Álvaro Guevara

Álvaro Guevara
Álvaro photographed by George Charles Beresford, 1920
Born
Álvaro Guevara Reimers

(1894-07-05)5 July 1894
Valparaíso, Chile
Died16 October 1951(1951-10-16) (aged 57)
Aix-en-Provence, France
Other nameChile Guevara
EducationBradford Technical College
Bradford College of Art
Slade School of Fine Art, 1916
Spouse
​
​
(m. 1929, separated)​
Children1
FamilyGuinness family
Boxing career
WeightMiddleweight

Álvaro Guevara Reimers (5 July 1894 – 16 October 1951), known in Europe as Chile Guevara, was a Chilean painter, drafter and boxer active in London and France.[1][2][3][4] In 1920, Guevara became the youngest painter and the first Latin American to have artwork at the Tate Modern.[5]

Early life and education

Guevara was born on 5 July 1894[a] in Valparaíso to Luis Guevara Arias[b] (c. 1840–1912), a wool exporter and Anglophile, and Ida Juana María Reimers de Guevara (née Reimers Bode; 1857–1943).[1][7] The tenth of twelve children, Guevara grew up at his families home in Valparaíso, which later destroyed in the 1906 earthquake, and a country estate in Arauco Province.[1]

Guevara's elder brother, Lucho, ran the family's business interests in Yorkshire and at his suggestion Guevara and his two youngest sisters were sent to England in 1910.[1] Both of Guevara's parents moved to Harrogate shortly afterwards, and lived at the Majestic Hotel.[1] Sent to Bradford, Guevara studied textiles at Bradford Technical College.[1][6][3][8][9]

During this period Guevara developed an interest in painting and began secretly attending evening classes at the Bradford College of Art.[c][3] Guevara's interest in painting was encouraged by Lucho's friends William Rothenstein and Albert Rutherston.[1][3] In 1912, Guevara was awarded a scholarship to the Slade School of Fine Art.[3] Guevara appears to have shown such serious anti-semitic attitudes whilst studying at the Slade that he was beaten up twice by fellow Jewish students, David Bomberg and Jacob Kramer for his bullying of Isaac Rosenberg.[11] Guevara graduated in 1916.[3]

Career

In 1916, Guevara painted a portrait of Edith Sitwell entitled "Dame Edith Sitwell".[5][12] According to Diana Holman-Hunt, Guevara and Sitwell shared a non-physical but "romantic and spiritual" relationship.[13] The painting was later purchased by the Tate Modern through the National Art Collections Fund in 1920, making Guevara the youngest painter and the first Latin American to have artwork within the galleries collection.[5][12]

Associated with the Bloomsbury Group, Guevara held a sole show at the Omega Workshops.[14]

Chile

In 1923,[d] Guevara settled in Viña del Mar where he opened an atelier.[6] The same year Guevara exhibited five paintings at the Official Salon, where the avant-garde nature of his work received a negative reception.[5][15] In 1925, Guevara travelled to Southern Chile to paint Mapuche life and the landscapes of Wallmapu.[5][16]

During his time in Chile, Guevara became known as a boxer.[3][5][6] In 1924, Guevara won the Valparaíso boxing championship against Zózimo López in the middleweight category.[5]

Europe

In 1926, Guevara returned to London with around 50 paintings and later exhibited 34 of them at Leicester Galleries in November.[3][5] In 1927, Guevara settled in Paris.[8] Following his marriage to Méraud Guinness in 1929, the couple settled in Aix-en-Provence.

In 1940, a large number of Guevara's paintings were destroyed during a German airstrike.[e][8][6] In 1941, Guevara was arrested by the Gestapo and his work was confiscated.[4][6][8] Guevara was held at a concentration camp until he was able to return to Chile in 1943.[4][6][8] According to Pablo Neruda, Guevara never physically recovered from his imprisonment.[4]

In 1945, Guevara returned to London as an Honorary Consul for Chile before later becoming the cultural attaché for Switzerland the following year.[6][8] In 1948, Guevara returned to Aix-en-Provence.[8]

In 1954, Guevara's "Dictionnaire Intuitif" was posthumously published.[17][6]

Personal life

Guevara was known to have had relationships with men and women, including with Nancy Cunard.[13][18]

In 1929, Guevara married Meraud Guinness, a painter and member of the Guinness family.[19][20] Guevara and Guinness had one daughter, Alladine Guevara[5], before later separating.

On 16 October 1951 Guevara died of cancer in Aix-en-Provence, aged 57.[6]

Notes

  1. ↑ Also cited as 10 July 1894[6] and 13 July 1894.[1][7]
  2. ↑ Also cited as Luis Ladrón de Guevara.[1]
  3. ↑ Part of Bradford Technical College.[10]
  4. ↑ Also cited as 1922.[5]
  5. ↑ Cited as happening in either London[8] or France[6].

