Francisco ‘Tún’
- Francisco Tún, untitled, Courtesy private collection.
Marking the artist's first international institutional solo exhibition, in Spring 2027 we will present the work of the late Indigenous Guatemalan artist Francisco Tún (1948–1989).
Raised in a working-class Indigenous family in Guatemala City, Francisco Tún was a self-taught visionary whose style defies easy categorisation. In 1969, Tún gained critical attention when his painting El fruto del alcohol caught the eye of French art critic Edith Recourat at the national Shell painting competition. Recourat became a champion of his art, facilitating his first solo exhibition in 1970 at the Escuela Nacional de Artes Plásticas.
Over the next two decades, Tún developed an unmistakable visual language - expansive colour fields punctuated by minute human figures, at once intimate and monumental. Painted on surfaces ranging from canvas to wood and textiles, his works balance bold chromatic simplicity with emotional depth. Reflecting visions of the urban and rural habitats of Guatemala City where he lived, Tún’s vibrant and symbolic paintings are profoundly resonant - evoking solitude, poignancy, and existential reflection. Tún’s compositions feel dreamlike, transcending both naïve and abstract traditions. He remained resolutely original – as Recourat wrote“nothing is invented, and everything is new”.
Despite his early acclaim, Tún vanished from the art scene. He died or disappeared in 1989, leaving behind a remarkable body of work. The term "tunmanía" was coined to describe the resurgence of appreciation he received in later years in Guatemala, but his work has remained largely unseen outside his home country. This exhibition marks the first time his paintings will be presented to international audiences, offering a long-overdue opportunity to encounter an artist whose vision was forged entirely outside the structures of academic art, but whose originality resonates far beyond national borders.
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