The Organization of American States is a regional international organization, headquartered in Washington, D.C., United States...
' Washington, DC headquarters, the Pan American Union building. Originally intended to be no more than 50 ft (15 m) in length, the completed mural (Roots of Peace) measured 510 ft (155 m) long and nearly 7 ft (2 m) high when unveiled in 1960. Extensive damage from humidity prompted the artist to repaint the mural in 1975.
Casapueblo
Casapueblo is the house of noted Uruguayan artist Carlos Páez Vilaró located in Punta Ballena near Punta del Este, Uruguay. It is a homage to the artist's son Carlitos Paez, one of the sixteen survivors of the crash of Uruguayan Air Force Flight 571...
" ("House-Village"). The sprawling compound, a whitewashed cement structure reminiscent of Mykonos
Mykonos
Mykonos is a Greek island, part of the Cyclades, lying between Tinos, Syros, Paros and Naxos. The island spans an area of and rises to an elevation of at its highest point. There are 9,320 inhabitants most of whom live in the largest town, Mykonos, which lies on the west coast. The town is also...
, was built in stages by the artist to resemble the mud nests created by the region's native hornero
Hornero
The horneros are members of the genus Furnarius in the family Furnariidae, native to South America.Horneros are brown birds with rather short tails and fairly long bills. They are known for building mud nests that resemble old wood-fired ovens...
birds, and became his home, atelier and museum. Though he resided in Casapueblo - his "living sculpture
Living sculpture
Living sculpture is any type of sculpture that is created with living, growing grasses, vines, plants or trees. It can be functional and/or ornamental...
" - by 1968, Páez Vilaró continued to add on the structure at his desire, at times adding a room for a particular guest. He later opened a section of Casapueblo to tourism as a hotel.
Páez Vilaró remained active in European and African culture, as well. He remained close with numerous friends from his days in Paris
Paris
Paris is the capital and largest city in France, situated on the river Seine, in northern France, at the heart of the Île-de-France region...
in the late 1950s, particularly Brigitte Bardot
Brigitte Bardot
Brigitte Anne-Marie Bardot is a French former fashion model, actress, singer and animal rights activist. She was one of the best-known sex-symbols of the 1960s.In her early life, Bardot was an aspiring ballet dancer...
and Pablo Picasso
Pablo Picasso
Pablo Diego José Francisco de Paula Juan Nepomuceno María de los Remedios Cipriano de la Santísima Trinidad Ruiz y Picasso known as Pablo Ruiz Picasso was a Spanish expatriate painter, sculptor, printmaker, ceramicist, and stage designer, one of the greatest and most influential artists of the...
, and in 1967, established a film production company ("Dahlia") with the help of European industrialists Gerard Leclery and Gunther Sachs
Günther Sachs
Günther Sachs was a highly decorated Generalleutnant in the Luftwaffe during World War II who commanded the 18. Flak-Division. He was also a recipient of the Knight's Cross of the Iron Cross . The Knight's Cross of the Iron Cross was awarded to recognise extreme battlefield bravery or successful...
. He traveled in numerous West Africa
West Africa
West Africa or Western Africa is the westernmost region of the African continent. Geopolitically, the UN definition of Western Africa includes the following 16 countries and an area of approximately 5 million square km:-Flags of West Africa:...
n nations to make a documentary, Batouk, with director Jean-Jacques Manigot and poet Aimé Césaire
Aimé Césaire
Aimé Fernand David Césaire was a French poet, author and politician from Martinique. He was "one of the founders of the négritude movement in Francophone literature".-Student, educator, and poet:...
.
The artist's first marriage was brief, though the couple had three children. One of them, Carlos "Carlitos" Páez Rodríguez, would later join the Stella Maris College
Stella Maris College (Montevideo)
The Stella Maris College of Montevideo, commonly referred as Christian Brothers College – Stella Maris or just Christian, is a private, co-educational, not-for-profit Catholic school run by the Christian Brothers of Ireland...
"Old Christians" Rugby
Rugby union
Rugby union, often simply referred to as rugby, is a full contact team sport which originated in England in the early 19th century. One of the two codes of rugby football, it is based on running with the ball in hand...
team; on October 13, 1972, Uruguayan Air Force Flight 571
Uruguayan Air Force Flight 571
Uruguayan Air Force Flight 571, also known as the Andes flight disaster, and in South America as Miracle in the Andes was a chartered flight carrying 45 people, including a rugby team, their friends, family and associates that crashed in the Andes on October 13, 1972...
carrying the team crashed in the forbidding Andes
Andes
The Andes is the world's longest continental mountain range. It is a continual range of highlands along the western coast of South America. This range is about long, about to wide , and of an average height of about .Along its length, the Andes is split into several ranges, which are separated...
range, between Chile
Chile
Chile ,officially the Republic of Chile , is a country in South America occupying a long, narrow coastal strip between the Andes mountains to the east and the Pacific Ocean to the west. It borders Peru to the north, Bolivia to the northeast, Argentina to the east, and the Drake Passage in the far...
and Mendoza Province
Mendoza Province
The Province of Mendoza is a province of Argentina, located in the western central part of the country in the Cuyo region. It borders to the north with San Juan, the south with La Pampa and Neuquén, the east with San Luis, and to the west with the republic of Chile; the international limit is...
