LOS GRABADOS EN MADERA HOMBRES DEL ECUADOR (1937) DE EDUARDO KINGMAN EN SU CONTEXTO HISTÓRICO DE CREACIÓN. ANÁLISIS DE CUATRO GRABADOS

Abstract

In the enormous artistic production of Eduardo Kingman, the series of engravings that make up his publication entitled Hombres del Ecuador (1937), has been little highlighted or studied. This is part of the current called “social realism” and that, profusely, was developed in Latin America in the 1930s by various artists, both in the field of plastic arts and literature. And current that, likewise, will find in Ecuador a notable incidence in both artistic disciplines.

Made from the xylographic technique, these engravings represent, for the most part, a denunciation of the very poor living conditions (labor exploitation, marginalization, poverty, etc.) to which the indigenous ethnic group was subjected –especially in agriculture-, as well as and in the same sense, those of the industrial proletariat or women at that time. At the same time and artistically, those represent in many cases the first tests of further developments and with the same theme in the artist’s pictorial work.