Guillermo Maldonado
Guatemalan Artist and Print Maker
Maldonado studied art at the Guatemalan National School of Fine Arts. Even though he is proficient in different techniques he has chosen wood engraving as his favorite medium of expression. The quality of his engravings is outstanding. Maldonado’s work has been centered in customary scenes, in this way he rescues the humbleness of the craft, mixing the artistic with the artisan when summarizing, in a single physical space, his condition of artist and printer. Classic drawing is the base for his contemporary style since it provides his engravings with a very subtle elegance that is characteristic to his work. He has participated in many group and individual shows and his works can be found in private collections all over the world.
A Review by Art Critic Valia Garcon
“In a scenario like this one, the work of Guillermo Maldonado takes its own connotations. Far from conceptual preoccupations, and surprised when they have classified his artistic production in a social slope, Maldonado has been centered in the customary scenes, that he has reproduced very insistently during the last years. With it, he rescues the humility of the craft, mixing the artistic with the artisan when summarizing, in a single physical space, his condition of artist and printer.
The influence of the study that he has made on the work of Mexican engravers, specially the work of Posada and Garcia Busto, can be seen clearly in his work. The outline is clean, the force of the image is increased or diminished with the pressure of the printing, the human figure is the center of most of its proposals.
Formally motivated by the investigation that he has made on the German engravers that took part in “El Puente”, he has paid attention to the diligent process of the backgrounds in which the human figure emerges, almost always without a face.”
His works can be admired by booking on of our art tours, check this link for more information: https://artintheamericas.net/art-tours-antigua-guatemala/