Three Figures

Dino Aranda’s Three Figures (Tres Figuras), painted in 1968, is a powerful example of politically charged Latin American contemporary art. The acrylic-on-canvas work, measuring approximately 35 by 55 inches, depicts three abstracted human figures lying horizontally inside narrow, rectangular forms that resemble cages, coffins, or enclosed compartments.

Violence casts its shadow from 1968 over Dino Aranda’s “Three Figures” painting, when Sandinista revolutionaries were being murdered by the regime of Anastasio Somoza. Aranda’s Three Figures suggests shrouded bodies with disfigured faces stacked in translucent cases or tombs. The figures are intentionally indistinct, their bodies reduced to simplified, almost skeletal shapes. Aranda’s earthy tones and heavily worked brushstrokes give the painting a somber, unsettling quality.

Three Figures by Dino Aranda is currently on display at National Gallery of Art, Washington D.C. in the East Building Upper Level, Gallery E407. This installation marks the return of this painting to public view in Washington. Three Figures had previously been on display at Fondo del Sol, a visual arts center (1973–2013) cofounded by Aranda (a Corcoran School of Art graduate) and Werth Zuver, the paintings’ donor.