Guatemalan Art

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Guatemala holds some of the oldest and grandest Maya art. The murals of San Bartolo, painted around 100 BC, show the maize god and creation stories, and in the Classic period Tikal raised steep pyramid temples while Quiriguá carved the tallest known Maya stelae, royal portraits covered in hieroglyphs. After the Spanish conquest, Santiago de los Caballeros, now Antigua Guatemala, became a centre for Baroque churches and polychrome wood sculpture, gilded and painted; the Black Christ of Esquipulas, carved by Quirio Cataño in the late 16th century, still draws pilgrims.

Maya weaving has never stopped: women on backstrap looms make huipiles whose patterns can identify a town. Modern painting found a leading figure in Carlos Mérida, who worked with the Mexican muralists and later fused Maya motifs with geometric abstraction. Contemporary artists include Regina José Galindo, known for performances about violence and memory, and Darío Escobar, who remakes sports equipment and everyday goods as sculpture.