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 Twelve
different Maya artists illustrates the months of the Arte
Maya Calendar for 2008. The calendar
includes the ancient Maya glyphs for each day of the year. Buying the calendar
directly from us rather than other outlets helps the
artists even more. |
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 Our
new Reproductions section contains limited
edition prints by Tz'utuhil artists Pedro Rafael Gonzalez Chavajay
and Lorenzo Gonzalez Chavajay, as well as older limited edition
prints by Carlos Merida and others. We will soon have a page in this
section of nineteenth century prints of ancient Maya
ruins. |
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| This section is arranged by artist, but there are two section pages one with paintings under $150 and another with major paintings—those paintings which are large, took a month or more for the artist to paint, and are of the highest quality. | |||||||||||||
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 Pedro
Rafael González Chavajay, Rafael's grandson, took up painting and
became San Pedro la Laguna's second painter. Over time his painting
developed a distinctive style and he was instrumental in defining the
Tz'utuhil style of painting. Along with his cousin Mariano Gonzalez, Pedro
Rafael is considered San Pedro's finest artist. In Guatemala he has the
reputation as the best among the many autodidactic Mayan painters. Pedro
Rafael has worked exclusively with Arte Maya Tz'utuhil since 1992. His
paintings were shown with the blockbuster exhibition "Courtly
Art of the Ancient Maya," and are in the permanent collection of the
Smithsonian National Museum of the American Indian. |
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 Mario
Gonzalez Chavajay has been painting for nearly twenty years. He is one
of two younger brothers of Pedro Rafael Gonzalez Chavajay who are
painters. Mario perfected his technique painting for the local galleries catering to
tourists. Four years ago he decided he wanted to paint original themes
and now works exclusively for Arte Maya Tz'utuhil. His paintings are
being shown with the blockbuster exhibition "Courtly Art of the Ancient
Maya," and are in the permanent collection of the Smithsonian National
Museum of the American Indian. |
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 Diego
Isaias Hernandez started out working in colored pencils on paper. He
graduated to sculpture but finally ended up becoming an oil
painter. Wisely he decided to learn on his own with the result
that he has developed an original style which still is uniquely
Mayan. Among all of the Mayan painters he comes up with some of
the most interesting titles for his paintings. He won first
prize in Guatemala's most prestigious art competition for a
painting entitled "Mitch" about the hurricane which passed
through Central America cause much destruction and loss of life. |
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 Paula
Nicho Cumes is unquestionably the most important woman artist
among the self taught Maya painters of Guatemala. She is a
Kaqchikel Maya Indian from San Juan Comalapa, the other area
with a concentration of Maya artists painting in a style that
comes out of their own Maya culture. |
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 Maria
Elena Curruchiche is the granddaughter of illustrious Andres
Curruchich the first painter from San Juan Comalapa. Her father
was also a well known painter. She and her cousin Rosa Elena
Curruchich were the first women painters from Comalapa. (Yes,
their last names are spelled correctly. The family added an "e"
to the spelling.) |
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 Lorenzo
Gonzalez Chavajay died in 1996. He had taken up painting late in
life and had only been painting for about seven years when he got
sick and died. He is the only truly naive artist among the Tz'utuhil
Maya painters. He was entirely self taught, and his style was
completely his own. His works are at the same time naive and modern,
Guatemalan and Maya. I know of no better naive Guatemalan artist.
After I met Lorenzo I bought almost everything he painted. His
paintings are now hard to come by, and this is the largest
collection of his paintings to go on the market. |
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Domingo
Garcia Criado is one of the few San Pedro artists to people his
paintings almost exclusively with people wearing the traje of his
pueblo—the other artists preferring the traje of the major
tourist towns Santiago Atitlán and Chichicastenango. Domingo has stylized
the designs on the traje and in nature to such a degree that his paintings
while still naive have a definite op-art or art deco connection. |
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 In
the 1970's Jose
Antonio Gonzalez Escobar travelled to the United States to exhibit his
paintings with the other major painters of the time, his father and first
Tz'utuhil painter, Rafael Gonzalez y Gonzalez, Juan Sisay of Santiago
Atitlán and Andres Curruchich the first Kaqchikel painter from San
Juan Comalapa. Jose Antonio's many years of painting have
firmly established his position among the Tz'utuhil painters. Jose
is one of only two Tz'utuhil painters who live in Guatemala City rather
than on Lake Atitlán. Two now internationally famous Tz'utuhil artists,
Pedro Rafael Gonzalez Chavajay and Mariano Gonzalez Chavajay, began their
oil painting careers working with their uncle Jose Antonio |
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 Vicenta
Puzul de Gonzalez, the first Tz'utuhil woman oil painter,
learned from her husband Mariano Gonzalez Chavajay. Vicenta has a
natural ability. She learned quickly and well. Of all of Mariano's
students she is the only one who can paint exactly like her husband.
Her works are virtually indistinguishable from those of Mariano,
except that her faces might be a little softer. For many years she
relegated her painting to helping her husband, but in the last few
years, with his support, has decided to paint on her own. |
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 Juan
Fermin Gonzalez Morales, is the eldest of three brothers who are
painters. His work is distinctive because he usually situates his
point of view from above. His paintings accurately capture the
details of the way of life of Maya people, a way of life that is
changing as the young people leave the villages for life in the
city, and many traditions disappear. |
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 Miguel
Angel Sunu Cortez is a young teacher from San Pedro la Laguna who
has been studying painting with Pedro Rafael Gonzalaz Chavajay. He
is the only Tz'utuhil Maya painter who paints more slowly than
Pedro Rafael. Although part of the reason he paints slowly is his
inexperience, the other part is that he is extremely careful and
pays great attention to detail. He paints no more than five
paintings a year so to have one of his paintings is to have a
rarity. |
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 By
1990 Matias Gonzalez Chavajay was
recognized as one of the best Tz'utuhil Maya artists. His paintings
combined attention to detail with a naive charm. Then he decided to
stop doing fine paintings and focus on doing paintings quickly for
the tourist market. I stopped buying from him because the quality
went down, but I recently decided that his work still is charming,
even though quickly done. |
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 Maria
Teodora Mendez de Gonzalez, the wife of Matias Gonzalez Chavajay,
learned to paint to help her husband with the production of
paintings for the tourist market. After they got their house built
and their children's education paid for, Maria began doing paintings
on her own and signing them herself. Because she worked so long on
her husbands paintings, duplicating his style, her paintings are
virtually indistinguishable, except perhaps by her interest in
women's themes, from those of her husband. |
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 Juana
Elva Vasquez de Ramirez and her husband Nicolas Ramirez run an
art gallery in Santiago Atitlan. Almost lost among the oil paintings
in the gallery are tiny watercolors done by the two of them. |
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 Guillermo
Nicolas Chac Perez was killed in a tragic bus accident in 2000.
The last paintings he did, which, for the last seven years, have
been carefully hidden away by Diego Puzul, are now available. There
are only three left. I will be posting them shortly. |
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 Felipe Batzin Navichoc
of San Pedro la Laguna is the middle of three brothers who paint.
His older brother Abraham well known in Guatemala. The faces of
people done by Felipe are among the most realistic done by any of
the artists in San Pedro. |
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| LINKS TO SECTION PAGES |
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To contact us write: Arte Maya Tz'utuhil, P.O. Box 40391, San
Francisco, CA 94140. Telephone: (415) 282-7654
Email me at .
All paintings and photographs Copyright © 1988–2008 Arte Maya Tz'utuhil |
