Osvaldo Reyes
Encyclopedia
, (May 26, 1919 – December 23, 2007) was born in Santiago, Chile
Santiago, Chile
Santiago , also known as Santiago de Chile, is the capital and largest city of Chile, and the center of its largest conurbation . It is located in the country's central valley, at an elevation of above mean sea level...
, the oldest of eight children.
At the age of nine Osvaldo went to work as his family's sole provider and once grown, he married in secret so he could stay to care for his family, instead of starting his own household. The first of his family to get an education, he made sure his siblings got the same opportunity, and later taught art to underprivileged and special needs children.
In Mexico
Mexico
The United Mexican States , commonly known as Mexico , is a federal constitutional republic in North America. It is bordered on the north by the United States; on the south and west by the Pacific Ocean; on the southeast by Guatemala, Belize, and the Caribbean Sea; and on the east by the Gulf of...
, he studied art with the great Mexican muralists David Alfaro Siqueiros
David Alfaro Siqueiros
José David Alfaro Siqueiros was a social realist painter, known for his large murals in fresco that helped establish the Mexican Mural Renaissance, together with works by Diego Rivera and José Clemente Orozco, and also a member of the Mexican Communist Party who participated in an...
, Diego Rivera
Diego Rivera
Diego María de la Concepción Juan Nepomuceno Estanislao de la Rivera y Barrientos Acosta y Rodríguez was a prominent Mexican painter born in Guanajuato, Guanajuato, an active communist, and husband of Frida Kahlo . His large wall works in fresco helped establish the Mexican Mural Movement in...
, Federico Cantu, Francisco de la Maza, Jose Gutierrez
José Gutiérrez
José Gutiérrez-Guerra, known as "the last Oligarch," was President of Bolivia between 1917 and 1920....
and Raul Anguiano
Raúl Anguiano
José Raúl Anguiano Valadez was a Mexican critical realist painter, draftsman, muralist, and engraver, as well as a member of the second generation of the so-called "Mexican School of Painting" in Mexican art, along with Juan O'Gorman, Judith Gutierrez, Jorge González Camarena, José Chávez Morado,...
. He was also assistant to the Nobel Award winner Chilean poet Gabriela Mistral
Gabriela Mistral
Gabriela Mistral was the pseudonym of Lucila de María del Perpetuo Socorro Godoy Alcayaga, a Chilean poet, educator, diplomat, and feminist who was the first Latin American to win the Nobel Prize in Literature, in 1945...
. In his return to Chile he painted the mural "La Ronda", which was inspired by the work of Gabriela Mistral of the same name.
He was a professor and director of the Escuela Experimental Artistica until September, 1973. This institution is known for producing hundreds of Chilean artists in a wide variety of artistic disciplines. In 1978 he moved to Mexico with his family, among the thousands with socialist leanings to flee Chile after the Salvador Allende
Salvador Allende
Salvador Allende Gossens was a Chilean physician and politician who is generally considered the first democratically elected Marxist to become president of a country in Latin America....
reformist government was toppled by a military coup. Reyes left with his wife, Carmen, and the two youngest of their five children and worked at the San Carlos Academy of Art for ten years. The family's separation tormented him, so when some of their older offspring later moved to Canada
Canada
Canada is a North American country consisting of ten provinces and three territories. Located in the northern part of the continent, it extends from the Atlantic Ocean in the east to the Pacific Ocean in the west, and northward into the Arctic Ocean...
, Reyes and his wife followed.
He exhibited his work in Chile, Mexico, and Canada and in 2003 presented a retrospective exhibition at the Museum of Contemporary Art
Museo de Arte Contemporáneo (Santiago, Chile)
The Contemporary Art Museum in Santiago, Chile is one of the major museums of the city. It is operated by the University of Chile Art Department. The museum is located near Parque Forestal behind the National Museum of Fine Arts....
in Santiago, Chile
Santiago, Chile
Santiago , also known as Santiago de Chile, is the capital and largest city of Chile, and the center of its largest conurbation . It is located in the country's central valley, at an elevation of above mean sea level...
.
The Mexican muralist Raul Anguiano
Raúl Anguiano
José Raúl Anguiano Valadez was a Mexican critical realist painter, draftsman, muralist, and engraver, as well as a member of the second generation of the so-called "Mexican School of Painting" in Mexican art, along with Juan O'Gorman, Judith Gutierrez, Jorge González Camarena, José Chávez Morado,...
commented in 1987 that Osvaldo Reyes' work can be placed "among the latin american masters such as Guayasamin, Amelia Perez o Portinari, with a modernist touch that resembles the work of Leger and other German expressionists".
He died in Toronto
Toronto
Toronto is the provincial capital of Ontario and the largest city in Canada. It is located in Southern Ontario on the northwestern shore of Lake Ontario. A relatively modern city, Toronto's history dates back to the late-18th century, when its land was first purchased by the British monarchy from...
, Canada after suffering a stroke.