Ana Mercedes Hoyos was a “pioneer in modern art” whose paintings and sculptures honoured Colombian culture. On December 17, 2022, a Google Doodle was created in her honour. The renowned Colombian artist Ana Mercedes Hoyos is honoured in today’s Doodle. Over seventeen national and international prizes were given to her as an award-winning painter and sculptor, according to Google.
Who Was Ana Mercedes Hoyos?
Ana Mercedes Hoyos was born on September 29, 1942 in Bogota. She received more than seventeen national and international honours for her work as a painter and sculptor. The father of Ana Mercedes Hoyos worked as an architect engineer. His daughter was urged to study art history by him. She studied at Colegio Marymount in Bogotá for her primary and secondary education, where she also studied painting privately with Luciano Jaramillo. Though she did not finish her studies, she studied visual arts at the University of the Andes with Juan Antonio Roda, Marta Traba, Armando Villegas, and Jaramillo.
Ana Mercedes Hoyos’ Career
Hoyos’ first series, Ventanas (Windows), was inspired by her early experiments with more abstract and minimalist techniques. Given that it was awarded the Caracas Prize by the Colombian National Salon of Artists, many view this collection as the pivotal moment in her career. She wed the architect Jacques Mosseri Hané, and the two of them travelled to New York City for a month to see Pop Art shows before heading back to Bogota.
In 1966, Hoyos started exhibiting. In 1967, she took home second place from the Museum of Contemporary Art in Bogotá. The next year she earned first prize in the Bogotá Museum of Modern Art’s “Environmental Spaces” exhibition.
In the 1970s, Hoyos began creating abstract art in a minimalistic style, in addition to his Pop Art creations. These resulted in the development of her debut series, Ventanas (Windows), which are regarded by many as her most significant pieces. She was awarded the Caracas Prize in 1971 for paintings 1 through 10 from the Ventanas collection at the 22nd Salon of National Artists.
Eventually, her artistic path brought her to still life paintings that explored Colombia’s rich cultural diversity. Exaggerated light and vibrant tropical colours were used in these still lifes to depict the varied cultures and landscapes of the Caribbean. The captivating and enchanting depictions of Afro-Colombian origins in Ana Mercedes Hoyos’ paintings.
She changed from appreciating the beauty of the lush bounty to appreciating the cultural contributions and multicultural diversity of the people who filled Colombia through her still life paintings, which helped her to come to appreciate her Afro-Colombian ancestry. She started studying the concepts of freedom and slavery in order to comprehend how those historical occurrences influenced and transformed Colombia.
In 2000, US President Bill Clinton extended an invitation to Mercedes Hoyos to attend the White House seminar on “Culture and Diplomacy”. She received a master’s degree in visual arts with honours, Honoris Causa, from the University of Antioquia in Medellín in the same year.
Ana Mercedes Hoyos’ Death
Ana Mercedes Hoyos died on September 5, 2014, in Bogota at the age of 71. She received more than 17 national and international honours during her life as a tribute to her achievements.
Reputable art organisations including the United Nations University in Tokyo, the Museum of Modern Art in Mexico City, the National Museum of African American History and Culture in Washington, D.C., and—possibly most importantly—the Bogotá Museum of Modern Art, where her trip began, are home to her works. Today, in celebration of her life, achievements, and contributions to the arts, Google has created a doodle in her honour.
