Osvaldo Reyes

Osvaldo Reyes, 1919-2007, was one of the most well-known painters and academics within Toronto’s Latin American community. Reyes studied in the School of Fine Arts and in the Institute of Education of the University of Chile. The Mexican Government awarded Reyes a scholarship in 1949 to continue his studies in Mural Art.  He studied under the tutelage of masters such as David Alfaro Siqueiros, Diego Rivera, Federico Cantu, Francisco de la Maza, Jose Gutierrez and Raul Anguiano. He also studied in the School of Fine Arts of the Autonomous University of Mexico, created by Diego Rivera. During this period he was assistant to the Chilean poet Gabriela Mistral (Nobel Prize of Literature), who also influenced Reyes’ work. Born into a very modest family, Reyes became a member of a generation of artists interested in social realism and one of the most influential mentors of Chile’s muralist movement of the 1960s.