Emma Reyes

Emma Reyes was born in 1919 in Bogota, Colombia. Reyes died on July 12, 2003 at the age of 84. Much of her artwork draws on her life and the obstacles that she faced from living in poverty. When she was about 6 or 7 years old her mother abandoned her and she was taken to a convent along with her sister but escaped later. She reached Argentina where she began to paint.[2] While at the convent, Reyes was not allowed to socialize with the outside world until the age of 19 which was the time of her escape. Reyes got married and had a child. Unfortunately her child was killed when a group of men invaded her home during a war in the economy. From there, Reyes fled to Paris in France to escape her life of poverty and began her life of painting.[2] In 1943 she received a scholarship to study in Paris.[3]

Despite the cruelty Reyes experienced in her childhood, she still tried to send positive messages through her works by making colorful images associated with animals and plants. She didn't get an education and therefore, was "illiterate." As the result of her having no education, she instead wrote letters and put them together as a book. She was mainly known for her writing rather than her paintings.[4]

A lot of her paintings didn't have a name and instead were called by what was visible. The image itself said it all. Most of her early works was a representation of the life she had left behind.

"Unknown (Goat)" Reyes utilized vibrant colors and painted mainly plants and animals. Her goal was to use vibrant colors in order to represent her lively personality. Her paintings such as this one, was done by color pencils and a board. The background of this painting is a pastel yellow with pastel green grass while there's a white cow drinking milk from a blue bucket.

"Figurine" This painting portrays a human figure build from garbage that implies children's imagination, but then destroyed by the evil in this world.[5]

"Burning Villages" In this painting Reyes intended to show loneliness in a town that's corrupted surrounded by economy issues, cruelty, and abandonment. It represents the struggle Reyes and her sister faced.[5]

Most of Emma Reyes works are held in the Essex Collection of Art from Latin America.[6] Her work is also preserved at the Perigord Museum of Art and Archaeology.[7]

Before publishing her book The Book of Emma Reyes: A Memoir, Reyes didn't want any changes in her grammar. Since she didn't get an education, the errors in her writing represent the struggle she went through writing the book and in addition relating to the struggles she survived in her childhood such as poverty. The book consist of 23 letters as the only format she was capable of writing. The dates of the letters start from 1969- 1997.[3] It was known that Reyes had a difficult time organizing her thoughts when it came to writing. Luckily, her solution was writing letters. The first letter of the book opens up with the most obvious, her childhood from there leading to her life.[3]

• Fajardo-Hill, Cecilia, et al. Radical Women: Latin American Art, 1960-1985. Hammer Museum, University of California, 2017.
• Reyes, Emma, and Daniel Alarcon (2017). The Book oƒ Emma Reyes. Penguin Books.
• The Radical Women Manifesto: Socialist Feminist Theory, Program and Organizational Structure. Red Letter Press, 2001.