María Luisa Pacheco papers, 1951-circa 1980

María Luisa Pacheco (1918-1982) was a painter in New York, N.Y. She was born in La Paz, Bolivia and studied at the Academia de Bellas Artes in La Paz where she later taught. She also studied with Velasquez Diaz. In La Paz she worked as an illustrator and editor for the newspaper La Razón. In 1951 Pacheco was allowed to attend La Escuela Central de Bellas Artes de San Fernando in Madrid, Spain as a graduate student and instructor. She moved to New York in 1956 as a Guggenheim Fellowship Award recipient. She also worked as a textile designer and as an illustrator at Life magazine.

Pacheco painted archaeological and mountain shapes translating them into semi-abstract forms. Her preferred media was wood, sand, acrylic, oil, and collage. She has been called a pioneer in the development of Bolivian contemporary art. Pacheco lived in New York until her death in 1982.