Carlos Colombino - Paraguay

Born in Concepcion, 20 Oct 1937.

Paraguayan painter and engraver. His training was in architecture, and this had a considerable influence on his painting style.

Colombino's work marks the climax of the Paraguayan plastic arts' entry into contemporary modern art. He has traveled to and studied in Paris and Madrid, but a powerful connection with Paraguay lured him home where he currently resides. Throughout his long career, Colombino has produced a coherent and powerful body of work. His accomplishments include Inter-American Award Gabriela Mistral in Washington D.C., Special Prize for Painting at the Bienal Internacional del Deporte in Madrid, Spain, International Prize for Engraving at Bienal de San Juan de Puerto Rico, and first prize at the Sao Paulo Bienal in Sao Paulo, Brazil. His work has been featured in numerous solo and group exhibitions, and continues to be a strong presence in the Latin American art community. Wood contains a movement that is present within the grain; it is this flow pattern that inspires Carlos Colombino when he carves into a slab of this material in order to generate a form. Later in his artistic endeavor, he adds minimal color to areas that highlight geometric monumental forms that originate from the depths of the imagination. The results are shapes and images that take on a life and reality of their own and which exist in a surreal environment that was created especially for them to thrive. Political and social themes also purvey here. Human rights confront dictatorship as his shapes are woven together but on the verge of falling apart, straining against one another.

After the 1950s, when he went through an initial phase oscillating between a rather wildly dramatic style and another that favoured formal organization, he settled on a more stable personal style in the 1960s. His most frequently used technique, xylopintura, involved the use of wood-engraving tools to cut into plywood; the variations in the layers and the end- and cross-grain absorbed dyes and paints in different ways, and the image emerged from the process. In 1977 he began to develop a series of constructions entitled Reflections on Direr, in which he analysed his own expressive vocabulary and at the same time made a moving statement on human liberty. These works undoubtedly reflected the influence on Colombino of the Paraguayan RE-FIGURACION movement. Both his tormented neo-figurative work of the 1960s, when he had been a proponent of Neofiguracion, and these precise and shattered constructions constitute a vigorous indictment of the violation of human rights committed by Latin-American dictatorships, especially that of General Alfredo Stroessner in Paraguay from 1954 to 1989. From the early 1980s Colombino extended his style to an aggressive impressionism in solid constructions such as The Resurrection (1988), a mural in Concepcion Cathedral.

The literary output has been prolific Carlos Colombino. Wrote several poetry books and novels signed under the pseudonym "Esteban Cabañas. Also has an important production in the genre of essay, which embraced primarily to address cultural and historical themes of Paraguay.

His first poetic title was "The monsters vain" (1964). He subsequently published other books of poetry: "The time, the circle" (1979), "The four boundaries" (1981), "unearthing" (1982), "Premonitions" (1986), "Pit of words" (1992); and "rebellious castaway, with which he won the prize "Garcia Lorca 98."

Also published four novels: "The sweet and murky" (1998) and "Do you drink coffee on that corner?" (2000), "Juego cruzado" (2001) y "El dedo trémulo" (2002), "Alegato" (2005). (2000), "Cross Game" (2001) and "trembling finger" (2002), "Case" (2005).

Wrote two plays: "Time for Three" ( 1959 ) and "The Parable of the site more perfect" ( 1984 ).

Hi is one of the five writers selected for the National Prize for Literature (1999) in Paraguay. In 2002 with the novel "Juego Cruzado" won the Municipal Prize, awarded by the Municipality of Asunción.

Carlos Colombino is one of the creators of the Visual Arts Center / Museo del Barro, and its Director; Also creates the cultural center of Asuncion “Manzana de la Rivera”during the municipal administration of Carlos Filizzola. Also directed the restoration of Asuncion cultural center, and importer architectural heritage of the Paraguayan Capital. He creates the Foundations “Carlos Laila Colombino” which among other initiatives, fostered the creation of the Museum of Gold and Silver of Paraguay, in addition to the Casa Museo Caapucu, and the Museum of Contemporary Art and Design.