Utama Tilcara

Artist's workshop 

In many of @tripticity_'s trips to northern Argentina we saw the work of Emilio Haro Galli, but it was the first visit to his workshop in La Banda Grande, in Cafayate, that made us forever his most loyal admirers.

On that occasion, it was his son Huayra who hosted us and told us about his life's adventures, since it had been two years since Emilio had left his other workshop, on the edge of Tilcara, due to the coronavirus pandemic.

Maybe that's why the next trip of @tripticity_ had a fixed course: the Quebrada de Humahuaca, in order to meet in person this illustrious character of the northern art and bohemian life.

Like the one in Cafayate, his atelier in the province of Jujuy is also called Utama. There he lives and works in the company of his dogs and an affectionate cat named Manchita, who did not hesitate to climb into my arms asking for cuddles and then stained -forever- the pants of the assistant and driver of @tripticity_ by settling his little paws loaded with oil. The pets moved freely around the works, biting the brushes, trampling the fresh paints and palettes and even fighting over them, to then return meekly in search of affection from the visitors, in the middle of the conversation with the artist.

We arrived at sunset, while he was enjoying his main meal of the day, a stew of potatoes and country eggs together with a typical Cafayateño red wine.

So, talking about everyday life, the exchange of anecdotes began. 

Little by little, the conversation turned to his past. It was there when he told us about his first steps as an artist, at the age of thirteen, when he already knew he would be a painter: traditional education was not his thing.

His determination accompanied him to sustain such a decision, while his beloved grandmother predicted failure. Would she have known how wrong she was?

The success that accompanied Emilio's life may have had a lot to do with his adventures and forging experiences. Or perhaps it was the other way around, art led him to live with intensity and without structures.

Then he told us about his years of transgressions both in Latin America and in Europe, about the nights at the old Balderrama nightclub, where he shared endless gatherings with the leading figures of Salta and Argentine culture. It was funny when he told us about the unusual sales he made to locals and foreigners; in particular, that first one made on the occasion of the Serenata a Cafayate, when -young and still little known- he began to paint live and it was a winemaker, Chavo Figueroa, who bought his first work. The well-known winemaker, decades later, visited Emilio and arranged an exchange of that young piece for another contemporary one.

After joining him for dinner, he invited us to tour the chaotic universe of his creations; of those unusual places typical of a great artist with an infinite number of memories and treasures.

Before leaving, when I told Emilio that we were traveling on the occasion of my birthday, he got up, looked through his drawings and gave me a work of a colorful Puno playing a sikus. The best gift of a memorable evening!