Fernando Llort

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Fernando Llort Choussy (born April 7, 1949 in San Salvador, El Salvador) is a Salvadoran artist of international recognition, called "El Salvador's National Artist" by the Foundation for Self-Sufficiency in Central America.^[1] He is known for teaching and inspiring the small town of La Palma, Chalatenango, how to make a living through art. His style is colorful and many times child-like. It can be compared to that of Joan Miró and in some instances Pablo Picasso.

[edit] Biography

Fernando Llort is the son of Baltasar Llort and Victoria Choussy. He is the middle child of six (four brothers and a sister) and displayed an artistic inclination since an early age. His teachers would pick him to draw maps during geography lessons. After graduating from high-school he obtained an architecture degree from the University of El Salvador.

A thirst for new experiences led him to further his studies in France in 1968. This was a very important time in Llort's life because being abroad gave him a strong sense of cultural identity with El Salvador.

After France, he studied theology in Lovaina, Belgium. Religious symbols are present throughout his art. One can almost always see a church, a dove or an eye that sees everything. This is part of his cultural identity.^{[citation needed]} Later on he went to study art in the United States at the Louisiana State University at Baton Rouge.

Upon returning back to El Salvador he did not find much political and social stability. The climate was tense as it was the early awakening of a civil war that lasted twelve years. To get away from all the these problems, he moved to the town of La Palma in the northern region of El Salvador, close to the border with Honduras. The contact with nature and with the people of La Palma influenced his art in a tremendous way. Life up on the mountains was simple compared to what was happening throughout the rest of the country. One writer describes the style and motifs of the art in this way: "Llort's designs were simple: primary colors mostly, and a kind of two dimensional art. Images of the rural life of the campesino predominated. Animals, birds, flowers, simple adobe houses, with red tile roofs."^[2] The same author notes that the themes shifted somewhat over the years that followed: "As the war progressed, and the consciousness of the poor deepened, themes such as the value of women, the importance of community, and the Salvadoran face of God became common."

He started an art workshop called "La Semilla de Dios" (God's seed) giving the opportunity to the people to learn about art.^[3]^[4] It was the birth of an artistic city. Once the civil war started, he left La Palma and moved back to San Salvador but even up to this day he maintains his link with the mountain people.

In San Salvador, he married Estela Chacon and had three children. He founded a cultural house called "El Arbol de Dios" (God's Tree) where he displays and sells his art. His work also can be seen decorating the exterior walls of that city's Metropolitan Cathedral^[5] and in the Hotel Real Inter-Continental.^[4]