Benito Chinchella [hispanized Quinquela by himself] Martín (1890 - 1977) is known as el pintor de La Boca, because that neighborhood, its port and its people are the main themes of his work.
Abandoned as a baby child by his biological family, at the age of seven he was adopted by Justina Molina and Manuel Chinchella, a Genovese immigrant from whom Benito took his last name and his first occupation: loading and unloading coal from the tied up ships in Vuelta de Rocha.
He started to paint intuitively in his childhood. Except for some lessons in a cultural institution, Benito hadn’t any formal education; his training was self-taught, and his lifetime inspiration, the port’s life. His technique demonstrates both the heterodoxy of his painting and his art conception: since 1918, almost his entire work was painted with a palette knife.
Despite the early success he achieved, Quinquela never left La Boca and made many donations to the neighborhood, among others, the current school-museum “Pedro de Mendoza” next to Caminito.
Many years before his death, he prepared his own coffin, “because a man who has lived surrounded by colors can’t be buried in a plain box”. He lies in that water-coloured coffin in which top Quinquela had painted a sailing ship.
QUINQUELA'S HANDS
"ACCIDENTE EN EL PUERTO" ("ACCIDENT IN THE PORT"). ETCHING
"CREPÚSCULO" ("TWILIGHT"). OIL PAINTING
