Ana Mercedes Hoyos was a Colombian painter, sculptor and a pioneer of modern art in the country. She passed away on September 5, 2014, at the age of 72, after a brief illness. Her death was mourned by many who admired her artistic achievements and contributions to the Colombian culture. In this article, we will explore her life, work and legacy, as well as the cause of her death.
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Early Life and Education
Ana Mercedes Hoyos was born on September 29, 1942, in Bogotá, Colombia. Her father was an architectural engineer and encouraged her to study art history. She completed her primary and secondary schooling at Colegio Marymount in Bogotá, taking private lessons in painting under Luciano Jaramillo. She studied visual arts at the University of the Andes with Jaramillo, as well as Juan Antonio Roda, Marta Traba and Armando Villegas, though she did not complete her studies. In 1967, she married Jacques Mosseri Hané, an architect, and they spent a month in New York City, exploring exhibits of Pop Art, before returning home to Bogotá. Their daughter Ana was born in 1969.
Artistic Career and Style
Hoyos began her career as a teacher at the University of the Andes, where she taught from 1961 to 1965. She began exhibiting in 1966 and in 1967, won the second prize at Bogotá’s Museum of Contemporary Art Young Painter’s Biennial. The following year she took first place in the Bogotá Museum of Modern Art’s “Environmental Spaces” exhibition.
In the latter part of the 1960s, she produced Pop Art works and by the 1970s, was working in a minimalist style producing abstract works. These led to the creation of her first series, Ventanas (Windows), which many consider her most important works. The oil paintings were small with a square presentation, utilizing vertical and horizontal lines to frame an abstract landscape.
In the 1980s, she shifted to a more figurative style, inspired by the Colombian Caribbean coast and its Afro-Colombian and mestizo culture. She painted colorful still lifes of fruits and flowers, as well as portraits of women selling fruits on the beach. She also created sculptures of macaws and other tropical birds.
In the 1990s and 2000s, she continued to explore the themes of light, color, sensuality and multiculturalism in her paintings and sculptures. She also revisited some of the masterpieces of art history, such as Velázquez’s Las Meninas or Picasso’s Guernica, giving them her own interpretation and perspective.
Throughout her career, she received over seventeen awards of national and international recognition. She also participated in numerous solo and group exhibitions in Colombia and abroad. Some of the museums and galleries that have displayed her works include the Fuji Art Museum in Tokyo; the Ibercaja Collection in Zaragoza, Spain; the Museum of Modern Art in Mexico City; the Nassau County Museum of Art of Roslyn Harbor, New York; and many others.
Ana Mercedes Hoyos Cause of Death
According to Vizaca News, Hoyos passed away on Friday in Bogota, Colombia, according to her family. Her age was 72. According to statements made by Hoyos’s daughter, Ana Mosseri, to the local media, Hoyos passed away at the Santa Fe Foundation Clinic, where she had been admitted the previous day after celebrating the half-century anniversary of her artistic career.
The cause of her death was not publicly released, but her family said she had been hospitalized for a brief illness. Many famous people have expressed their sorrow to the family of the deceased. Maria Paz Gaviria, director of the Bogota International Art Fair, stated on Caracol Radio that “it is a sad tragedy for art in Colombia.”
Legacy and Influence
Hoyos was one of the most influential and innovative artists in Colombia and Latin America. She was a pioneer in introducing modern art movements such as Pop Art and abstraction to Colombia. She also celebrated the diversity and richness of Colombian culture through her vibrant use of color and form. She was especially interested in highlighting the Afro-Colombian and mestizo heritage within the Colombian landscape.
Hoyos also donated her collection of archival materials on San Basilio de Palenque, a town founded by escaped slaves that preserves its African traditions, to the United Nations University in Tokyo and the Smithsonian’s National Museum of African American History and Culture. She hoped that her research would help to raise awareness and appreciation of the African diaspora in Colombia and the Americas.
Hoyos was a role model for many young artists, especially women, who admired her talent, courage and dedication. She once said, as reported by the San Diego Union-Tribune, that when you choose to be an artist, “all you have is a responsibility to yourself and a commitment to society.” She certainly fulfilled that responsibility and commitment with her remarkable artistic legacy.
