Documents of Latin American and Latino Art

In this response to Fernando de Szyszlo, well-known critic Sebastián Salazar Bondy points out how dynamic the Peruvian art scene is; against all odds, “there are people working tirelessly, with no pointless nostalgia as they undertake the creation [...]

According to the author of this text, the works by César Moro on exhibit are aggressively disconcerting; indeed, there is “nothing to say about ‘things’ so removed from mainstream painting.” The author points out that, at this time, the [...]

This article about the Museo del Hospital Psiquiátrico Víctor Larco Herrera [Museum of the Victor Larco Herrera Psychiatric Hospital] (in Peru’s capital city) was written by Ernesto More, under the pseudonym “Jerome,” as part of a series on [...]

Poet César Moro describes the confusion and expectations of the public at the Surrealist art show, while also questioning the judgments pronounced on the show by “those charmers from the base police known as critics of purpose and profit,” whose [...]

This text announces the upcoming opening of the show of Surrealism organized by César Moro at the Academia Alcedo in Lima. The writer, who confesses he has not seen the show, comments that it is the first Surrealist exhibition to take place in the [...]

In this text, eminent Latin American avant-garde poet César Vallejo asserts that “among the symptoms of the final decline of the capitalist intelligentsia is the vice of coterie.” He argues that the crises of economic imperialism are reflected [...]

According to José Carlos Mariátegui, Breton (in his second manifesto) “prosecuted” all the writers and artists who, having initially embraced surrealism, then renounced it. Though he mentions the attacks on Pierre Naville, he claims that the [...]

In this text, José Carlos Mariátegui argues that no avant-garde artistic or literary movement has been “as significant historically or important as content as Surrealism.” He asserts that, while Futurism attempted to go beyond formal [...]

In this brief review, Bill Caro discusses his own career, ranging from his 1972 exhibition (focused on Lima shantytowns) to his interest in light that became one of the key facets of his work in the 1980s. Caro states that “photographing is as [...]

This document is the catalogue to Cementerio de automóviles, an exhibition of work by hyperrealist painter Bill Caro held at Galería Enrique Camino Brent in Lima in late 1976. In a synopsis, architect Héctor Velarde states that beauty is “ [...]

In this letter to painter Bill Caro, Emilio Harth-Terré asserts that the views of the neighborhoods of Lima Caro painted constitute “artistic expression” that goes beyond any attempt at social protest. The painter formulates, in Harth-Terré’s [...]

In his introduction, Juan E. Ríos—the author of this overview of Peruvian painting from the first half of the twentieth century—describes Peruvian art as “the creation of a visual equivalent of reality, rather than a mere copy of it” denying [...]

In this essay, Peruvian art critic and diplomat Raúl María Pereira provides an overview of Peruvian painting from the first half of the twentieth century. While the author praises the first generation of academic painters, he believes that their [...]

In this text, Raúl María Pereira reflects on the history of painting in Peru, affirming that the Incan “genius in form and color” lived on despite the Spanish conquest, not as a parallel or marginal entity, but as a force that acted on “the [...]

According to the Cuban journalist, there is “a rich tradition of indigenous art” behind the paintings by Fernando de Szyszlo that were exhibited in Havana: a form of popular art whose roots can be traced back to pre-Hispanic culture in the Andean [...]

For Marta Traba, the Fernando de Szyszlo exhibition in Bogotá (Colombia) evidences that “the mistake does not lie in wanting to be American, but in how one is American.” In her opinion, the series of works by the Peruvian painter inspired by the [...]

In this text, poet Emilio Adolfo Westphalen considers the series of paintings produced by Fernando de Szyszlo on the basis of the Quechua poem Apu Inca Atawallpaman written during the colonial era. Westphalen asserts that the relationship between [...]

In his remarks on the series of paintings Apu Inca Atawallpaman inspired by the colonial-era Quechua poem of the same name, Sebastián Salazar Bondy rejects criticism that “sets out to speak FROM painting” and, thus, marginalizes theme. He argues [...]

Juan Acha discusses the exhibition of Fernando de Szyszlo’s series of paintings inspired by the indigenous poem “Apu Inca Atawallpaman,” an event that was organized by the Instituto de Arte Contemporáneo (IAC) in Lima. Acha finds the [...]

In this text, Peruvian art critic Carlos Rodríguez Saavedra comments on a show of the series of painting by Fernando de Szyszlo based on Apu Inca Atawallpaman, a colonial-era Quechua poem translated into Spanish by writer and anthropologist José [...]

This is the catalogue for the exhibition of canvases and gouaches by Fernando de Szyszlo inspired by the series Apu Inca Atawallpaman, based on the colonial-era Quechua poem about the death of the Inca Atahualpa and the fall of the Tahuantinsuyo [...]

Javier Sologuren reviews the abstract oil paintings by Fernando de Szyszlo exhibited at the Instituto de Arte Contemporáneo (IAC) [Institute of Contemporary Art] in Lima. The author praises the quality of the works, whose values express “visual [...]

Juan Ríos discusses the I Salón Municipal de Lima, which in his opinion, was a failure because most Peruvian artists decided to boycott the event due to widespread mistrust of the jury, which was made up of “distinguished civil servants or [...]

The author of this text, signed “Savonarola,” affirms that he and painter Enrique Domingo Barreda are old friends, and he remarks on Barreda’s outstanding personal qualities. Notwithstanding, the author believes that, due to his prolonged [...]

This is a review of the state of art in the capital city of Peru, written by the academic painter Enrique Domingo Barreda on the occasion of the I Salón organized by the Municipality of Lima. In his opinion, this competition exposed “the appalling [...]

