Juan Fernando Bastos

Life and career

Born in Caracas, Venezuela, on 18 January 1958, to an expatriate Bolivian family, Bastos' interest in portraiture was sparked at the age of ten when he posed for a portrait by his aunt, Bolivian artist Yolanda de Aguirre. At the age of eleven, he returned to Bolivia with his family and they settled once again in La Paz where he was exposed to the vast Andean landscape and the Aymaran culture with its myths and legends, which became a major influence on his work. His formal training began at age 13 with de Aguirre, as well as artists Agnes Ovando-Sanz de Franck, Gonzalo Rodriguez, and another aunt, noted artist Maria Esther Ballivian. He was introduced to the masterpieces of the great European artists, copying the works of da Vinci, Michelangelo and Cézanne.

In 1977, Bastos enrolled at Universidad Mayor de San Andrés in La Paz where he studied architecture. He moved to Washington, D.C. in 1979, enrolling first at Georgetown University and then at Montgomery College. In 1982, he was admitted to the Maryland Institute College of Art where he continued his studies in Fine Arts graduating Cum Laude in 1984. He received his Masters of Fine Arts from Towson University in 1986.

From his home in Baltimore Bastos began his career and, in 1988, had his first solo show at gallery Arte Unico in La Paz. It featured portraits of Bolivian society figures, including Ximena Sánchez de Lozada, the wife of future Bolivian President Gonzalo Sánchez de Lozada. His first major solo exhibition in the U.S. was held in 1989 at the Knight Gomez Gallery in Baltimore. Entitled Myths & Dreams, it showcased Bastos’ emerging representational style that fused his Catholic roots with Andean mythology and symbolism. Two years later, the Inter-American Development Bank in Washington, D.C. presented Bastos’ work in a solo show, which also featured additional oils and pastels from this oeuvre. Another one-man exhibition in La Paz in 1993 showcased both traditional portraits and representational works that explored the myth of the Lake Titicaca mermaids. In 1994, Galeria Borkas in Lima, Peru, presented Milagros, Bastos’ one-man exhibition of works depicting the interplay between the Catholic and pagan belief in miracles and the South American tradition of milagros.

By the late 1980s, Bastos was accepting an increasing number of portrait commissions. Consequently, by 1999 he had established a high enough profile as a society portraitist to be featured, as one of six portrait painters, in a New York Times article on the reemergence of portraiture. Over a two-year period culminating in 2004, Bastos delivered eight portrait commissions to the University of Southern California’s Keck School of Medicine that featured Deans and major donors. The University of Southern California’s Viterbi School of Engineering also commissioned a portrait of its principal donors. Other institutional commissions have included Cedars-Sinai Medical Center, Good Samaritan Hospital, and Harvard University. Bastos has also delivered a number of cover portraits to The Gay & Lesbian Review, featuring celebrities such as Charlize Theron, Ian McKellen, Barney Frank, and Gore Vidal, who compared Bastos’ work to that of John Singer Sargent. Bastos has been influenced by the works of Julio Larraz, Odd Nerdrum, and Lucian Freud. Notable private commissions have included portraits of high-profile art collectors, Eugenio López and Philip Niarchos. He works in oils, pastels, pencil, watercolors, acrylics and collage.

In 1996, Bastos was featured in the Organization of American States' America Viva television documentary series with the episode, "Juan Fernando Bastos: Portrait of an Artist."

Since 1996, Bastos has lived and worked in Los Angeles, California.

Exhibitions

One-Man Shows

Selected Group Shows

Works

Selected Portraits