Publication: Imágenes de lo propio: mediaciones, disputas y representación indígena en la pintura de Tigua
Authors
Soto Gutierrez, Laura
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Publisher
Universidad de Murcia: Servicio de Publicaciones
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DOI
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info:eu-repo/semantics/article
Description
Abstract
Este artículo analiza críticamente la evolución de la pintura de Tigua, una práctica de autorrepresentación visual surgida en los Andes ecuatorianos en los años setenta y posteriormente categorizada como “arte indígena” dentro de marcos institucionales y comerciales. Desde una perspectiva interdisciplinar que combina historia del arte, antropología crítica y estudios culturales, se examinan las transformaciones estéticas, simbólicas y políticas que ha atravesado esta expresión artística, marcada por tensiones entre agencia indígena y mediaciones externas. Con base en una etnografía prolongada y el análisis de obras pictóricas, se propone una periodización en tres etapas: experimentación formal e institucionalización inicial (años 70–80), canonización estética y politización visual (años 90–2000), y giro etnoestético con proyección panandina (desde los 2000). La investigación muestra cómo esta pintura se ha constituido en un campo visual complejo, donde convergen estrategias de afirmación identitaria, apropiaciones simbólicas y demandas del mercado. Lejos de ser una práctica homogénea o puramente folclórica, la pintura de Tigua encarna procesos complejos de clasificación, disputa simbólica y construcción de subjetividades indígenas, configurados en diálogo (y tensión) con políticas de reconocimiento, mercados culturales y estéticas decoloniales.
This article critically analyses the evolution of Tigua painting, a practice of visual self-representation that emerged in the Ecuadorian Andes in the 1970s and was later categorised as ‘indigenous art’ within institutional and commercial frameworks. From an interdisciplinary perspective that combines art history, critical anthropology, and cultural studies, the aesthetic, symbolic, and political transformations that this artistic expression has undergone are examined, marked by tensions between indigenous agency and external mediations. Based on extended ethnography and the analysis of pictorial works, a three-stage periodisation is proposed: formal experimentation and initial institutionalisation (1970s–1980s), aesthetic canonisation and visual politicisation (1990s–2000s), and an ethno-aesthetic shift with a pan-Andean projection (since 2000). The research shows how this painting has become a complex visual field, where strategies of identity affirmation, symbolic appropriations, and market demands converge. Far from being a homogeneous or purely folkloric practice, Tigua painting embodies complex processes of classification, symbolic dispute, and the construction of indigenous subjectivities, shaped in dialogue (and tension) with policies of recognition, cultural markets, and decolonial aesthetics.
This article critically analyses the evolution of Tigua painting, a practice of visual self-representation that emerged in the Ecuadorian Andes in the 1970s and was later categorised as ‘indigenous art’ within institutional and commercial frameworks. From an interdisciplinary perspective that combines art history, critical anthropology, and cultural studies, the aesthetic, symbolic, and political transformations that this artistic expression has undergone are examined, marked by tensions between indigenous agency and external mediations. Based on extended ethnography and the analysis of pictorial works, a three-stage periodisation is proposed: formal experimentation and initial institutionalisation (1970s–1980s), aesthetic canonisation and visual politicisation (1990s–2000s), and an ethno-aesthetic shift with a pan-Andean projection (since 2000). The research shows how this painting has become a complex visual field, where strategies of identity affirmation, symbolic appropriations, and market demands converge. Far from being a homogeneous or purely folkloric practice, Tigua painting embodies complex processes of classification, symbolic dispute, and the construction of indigenous subjectivities, shaped in dialogue (and tension) with policies of recognition, cultural markets, and decolonial aesthetics.
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Citation
Soto Gutierrez, L. (2026). Imágenes de lo propio: mediaciones, disputas y representación indígena en la pintura de Tigua. Arte Y Políticas De Identidad, 34, 79–98.
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