El grito nº 3 1983

Oswaldo Guayasamin made 'El grito nº 3’ with paint, probably oil, and I imagine it was built up in layers, shifted, and reworked until it arrived at this raw and haunting image. The palette here is mostly muted tones – browns, creams, blacks. Looking at it, I’m thinking about how each brushstroke, each colour choice, might’ve felt. That hand covering the face – it’s not just a hand, right? It’s a shield, a scream, a barrier. The paint looks quite thin, in places transparent, so it’s soaked right into the canvas. The artist has laid bare the inner turmoil of the figure; there is such intensity in that one visible eye. Guayasamin was clearly in conversation with other painters like Picasso and Goya who looked unflinchingly at the dark side of life. And like them, Guayasamin made paintings that refuse to look away. Instead, he asks us to really see, to feel, and to grapple with the uncomfortable truths of being human.