Mario Urteaga Alvarado
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Urteaga Alvarado, Mario (b. Cajamarca, April 1, 1875 - d. Cajamarca, June 12, 1957) was a Peruvian painter. He originally worked as a journalist, administrator, teacher and farmer however, he switched to oil painting at around the age of 30.
Urteaga appears to have been self-taught, using poor quality materials for his art such as old sugar sacks and cheap pigments, as well as making his own brushes.
His scenes of the lives of northern Andean Indians are colourful. Their naïve though detailed execution has been described as primitive and unacademic, and has been likened to that of Henri Rousseau.
His spontaneity and topicality are reminiscent of the caricatures of Pancho Fierro, yet his representation of the indigenous peoples of Peru and their daily life is serious. He is considered to be the first painter to portray Indian people without patronizing them, as can be seen in the Adobe Makers (1937, priv. col.) and Return of the Peasants (Lima, Mus. A.). An exhibition of his work was held at the Banco de la Nación, Lima, in 1989.
He was the first Peruvian painter with a work in the "MOMA" of New York.
