Judith Gutiérrez

Who was Judith Gutiérrez?

Judith Gutiérrez a master Latin American painter who worked in Ecuador and Mexico.

Gutierrez was born in Babahoyo, Ecuador, and studied in the School of Fine Arts in Guayaquil, Ecuador, with the teacher Caesar Andrade Faini. A great part of her life was spent living and painting in Mexico. Gutiérrez and her husband left Ecuador, feeling like political exiles, due to the military government of the time. Twelve years after leaving Ecuador, Gutiérrez was invited by the Ecuadorian government to exhibit some of her paintings in the National Museum of the Central Bank of Ecuador. To her delight and honor this became her first major exhibit in her home country.

Raised Catholic, Gutiérrez always felt very comfortable with her spirituality. At an early age her father, a sailor and agriculturalist, sent her to a convent in the Andean city of Riobamba, 30 km from the base of Chimborazo. As Gutierrez grew older she became more interested in ones personal relationship with their higher power and felt "the alter is within you". Gutierréz was known to meditate before creating her art. She felt meditation helped her to get to a different mental/spiritual state and hoped this would be reflected in her work.