In this text, Peruvian writer and essayist Sebastián Salazar Bondy responds to the open letter that painter Fernando de Szyszlo sent from Paris. The belligerent tone of de Szyszlo’s rebuttal was overshadowed by his now-famous statement in La Prensa newspaper: “there are no painters in Peru”. His open contempt for contemporary art from his country gave rise to an irate reaction from Peruvian artists and intellectuals and earned him a leading role in the first debate in Peru on non-figurative art. The statement addressed the lack of local points of reference for any artist interested in participating in the most recent international trends. The debate shed light on the terms that would define local modern art, evidencing differences among Peruvian progressive intellectuals.
In Peru, the debates on abstraction set in with the discussion unleashed by statements like “there are no painters in Peru” made by painter Fernando de Szyszlo (b. 1925) upon returning from Paris in 1951 [see in the ICAA digital archive “Dice Fernando Syszlo que no hay pintores en el Perú ni América: el joven pintor peruano declara sentir su pintura y la de los demás pero no puede explicarla” (unsigned) (doc. no. 1137793)]. Those debates grew more heated in 1954 and 1955, when architect Luis Miró Quesada Garland (1914–94)—the main advocate of abstraction—and writer Sebastián Salazar Bondy (1924–65)—the main advocate of realism—got involved. The first altercation between the two men was sparked by the polemic show of contemporary Italian painters held at the Galería de Lima in May 1954. The non-figurative language of those works as a whole, and especially of works by Alberto Burri (1915–95) that experimented with “poor” materials, was unwonted. The show occasioned criticism from Antonio Flórez Estrada (1898–1954) [see his article “De arte: la muestra de óleos de pintores italianos contemporáneos en la Galería de Lima” (doc. no. 858745)] and from Salazar Bondy, neither of whom saw abstraction as remotely meaningful. Luis Miró Quesada Garland was of another mind, though [see his “Opinión sobre las críticas al arte abstracto” (doc. no. 858807)], which led to a bitter exchange with Salazar Bondy, who defended tooth and nail the idea that an artist take a social stance in his work.
[For additional information, see Salazar Bondy’s series of texts, under the pseudonym “Juan Eye,” all entitled “Artes plásticas: sobre arte abstracto” (doc. no. 858965), (doc. no. 859038), and (doc. no. 859095); and Luis Miró Quesada Garland’s “Sobre el arte abstracto” (doc. no. 858994) and (doc. no. 859071)].