Portrait of Toty Rodríguez 1967

This is Oswaldo Guayasamin’s "Portrait of Toty Rodriguez," painted with these strong, earthy colors. I can just imagine the artist, maybe in his studio, working and reworking the ochre planes of her face. I wonder what it must have been like, painting someone’s likeness, trying to get it right, or even more, trying to see who they really are. Look at those eyes—dark, staring out, pools of black ink, outlined. There's something about the way her face is built from strokes of yellow and brown that reminds me of Picasso, but with an Andean twist. The color palette here—reds, browns, blacks—it all feels very grounded, like the earth itself. Painting is like this: the colors we choose and the way we use them, we build up layers that talk to each other, that shout sometimes, or whisper. We can get something like a feeling, like memory. It’s like we are all in conversation, we painters. We are all talking to each other across time.