David Manzur. The Perfection

The work of one of Colombia’s most distinguished artists.

Born in Neira, Caldas, in 1929, of a Lebanese father, Salomón Manzur, and a Colombian mother, Cecilia Londoño Botero, David Manzur spent his childhood and adolescence, in Equatorial Guinea, the Canary Islands, and Continental Spain. In 1947, he returned to his country of birth and settled in Bogotà, where he studied art, music and acting. After a short theatrical career, he devoted himself to the visual arts. He studied at the Escuela de Bellas Artes de Bogotà before attending The Art Students League and Pratt Institute, in New York. Among his many accomplishments he received two Guggenheim fellowships (1961-1962) and one from the Organization of American States (1964).

As a young artist, Manzur experimented with Expressionism and abstraction, but he eventually found his true passion for figurative painting. He was inspired by multiple sources including Spanish Baroque artists such as Velázquez, Zurbarán and Sánchez Cotán