This [document is a commentary by] Mercedes Gallagher de Parks on artistic activities in Lima during the summer of 1943, including plays by Louis Jouvet, performances of Coronel de Bassil’s Russian ballet, and concerts by the Sociedad Filarmónica [...]

In this text, Raúl María Pereira rejects the notion of sincerity—a value as arbitrary as it is ungraspable—as privileged category in artistic creation. He upholds, rather, the duty born of “today’s agonizing mindset”—the search for the [...]

Juan Acha argues that national identities are based on the sense of belonging to a tradition, one which transcends and regulates the adoption of foreign models. Therefore, “nationality” rests on a balance between the continuity of what is [...]

In response to the hypotheses of an “integral art” proposed by Alejandro Romualdo, the writer states his belief that Modern art trends entail a progressive “destruction of reality.” This is why art’s síntesis cannot entail a return to [...]

This text is Alejandro Romualdo Valle’s final round in the debate he carried on with Luis Miró Quesada Garland about the first prize at the Second Salón Moncloa, awarded to the painting Pan by Alfredo Ruiz Rosas. The writer considers the [...]

In this interview, Romano Espinoza Cáceda classifies Peruvian art into three major periods: ancient (decorative, with its own characteristics), colonial (marked by “natural” European influences) and modern (attempting to pinpoint what makes art [...]

In this article, the writer responds to the comments of Luis Miró Quesada Garland, defending the use of the category “integral art.” He defines this term as a fusion of different trends into “a new creative orientation” structured under a [...]

In this interview with Fernando de Szyszlo, the painter states that he is misunderstood within the Lima arts scene. He refutes the notion that an artist must be socially engaged because, in his judgment, “a painter’s only duty is to be a good [...]

Alejandro Romualdo Valle critiques the III Salón de Pintura Manual Moncloa which, in his judgment, posits “abstract art as a complete substitute for art,” arguing that abstraction divides man from art, thus debilitating the latter. [He states] [...]

In this text, Luis Miró Quesada Garland responds to the letter from critic and playwright Edgardo Pérez Luna published on November 7, 1954. To counter the opinion that abstract art has no “meaning,” Miró Quesada Garland cites Hegel, Schiller, [...]

Fernando de Szyszlo sent this open letter to the editor of Cultura Peruana magazine in response to the article by journalist Jesús Manual Orbegozo that was published in this same magazine (Lima, December 1955). Szyszlo denied the declarations [...]

Fernando de Szyszlo was interviewed following his success at the III Salón Moncloa. After presenting a brief biographical sketch of the artist, the anonymous interviewer records his opinions on the subject of contemporary art: “the fruit of a [...]

In the opinion of Alejandro Romualdo Valle, the work created by Alfredo Ruiz Rosas that recently won a first prize is evidence of a significant improvement in Peruvian art. He sees it as a result of the consolidation of several art trends that are [...]

Here, Edgardo Pérez Luna praises the mural by Teodoro Núñez Ureta executed in the building that housed Peru’s Treasury Department. The writer argues that the allegories created by the painter in the mural elude the conventions of the genre and [...]

This is the catalogue, written in French, for the exhibition of drawings by Juan Devéscovi and poems by Xavier Abril that was presented at the Maison de l’Amérique Latine [Latin American House] in Paris (November 1927). In his introduction, Jean [...]

In this article, Juan F. Ballón discusses the recent revolutionary process that began in Arequipa and went on to overthrow the dictator Augusto B. Leguía. In Ballón’s opinion, it was a “total” revolution that involved “all the events, all [...]

This article by Juan F. Ballón is about the avant-garde revolution that took place in the 1930s in Peru, which he believes was inspired “by childish and propitiatory feelings.” He claims that despite its apparent utilitarianism, this movement is [...]

The author analyzes the joint exhibition at the Galería de Lima. He states that the space dedicated to Fernando de Szyszlo requires effort to be promulgated given how unusual it is for the local [arts] scene. He points out that in these types of [...]

For the author, Carlos Reygada, the works exhibited exemplify a presumptuous attitude that merely imitates the “penultimate” European trends, although without first grounding them in a serious study of the pictorial material. In his judgment, [...]

This page from the culture magazine Espacio reproduces the reviews offered by artist Guido Strazza and critic Samuel Pérez Barreto regarding the second individual show of Fernando de Szyszlo at the Galería de Lima (June 1949). Strazza begins his [...]

Jorge Eduardo Eielson discusses Fernando de Szyszlo’s first exhibition at the Instituto Cultural Peruano Norteamericano in Lima. The Peruvian poet and visual artist (who later settled in Italy) describes de Szyszlo’s work as “painting that is [...]

The author praises Fernando de Szyszlo’s first exhibition (May 1947) for breaking with the “imitative painting” practiced by other young [artists] “who adhere to the dead formulas of the Escuela de Bellas Artes.”  Identifying “two views [...]

Sarcastic praise offered by Juan Ríos for the IAC (Instituto de Arte Contemporáneo) given the institution’s defense of the prologue authored by critic Juan Acha for the catalogue for the Exposición Homenaje for painter Sérvulo Gutiérrez, [...]

The author, Juan Ríos, responds to the statement released by the IAC regarding the controversy generated by the opinions offered by critic Juan Acha in the catalogue for the Exposición Homenaje for Sérvulo Gutiérrez. Ríos believes it is “too [...]

This is the communiqué issued by the Instituto de Arte Contemporáneo (IAC) [Institute of Contemporary Art] in Lima on the subject of the disagreement between the writer Juan Ríos and the art critic Juan Acha about the opinions expressed by Acha in [...]