Óleo sobre lienzo 1.979 - Exhibition at Banco de la República - BLAA
Óleo sobre lienzo 1.979 - Exhibition at Banco de la República - BLAA
Rag story
Oscar Alzate's childhood was not easy, his father flees with his wife and children from the cruel violence of the fifties, settling in Palmira, Valle, where they must start again. Oscar was born there, among the common vicissitudes of a family of that time; At the age of 8 his mother Inés died, leaving a very big void in him and in the whole family; In adolescence, his taste for art and his empathy with the hippie movement began, which produced a strong confrontation with his father who drastically opposed his intention to be an artist, for which at 19 he settled in Bogotá, where he enrolls in Fine Arts at the National University. From there, Alzate's life takes place in the center of Bogotá, where he walks through cold and lonely streets that lead him to his first works, portraying prostitutes in the streets and lonely facades; until in 1974 he began a journey as a photographer through the lower Magdalena.
On this trip he meets a common object in the markets and that today, only the memory captured by Alzate's paintings remains, the rag dolls.In these dolls Alzate portrays the violence that was experienced in many of these towns and that was reflected in the sad and melancholic looks of the dolls, who transmitted the feelings of their true owners, who were the provincial seamstresses, reflecting their experiences and pains in these popular toys.