Gustavo Thorlichen

Gustavo (a.k.a. Gustav) Thorlichen (1908-1986) was a German-born photographer and painter who worked in Argentina.

Establishment in South America

Fleeing the rise of Nazism, Gustavo Thorlichen arrived in Argentina from Germany in 1933 and by the 1940s had established a studio in Reconquista between Corrientes and Sarmiento. An exhibition of his work was held at the Kraft Gallery, Buenos Aires in 1948. In 1941 Argentine writer and intellectual Victoria Ocampo hired Thorlichen to photograph her home at San Isidro. She declared the 68 shots he had taken “excellent". Also during this period he portrayed Harcourt Algeranoff (1903-1967) in various roles in performances of the Ballets Russes (ca.1942). By 1951 he had set up a studio at Lavalle 572 Buenos Aires.

In July 1953 Thorlichen was in Bolivia photographing for the revolutionary government of Victor Paz Estenssoro, when during an exhibition of his work he met Ernesto ‘Che’ Guevara, who was then his second trip to South America, and accompanied him to photograph various locations on the outskirts of La Paz. Che noted in his ‘Motorcycle Diaries’ that "Gustavo Thorlichen is a great artist and photographer," Ernesto wrote. "I had a chance to see how they work. His mastery of a simple technique subordinated entirely to a methodical composition results in photos of remarkable value." [“Gustavo Thorlichen es un gran artista como fotógrafo”, escribió Ernesto. “Tuve oportunidad de ver su manera de trabajar. Domina una técnica sencilla subordinada íntegramente a una composición metódica que da como resultado fotos de notable valor”.] The meeting revealed to Che the propaganda potential of photography and he purchased his own camera shortly thereafter.

Thorlichen approached the blind writer Jorge Luis Borges in 1948 to write the preface for his book “Argentina” that was published by the National Tourism Board in 1958 to promote the Argentine pavilion at the Industrial Exhibition in Brussels that year. Borges wrote: ”The picturesque is the exception in this country and does not feel like Argentina. Hence it difficult to capture in a limited series of images these sullen and almost abstract realities, hence the uniqueness of Thorlichen feat in capturing it with clarity, passion and happiness”.

He was commissioned as personal photographer to Argentine leader Juan Peron and his wife, Eva Duarte. His photographs were exhibited in galleries throughout Europe, America and Japan, and a 20” x 25½” print of his image of a female Bolivian stone breaker nursing her baby was included by Edward Steichen in the section ‘Work’ of the 1955 world-touring MoMA blockbuster The Family of Man.

Later life

After 1955, Throlichen took refuge in painting, and after 1970, when he settled in Torremolinos in Southern Spain, appears to have been less active. At Alhaurin El Grande, Malaga, there is a foundation that bears his name.

Died 12 November 1986 of cancer in Malaga.

Exhibitions

1948 Kraft Gallery 1954 ‘Tale of the Wayward’

Publications

Ocampo, V., & Thorlichen, G. (1941). San Isidro. Buenos Aires: Sur. (Spanish) Thorlichen, G., Paz, E. V., Baptista, G. M., & Lynch, P. (1955). El indio. La Paz: Editorial S.P.I.C. (5 editions published in 1955 in Spanish and English) Thorlichen, G. (1955). El precio del estaño. La Paz, Bolivia: Editorial S.P.I.C. (4 editions published in 1955 in Spanish) Cespedes, A., Thorlichen, G., & Lynch, P. (1955). El precio del estaño. La Paz: S.P.I.C. (Spanish) Thorlichen, G. (1956). La Paz. La Paz: Ediciones de la "Biblioteca Paceña". (5 editions published between 1956 and 1965 in Spanish) Thorlichen, G. (1958). La República Argentina. Buenos Aires: Editorial Sudamericana. (22 editions published between 1958 and 1999 in 3 languages) Thorlichen, G., & Hernani, M. (1962). Buenos Aires. México: Hermes. Thorlichen, G. (1962). Gustavo Thorlichen.Hernani, M. ., & Thorlichen, G. (1963). Visioni di Buenos Aires. Novara. Thorlichen, G., Fundación Gustavo Thorlichen, & Málaga (Provincia). (2014). Objetivo transversal: Del 30 de enero al 27 de febrero 2015, Espacio Expositivo Diputación de Málaga. Málaga: Delegación de Cultura, CEDMA. (Spanish)