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When visiting Argentina, I ran across a graveyard with a lot of famous Argentinians in it. One of them was for a guy named Benito Quinquela Martín. Not knowing who he was, I did a little research.
Benito Quinquela Martín was an Argentine painter born in La Boca, Buenos Aires in early March 1890. His exact date of birth is unknown as he was abandoned by his parents and left at an orphanage, where he lived the first six years of his life until his adoption. His date of birth is assumed to have been on the 10th of March, judging by his size at the time he was left at the orphanage.
Benito Quinquela Martín is considered to be one of the most famous Argentinean painters, whose works of the ports of Argentina have been on display in New York, Paris, Madrid, London, and Rome. His art has been described as “a strong expression of activity, vigor and roughness as a display of life in the area of La Boca,” in Quinquela por Quinquela Trabajo: Periodistico de Maria Angelica Correa. His paintings represent a vibrant city, full of life and color.
Early Life
It is assumed he was six at the time of his adoption to Manuel Chinchella and Justina Molina. Manual, an Italian immigrant, was a coal distributor, where Benito worked as an as a boy and teenager, experiencing life in the ports of Buenos Aires, Argentina.
While working in his stepfather’s coal yard, Benito Quinquela attended night school, where he practiced drawing in the neighborhood of La Boca. At 17, he enrolled in an art academy under the instruction of Lazzario Alfredo, where he learned to paint and started his works of the Argentinean ports.
Career
Not long after enrolling in the academy, he met post-impressionist painter Pío Collivadino, who encouraged him to carry on with his art. Benito sent his first works to the Salón Nacional (National Salon) in 1918, and in 1920 he won the second prize in the National Exhibition. From which point, his name in the art world became more well known.
Soon after, he was chosen to paint the Pedro de Mendoza’s museum-school in the neighborhood of La Boca and worked for the Department of Public Works that included a mural in the subway system in Buenos Aires. In 1938, he was…
