Mother and Child

Acquired by José Gómez Sicre for the OAS collection on the occasion of Oswaldo Guayasamín’s individual exhibition in 1955, Mother and Child is a stark depiction of poverty and suffering. The mother’s crescent shaped head is echoed below by that of the tiny infant cradled in her arms, who tilts back its head in an attempt to nurse from its mother’s emaciated breasts.