Rafael Yela Günther

Rafael Yela Günther
Rafael Yela Gunther, ca. 1910
Born	(1888-09-18)September 18, 1888 Quetzaltenango
Died	April 17, 1942(1942-04-17) (aged 53) Guatemala City
Nationality	Guatemalan
Known for	painting, sculpture. architecture
Notable work	José Francisco Barrundia monument, Guatemala City General Cemetery, 1905/1906 Isabel La Católica monument, Guatemala City, 1915 Leaders of the Independence monument, Guatemala City, 1934/1935 mausoleum, Guatemala City General Cemetery, 1932 Justo Rufino Barrios monument, 1941

Rafael Yela Günther (September 18, 1888 in Quetzaltenango – April 17, 1942 in Guatemala City) was a Guatemalan painter and sculptor.

Yela studied sculpture under his father Baldomero Yela Montenegro (1859–1909), a sculptor and marble-carver, and afterwards under the Venezuelan Santiago González (1850–1909). The Italian Antonio Doninelli taught him bronze casting techniques. In his early life he made the acquaintances of notable artists like Carlos Mérida, Carlos Mauricio Valenti Perrillat and Jaime Sabartés.

He was a member of the 1910 Generation in Guatemala

Around 1921, after being disappointed of the Unionist Party that overthrew president Manuel Estrada Cabrera, and in which he had been actively involved in Quetzaltenango, he moved to México, where he met Diego Rivera and came in contact for the first time with Maya art and Aztec art through the famous archeologist Manuel Gamio. Over the years of Gambio's large anthropological and archeological project, besides Mexican scholars a group of intellectual from all over the world came to Teotihuacan and help him in several ways; Yela Günther was one of them, working for Gamio from 1921 to 1925.

In Teotihuacan, Yela Gúnther worked in several tasks, working on the large Auditorium project, the museum murals and the sculptor known as "Tríptico de la Raza" ("Race triple sculpture"); regarding the Auditorium, besides building it, he was in charge of its ancient native motif decorations in which it is evident the influence that Diego Rivera]] had on his work. After completion of the building, Yela continued workin in Mexico for the old Secretariat of Anthropology ; about his work, Diego Rivera said that Yela Günther was the best representative of the Mexican sculpture movement at the time.