The vocation of Ana Mercedes Hoyos (1942 – 2014) was nurtured by her family environment from a very early age. Her father encouraged her to take private painting lessons with the prominent artist Luciano Jaramillo, who continued to be her teacher when she enrolled in the visual arts program at the Universidad de los Andes; however, she would not graduate from there or from the Universidad Nacional. This did not prevent her from building a prolific career that led her to participate in international biennials and that would bring her numerous accolades that positioned her as a relevant figure in the national art scene of the twentieth century. Her artistic work explored diverse horizons, reinterpreting traits of artistic movements such as Pop Art, geometric abstraction, and minimalism. However, her works are widely valued for their ability to capture the essence of Colombian tropicalism. Her work explored the country’s cultural and ethnic richness, placing special emphasis on African heritage and mestizaje. From 1987 onward, her canvases were filled with still lifes and washbasins from San Basilio de Palenque; in them, Ana Mercedes Hoyos saw the manifestation of a functional equilibrium that reminded her of the Russian Constructivists, but also the possibility of highlighting African heritage and Colombian diversity, thus opening a niche of representation that had until then been marginalized from Colombian visual arts. In this way, the artist expanded a national visual identity that also seeks to pay tribute to these communities and their daily struggle for equality.
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