, Argentina
Argentina
Argentina , officially the Argentine Republic , is the second largest country in South America by land area, after Brazil. It is constituted as a federation of 23 provinces and an autonomous city, Buenos Aires...
. Páez Vilaró joined the search and rescue
Search and rescue
Search and rescue is the search for and provision of aid to people who are in distress or imminent danger.The general field of search and rescue includes many specialty sub-fields, mostly based upon terrain considerations...
mission for the 45 passengers, of which 16 survived, including his son, with whom he was reunited shortly after their December 23 rescue.
Páez Vilaró experienced difficulties in other areas of his life. He met Annette Deussen, an Argentine tourist, in 1976, and she had his child in 1984, though by then she was married to another man. The marriage dissolved in 1986 and she and Páez Vilaró married in 1989; the former spouse, however, continued his legal fight for the child for over a decade, even after Páez Vilaró's paternity was established by tests. The matter was ultimately resolved in the Páez Vilarós' favor in 1999.
He continued to create murals and sculptures for varied government offices, corporate headquarters, private homes, and other buildings. He created 12 murals in Argentina
Argentina
Argentina , officially the Argentine Republic , is the second largest country in South America by land area, after Brazil. It is constituted as a federation of 23 provinces and an autonomous city, Buenos Aires...
, 16 in Brazil
Brazil
Brazil , officially the Federative Republic of Brazil , is the largest country in South America. It is the world's fifth largest country, both by geographical area and by population with over 192 million people...
, 4 in Chad
Chad
Chad , officially known as the Republic of Chad, is a landlocked country in Central Africa. It is bordered by Libya to the north, Sudan to the east, the Central African Republic to the south, Cameroon and Nigeria to the southwest, and Niger to the west...
, 3 in Chile
Chile
Chile ,officially the Republic of Chile , is a country in South America occupying a long, narrow coastal strip between the Andes mountains to the east and the Pacific Ocean to the west. It borders Peru to the north, Bolivia to the northeast, Argentina to the east, and the Drake Passage in the far...
, 4 in Gabon
Gabon
Gabon , officially the Gabonese Republic is a state in west central Africa sharing borders with Equatorial Guinea to the northwest, Cameroon to the north, and with the Republic of the Congo curving around the east and south. The Gulf of Guinea, an arm of the Atlantic Ocean is to the west...
, 11 in the United States
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
, and 30 in his native Uruguay
Uruguay
Uruguay ,officially the Oriental Republic of Uruguay,sometimes the Eastern Republic of Uruguay; ) is a country in the southeastern part of South America. It is home to some 3.5 million people, of whom 1.8 million live in the capital Montevideo and its metropolitan area...
, as well as a scattering of works elsewhere in Africa
Africa
Africa is the world's second largest and second most populous continent, after Asia. At about 30.2 million km² including adjacent islands, it covers 6% of the Earth's total surface area and 20.4% of the total land area...
and in the Polynesian islands. He also designed a non-denominational chapel
Chapel
A chapel is a building used by Christians as a place of fellowship and worship. It may be part of a larger structure or complex, such as a church, college, hospital, palace, prison or funeral home, located on board a military or commercial ship, or it may be an entirely free-standing building,...
for a cemetery without crosses or headstones in San Isidro, Buenos Aires
San Isidro, Buenos Aires
San Isidro, Buenos Aires is a municipality in Greater Buenos Aires and one of the most affluent municipalities in Argentina. It is located in San Isidro Partido in the Buenos Aires Province....
and rebuilt an abandoned house in nearby Tigre
Tigre, Buenos Aires
Tigre is a town in the Buenos Aires Province, Argentina, situated in the north of Greater Buenos Aires, north of Buenos Aires city. Tigre lies on the Paraná Delta and is an important tourist and weekend attraction, easily reached by bus and train services, including the scenic Tren de la Costa...
in 1989 in the manner of Casapueblo; he considers the San Isidro chapel his "greatest work." The artist, a father of six, divides his time between Casapueblo and "Bengala," his Tigre residence.