Oscar Villegas, Olympe, 1989.

        

         Éduard Manet’s portrait of a young white prostitute, Olympia, as Venus was a scandalous composition for the French public when it debuted in 1865. Viewers were shocked because of this “professional” woman’s verging gaze. Manet received widespread critiques from a horrified public who saw moral depravity, inferiority, and animalistic sexuality with the dramatic contrast of skin colors between the white prostitute and a black maid.  Olympia revealed the racial divisions and tension that were arising throughout society.

            Oscar Villegas was born in Bolivia in 1966 and raised in Ecuador since 1969. In the search for artistic expression, he studies compositions from the canon of art history and inspiration in the recreation of historical artworks. He currently lives and works in Madrid as an independent curator, photographer and film-maker. He obtained his MFA in photography from the School of Visual Arts in New York. He has worked as photographer and professor of art history in New York and Madrid. His art works has been exhibit in different countries. Oscar’s photography is held in private collections and has won awards in the United States.

            Oscar Villegas, Olympe, pays homage to Manet’s composition in this photograph from 1989. He recreates the general position of figures and composition but replaces the female figures with males. His contrasts the white female prostitute with who we can assume is a white male prostitute who lies nude upon the bed and staring intently towards the viewer. Manet’s black maid is then replaced by a darker skinned man with a large distinguished nose, with thick black hair and eye brows. 

            His choice of men in this work highlights the growing social awareness of homosexual culture and compares it to the Parisian brothels of Manet’s time. This statement of homosexuality is a bold statement for an artist from Ecuador whose culture is generally intolerant of homosexuality.  His use of black and white photography adds to his statement by questioning the black-and-white ideas of the highly-gendered Catholic country.

            126 years after the creation of Olympia, Oscar Villegas’ use of modern photography fully supports the ideas of Realism as he has created an image of ordinary people, using industrial technology, and embracing a cultural empiricism and positivism. Acting as an artist should by bringing our attention to the people and events of own time.