La Capilla del Hombre
Oswaldo Guayasamín's monumental gallery above Quito, devoted to the peoples of Latin America.
The Ecuadorian painter Oswaldo Guayasamín conceived the Capilla del Hombre as a single building to hold a cycle of work about the history, suffering and endurance of the peoples of Latin America. Construction on the Bellavista hillside began in 1995 and was completed in 2002, three years after the artist's death; his son, the architect Handel Guayasamín, saw the design through. The building is a severe stone and concrete volume with a domed central hall, its windows framing views of Quito and the surrounding volcanoes.
Inside, large canvases and murals are arranged so that visitors move from the treatment of pre-Hispanic and colonial history to twentieth-century subjects such as mining, dictatorship and exile. A flame burns in a sunken space below the main floor in memory of those who died fighting for human rights. The site forms one part of the Fundación Guayasamín, alongside the artist's house-museum, which holds his collections of pre-Columbian, colonial and contemporary art, and an archaeological area in the grounds.
Highlights
- Guayasamín's late mural cycle on Latin American history
- Domed central hall with views over Quito and the volcanoes
- Perpetual flame commemorating victims of repression
- Adjoining house-museum with the artist's own art collections