References

  1. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 Beechey, James (8 October 2009). "Guevara, Álvaro Ladrón de (1894–1951), artist and boxer". Oxford Dictionary of National Biography (online ed.). Oxford: Oxford University Press. doi:10.1093/ref:odnb/64271. Retrieved 8 May 2026. (Subscription, Wikipedia Library access or UK public library membership required.)
  2. ↑ "Guevara, Alvaro". Benezit Dictionary of Artists. Oxford: Oxford University Press. 31 October 2011. doi:10.1093/benz/9780199773787.article.B00080655. Retrieved 8 May 2026.
  3. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 Iacono, Irene. "Alvaro Guevara artist". Ben Uri Research Unit. London: Ben Uri Gallery & Museum. Retrieved 8 May 2026.
  4. 1 2 3 4 Neruda, Pablo (2021). The Complete Memoirs. Expanded Edition. Translated by St Martin, Hardie; West, Adrian Nathan. New York: Farrar, Straus and Giroux. ISBN 978-0374538125. Retrieved 8 May 2026.
  5. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 Oses, Darío (2022). "«Chile Guevara», pintor, poeta, dramaturgo y boxeador". Cultura (in Spanish). Santiago, Chile: Fundación Pablo Neruda. Retrieved 8 May 2026.
  6. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 "Álvaro Guevara". Artistas Visuales Chilenos (in Spanish). Santiago, Chile: Chilean National Museum of Fine Arts. Retrieved 8 May 2026.
  7. 1 2 "No.17 Guevara, Álvaro [Birth Record]". Chile, Civil Registration, 1885–1903 [database on-line]; Valparaíso; El Puerto; Nacimientos 1894 (in Spanish). Lehi, Utah: Ancestry.com Operations, Inc.: 9 1894.
  8. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 Delarge, Jean-Pierre. "GUEVARA, Alvaro". Dictionnaire des arts plastiques modernes et contemporains (in French). Paris: Éditions Gründ. Retrieved 8 May 2026.
  9. ↑ "Álvaro Guevara". Census Returns of England and Wales, 1911; Yorkshire-West Riding; Bradford. Kew, Richmond: The National Archives. 1911.
  10. ↑ "Bradford College of Art". Goffs Oak, Hertfordshire: Artist Biographies. Retrieved 8 May 2026.
  11. ↑ J.M. Wilson, Isaac Rosenberg (Evanstone: University of Illinois Press, 2008) 136
  12. 1 2 "'Dame Edith Sitwell', Alvaro Guevara, 1916". Tate. London: Board of Trustees of the Tate Gallery. Retrieved 8 May 2026.
  13. 1 2 "QUEER BRITISH ART 1861–1967, LARGE PRINT GUIDE" (PDF). London: Tate. 2017. p. 110. Retrieved 9 May 2026.
  14. ↑ Shone, Richard. "Vision and Design. The Omega Workshops: furniture, applied art, paintings, works on paper 1911–18". The Art of Bloomsbury: Roger Fry, Vanessa Bell and Duncan Grant. Princeton, New Jersey: Princeton University Press. pp. 137–182. ISBN 0691049939.
  15. ↑ "Obras presentadas en 1923: PINTURA". CATÁLOGO EXPOSICIÓN DE BELLAS ARTES, SALÓN DE 1923 (PDF) (in Spanish). Chile: Imprenta Lagunas. 2 March 1923. p. 49. Retrieved 8 May 2026.
  16. ↑ Cancino Fuentes, Eva; Alvarado Cornejo, Manuel (17 April 2023). "Paisaje selvático". SURDOC (in Spanish). Santiago, Chile: Centro de Documentación de Bienes Patrimoniales. Retrieved 8 May 2026.
  17. ↑ "[DICTIONARIES] GUEVARA, Alvaro". Lorne Bair Rare Books. Winchester, Virginia. Retrieved 9 May 2026.
  18. ↑ Lucas, John (2005). "Introduction". Poems of Nancy Cunard: From the Bodleian Library (PDF). Nottingham: Trent Editions. pp. 7–15. ISBN 1-84233-107-8. Retrieved 9 May 2026.
  19. ↑ "Alvaro Guevara and Meraud N W Guinness [Marriage Index]". England and Wales Civil Registration Indexes. 1a (Q1). General Register Office: 979. 1929.
  20. ↑ "Guevara-Guinness, Méraud". Benezit Dictionary of Artists. Oxford: Oxford University Press. 31 October 2011. doi:10.1093/benz/9780199773787.article.B00080657. Retrieved 8 May 2026.
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