Bolivia mourns the death of Édgar Arandia, art icon

He was a painter, communicator, columnist and researcher, among other facets. He was laid to rest at the Palacio Chico of the Ministry of Culture.

Édgar Arandia, an icon of Bolivian art, died. Personalities and institutions in the environment expressed their regret for this irreparable loss.

Arandia, according to the portal Urgente.bo, was suffering from an illness that kept him away from his passions, which were communication, writing, painting, research, among others.
The National Museum of Art (MNA), dependent on the Cultural Foundation of the Central Bank of Bolivia (BCB), expressed its dismay at this loss and sent condolences to the director of the MNA, Claribela Arandia, who is Édgar's daughter. "Those of us who have known and loved you were very fortunate to come close to your work and to have received your hug (...)," says the institutional statement.

Arandia, according to Urgente.bo, was a man gifted with fine popular humor; he was a thinker who generated controversies with his political positions and his criticism of those who engaged in traditional practices.

The archivist and cultural manager Elías Blanco Mamani also published: “Our hearts hurt. We are left with his work: paintings, poems, thoughts... Have a good trip my brother, in the name of the Aparapita Museum.”

TRAJECTORY

Born in La Paz in 1950, Quiroga fulfilled public functions. He was vice minister of Cultures, director of the National Museum of Art and executive secretary of the Cultural Foundation of the Central Bank of Bolivia.

As a social researcher and man moved by popular tradition, Arandia made the country's different social groups learn more about the Andean worldview and mestizo traditions, such as the Great Power festival. Precisely one of his last works was the story of the three faces of the Lord of the Holy Trinity, today better known as Tata Gran Poder.

He trained in Fine Arts at the Hernando Siles School of Arts and at the Engraving Workshop of the Bolivian-Brazilian Center. He had a bachelor's degree in anthropology and a graduate degree.

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