Pueblo Aymara (village in the high Andes, Bolivia)

Alejandro Mario Yllanes is a little-known yet highly significant Bolivian artist who was born to an Aymara Indian mother (indigenous peoples from the high Andes). He is known to have created around 20 single sheet prints (wood engravings and lithographs), and others for book illustration. The majority of his prints (and paintings) address indigeneity, subjugation, and the devastating impact violence and conflict in Bolivia (for example, the 1932–35 Chaco War) had on indigenous populations. His leftist social critiques resulted him being sent into exile to the Amazon in 1936 where he remained for a year after which he spent time in Chile, Argentina, and Mexico. When he was in Mexico in 1938, Yllanes became familiar with the work of muralists Diego Rivera and José Clemente Orozco both of whom he admired for their dedication to addressing social themes. Yllanes had a successful exhibition of his own works (prints, paintings) at the Palacio de Bellas Artes in Mexico City in 1946. Diego Rivera wrote the Preface for the accompanying publication observing how ‘The artists and the workers of Mexico ought to welcome our Bolivian Comrade, Yllanes with open arms. May the intellectuals, and also the few artists who take refuge here in a "purist" art (so that they might hide their true sentiments and take care not to antagonise their wealthy clients) look to the example of this Bolivian, who was tortured, endured prison, and suffered exile for the revolutionary affirmation he expressed.’ Yllanes’ graphic interests and the subjects he addresses through his prints coincide with those of his peers working in Mexico. Artistically they also complement prints made by twentieth century American and European printmakers (German Expressionists for example). Few impressions of his prints survive (several are unique) and it seems that Yllanes never intended to print them in large numbers. They are printed on thin paper that lends a translucent quality.