The visual arts of Guatemala are in mourning. Between the night of Tuesday, July 28, and the morning of July 29, news broke of the death of Mario Permuth, who stood out in the creative field of photography for more than 40 years.
Permuth, who was born in Guatemala in 1939, alternated his vocations as a lawyer and visual artist. In this second field he exhibited his works in Guatemala, Mexico and the United States.
Throughout his career he received more than 200 national and international awards, some of them: the Order of the Quetzal in the degree of Grand Cross, in 1993, and Notable Citizen, in 1989. He was Itinerant Ambassador of the Republic of Guatemala, in 1992 and obtained the distinction of Notable Citizen and reconciliatory, in recognition of his contributions to the peace process in Guatemala.
Mario Permuth participated in more than 40 individual and group exhibitions. Spaces as diverse as the Photographic Club of Guatemala, the Museum of the Diaspora (Beit Hatfutsot) in Israel, the Guatemalan American Institute, the French Alliance of Guatemala, the Paiz Foundation, the Ixchel Museum of Indigenous Costume, the Sol del Río Gallery and Juannio had their artistic contributions.
In 2023, when, together with his son Igal, he presented the exhibition and the book The third eyecurator Roberto Palomo-Silva wrote: “…around 2003, Mario Permuth published his extraordinary book The tree of knowledge and conceptually coins the term symmetrical revelation, in the context of a series of photographs-images, collected or selected under a certain order and criteria.”
On social networks, his son Igal published a photograph in which he appears with his father and the caption: “Today the cutest dad in the world said goodbye.”
Among those who have delivered messages of condolence are the artist Pepo Toledo, the Guatemala Holocaust museum and the Jewish Community of Guatemala.