74 CultureShock! Bolivia
Solón Romero didn’t talk. He was fi nally released thanks
to pressure from international human rights organisations.
Many of Solón Romero’s fresco murals were destroyed
without even a photograph as a reminder, but some 25 still
stand in La Paz’s San Andrés University (UMSA) and public
buildings. Like Arandia, he was infl uenced by the classics.
He was exiled three times but never belonged to a political
party. “I went to the Soviet Union twice,” he says, “and they
tried to convince me, but they never could.” Most Bolivian
art is not overtly political, with some of Solón Romero’s work
as a notable exception. More often, Solón’s art is humanist,
gaining inspiration from Don Quixote and Sancho Panza. As
an alchemist, Solón invented new lithographic methods. Like
Quixote, Solón was constantly searching past new horizons,
and upon his death in 1999, he left a collection of impressive
three-dimensional paintings. His work can be seen at the
Solón foundation in La Paz (http://www.funsolon.org), and
numerous public buildings, especially in Sucre and La Paz,
house his murals.
A fi ne Bolivian original oil painting may be purchased
in La Paz or Cochabamba for anywhere from US$ 200 to
US$ 1,000; in a New York or Paris gallery, works of equivalent
quality would sell for considerably more.Where to Buy
Bolivian paintings of a more popular culture style may be
purchased outdoors at Plaza Humboldt (on Sundays) in La Paz
or across the bridge from the Félix Capriles Soccer Stadium in
Cochabamba for much lower prices.Art depends so much on taste, so how can one select the
names of a few artists out of hundreds?
Roberto Mamani Mamani, Herminio Pedraza, Patricia
Mariaca, María Eugenia Cortés, Angeles Fabbri, Milguer Yapur
Daza, Ejti Stih, Hernán Coria, Karine Boulanger, Alfredo de
la Placa, Carmen Céspedes and apologies to numerous other
quality painters who should have been mentioned.