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The work of Bolivian artist Maria Luisa Pacheco stands apart from the major international artistic trends that circulated from the 1950s through the 1970s. Characterized by a systematic attention to materiality and texture, her work explores structural elements that construct images and spaces. At a young age, Pacheco took interest in her father’s architectural work, which influenced her approach to painting as a formal and personal exploration. During a brief period in Madrid, Pacheco studied with the Spanish painter Daniel Vázquez Díaz, who introduced her to the work of Georges Braque and Luis Gris. After returning to Bolivia in the early 1950s, she joined the avant-garde group, “Ocho Contemporáneos,” which sought to modernize the national cultural scene. Her work from this period was influenced by the aesthetic and political concerns of "indigenismo", an artistic movement that sought to revalorize indigenous cultures and condemned injustices against native groups. With the subsequent emergence of dictatorial governments and the implementation of repressive politics, Pacheco went into exile. After moving to New York City in 1956, her figurative references began to slowly transform into juxtapositions of planes and shapes evocative of Andean mountains. Eventually, her paintings turned completely abstract, as they began to reflect the artist’s interest in materiality and space. Her textural compositions recall sculptural processes, while the integration of different materials onto the canvas surface evokes the three-dimensional quality of wood collages. Pacheco’s steady transition towards abstraction led to her exploration of color symbolism in the Quechua and Aymara cultures of her native land.

This text was created in collaboration with the University of Maryland Department of Art History & Archaeology and written by Patricia Ortega-Miranda.