Bolivia recovers the legacy of the great muralist Miguel Alandia Pantoja

Many of the works of the artist, who renewed Latin American muralism and earned the admiration of the Mexican Diego Rivera, were destroyed during the dictatorship. Now, a foundation acquired a collection that was in the possession of the family

The legacy of the plastic artist Miguel Alandia Pantoja, one of the great muralists of Latin America in the last century, already has permanent residence in his native Bolivia after the Cultural Foundation of the Central Bank of Bolivia (FC-BCB) acquired the collection of more of a hundred of his works.
The collection, made up of 157 “unpublished” easel works, 14 original sketches of murals, as well as newspaper clippings and posters, has remained in the custody of the National Museum of Art (MNA), dependent on the FC-BCB, explained the director. from that repository, Claribel Arandia.
“Studying Alandia Pantoja is not only studying the aesthetics of the moment, or the history of the moment, it is also thinking and reconceiving what can happen to the future of the country. It is not repeating bad stories, it is building new stories,” she commented.
Therein lies the importance for the MNA “that young people and children can appreciate this story told in the wonderful collection canvases” of the artist, she added.
Miguel Alandia Pantoja was born in 1914 in the mining town of Catavi, in the Andean region of Potosí. A self-taught painter, Alandia left works in Chile, Peru and Bolivia that represent his revolutionary messages and was the only artist in the region to exhibit his works in the Palace of Fine Arts of Mexico, at the invitation of the Mexican Government and the artist Diego Rivera.

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