The visual artist is the first Guatemalan to exhibit his art at the Prado Museum and the Louvre Museum. With his series “Re-nacer” he shows how the soul could be formed.

Samuel Escobar grew up in a house near the National School of Plastic Arts (ENAP) in Guatemala, so when he asked himself what to do with his life, the answer came from there: study art. Although he also thought of being a musician and a writer. The latter is because his childhood was surrounded by literature by his father.

When asked if he had ever imagined his life without art, he answered no, because since he became aware of his being during his pre-adolescence he was sure that, in some way, he would become an artist.

Samuel was not wrong. After studying at ENAP, specializing in painting, and giving several art classes in his country, a series of circumstances led him to study at the Nerdrum Art Studio in Sweden and Norway; and to exhibit his work internationally.

On March 31, 2023, he became the first Guatemalan to exhibit his art at the Louvre Museum in France, with the series Los Destinos del Alma. From September 1 to 5, he will be the first compatriot to present his work at the Prado Museum in Madrid, Spain. The series is called Re-nacer, because it exposes a new structuring as an individual after fulfilling dreams, such as exhibitions on the European continent. This series will be exhibited first in Argentina, at the Bada exhibition.

The story began more than a year ago with my participation in ARCOmadrid, the International Contemporary Art Fair in Spain. An art gallery in Colombia saw my work and contacted me because the government of that country had an invitation to participate in the Louvre Museum and exhibit Latin American artists.

In this museum in Paris, I exhibited the series The Destinies of the Soul, in which I explored the concept of eternity and omen, which contain the ideal of the soul. There are seven works because in my work the behavioral thread is the union of concepts, so here I based myself on the idea that the world was created in seven days. It is my world placing itself in the history of universal art and setting a precedent in national art.

At the end of 2022, I exhibited at the Carlos de Amberes Foundation, a 16th-century building that houses works by historic artists from the past. There I met Miguel Falomir Faus, director of the Prado Museum, and he invited me to participate in this exhibition of contemporary artists.

It will be a historic exhibition because, in addition to the fact that this museum has not had contemporary artists, it is a milestone for my career and for the history of art in Guatemala.

After I exhibited The Destinies of the Soul at the Louvre, which was about how destiny can change, I thought that with these upcoming events to exhibit on the European continent, what I have to do is be reborn, that is why the exhibition is called that.

I thought that by achieving something very big, like the exhibition at the Louvre, the last thing I wanted was to be overshadowed by the fact that I only did it once and that was the best thing in my life. I had to outdo myself, so with the upcoming exhibitions what I had to do was be reborn, and restructure myself.

Yes. Aristotle created the concept of mimesis, which was copying the world we see and describing it as it is; while Plato created poiesis, a term from which the word “poetry” is derived, and which refers to creation. Knowing this, he investigated further and arrived at Edgar Allan Poe’s philosophy of composition and began to write poems. In addition, I have had the habit of writing since I was a child.

My paintings are poetry. The process begins by placing the title of the work, writing a poem and then I begin to make the images of the painting. In this way, I have a limitation and the creative process is transferred to more concrete elements that give order to the elements that are in the imagination of what I paint.