Eduardo Kingman (February 3, 1913 - 1998) was one of Ecuador's greatest artists of the 20th century, among the art circles of other master artists such as Oswaldo Guayasamin, Enrique Tábara, Félix Arauz, Juan Villafuerte and Camilo Egas. Kingman first studied under Victor Mideros at the Escuela de Bellas Artes, in Quito. Further studies took him to Venezuela, Peru, Bolivia and finally to the San Francisco School of Fine Arts, California (1945-1946). Americans first became acquainted with Kingman's art in 1939, when he assisted Camilo Egas with the paintings and decorations for the Ecuadorian Pavilion at the New York World's Fair.
For a period of twenty years, Eduardo Kingman held the post of principal professor at Quito's, Escuela de Belles Artes as well as Director of the Museo de Arte Colonial de Quito. In 1940, Kingman founded the Caspicara Gallery in Quito. At this time and later his original prints and paintings were exhibited internationally in such cities as Paris, Washington, San Francisco, Mexico City, Caracas and Bogotá. Near the end of his career, Kingman was honoured with a one man exhibition of his art at the United Nations, New York.
A unifying theme of Kingman's paintings, litographies and woodcuts is the plight of Ecuador's indigenous peoples. Poverty and hardship was often brilliantly delineated in the expressiveness of his subject's hands and faces. This element is clearly seen in this great, original lithograph. Kingman was also active as a writer and social activist. His open defense of and sympathy for his country's downtrodden peoples was a vital and inseparable force in his art.
