The Art of Fernando Llort

Fernando Llort, Fragmento de Mi Pais, silk-screen print, dimensions unknown, 2000

Permission has been granted by the Fundación Fernando Llort for the use of artwork throughout this journal and photography contained within this article.

Fernando Llort Choussy was born in San Salvador, the capital of El Salvador, in 1949. As a child he spent much time drawing and making crafts. In 1966, he decided to travel to Medellín, Colombia, to study religion at the Seminariola Ceja, then decided to travel abroad. He spent three years studying philosophy at the Universidad de Toulouse in France, and then at the prestigious Leuven University in Belgium where he earned a degree in philosophy and theology. During those years he also painted, and held his first exhibition in France. Not long after his European experience, he headed to Louisiana State University in Baton Rouge, where he studied architecture and art, but was uncomfortable with the racist attitudes of some of his acquaintances.

Llort returned to El Salvador in 1971, and at this time became lead singer and guitar player in a band, and also wrote poetry and essays. Tensions were escalating in El Salvador between the military government (supported by the upper classes), and the peasants or lower strata of society. The Catholic Church tended to remain aloof from these conflicts, and generally supported the elite autocracy. Things began to change after Oscar Romero was named Archbishop in 1977. Many in the church hierarchy were not pleased when he began criticizing the violent actions of the military against the peasants.

In 1972 Llort decided to move to the remote village of La Palma, where his family owned property. La Palma was suffering low employment and a high \crime rate, therefore Llort’s friends asked, jokingly, whether his father had exiled him there. But for Llort, La Palma became the place where he found his calling in art and spirituality. For him, the artistic vocation provided a connection to the local people. He began teaching workshops in woodworking, and in painting, for those with little or no training. Over the next decade his workshops multiplied, making La Palma one of El Salvador’s best-known producers of folk art (currently there are about 120 workshops), a place to find beautiful products for sale. As a result, crime and poverty had been reduced. His art during his years in La Palma, and the pieces created in his workshops, were inspired by village life and the natural environment. Llort also started his own family. He married Estela Chacón, and his children were born: Juan Pablo, now a chemical engineer; Angel Fernando, a musician; and María José, who manages much of his business.

Meanwhile, El Salvador’s military repression had hardened, especially following the assassination of Archbishop Romero in 1980. Soldiers often shot innocent peasants on the road, and at times assassinated entire villages. While projections vary, some estimates as high as 70,000, at least 25,000 civilians died from the violence during that decade. Llort’s art during this period, however, does not portray or directly critique social oppression or war. Instead, his images are bright, multi-colored and joyous, strengthening the identity of the masses at the deepest level, and celebrating healthy life as the potential of all people, in contrast to the anguish, tragedy and devastation surrounding them. Llort’s goal was “to reconnect with my roots as a Latin American, and help define our people in their human and spiritual dimensions.”¹ He retrieved Mayan and other pre-Columbian designs and motifs, and stylized the flowers, fields, plants, birds and other animals familiar to all El Salvadorians in his own striking fashion. Ordinary people doing ordinary things appear often in his work, frequently against a background of grouped hills and/or modest houses. Religious symbols often appear: open and upraised hands express worship, supplication or thanksgiving; images of people praying, with biblical phrases as titles; Jesus and Mary; birds symbolizing creation and the sun God’s creative power. His paintings are saturated...