Documents of Latin American and Latino Art

Rodrigo Quijano argues that Tiempo detenido—the installation by ceramicist Carlos Runcie Tanaka—does more than illustrate a traumatic event. Since its beginnings, Quijano asserts, the work has been linked to the artist’s search for identity. To [...]

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 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 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 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 [...]

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 [...]

To provide context for non-object art in Peru, researcher Hugo Salazar del Alcázar briefly cites theorist Juan Acha. Salazar del Alcázar is critical, however, in his description of a scene that in no way partakes of the avant-garde enthusiasm Acha [...]

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 [...]

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 [...]

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 [...]

By illustrating the work of the Peruvian artist Cossio del Pomar, the author exposes his concept of the artist as “the laborer of the idea,” a cultural humanistic model and an agent in pursuit of new forms of social consciousness. In a way, this [...]

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 [...]

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 [...]

In this interview, Alejandro Romualdo Valle (“Xanno”) reacts to the ideological turn that the debate as to whether or not there are painters in Peru has taken. He states that the real problem facing Peruvian art “is the lack of critics.” [...]

In response to de Szyszlo’s controversial statement “there are no painters in Peru,” sculptor Cristina Gálvez mentions four whom she considers excellent: Juan Manuel Ugarte Eléspuru, Ricardo Grau, Sérvulo Gutiérrez, and Julia Codesido. [...]

In this article, the French writer Francis de Miomandre notes that Europeans are largely unaware of the exuberance of current Latin American art, as exemplified by the group exhibition of works by painters from the region: Santos Balmori, Jaime [...]

The author of this article, Clodoaldo López Merino, refers to his earlier article about the Peruvian painter Carlos Quízpez Asín while the latter was still studying in Madrid, Spain. On that occasion the journalist quoted some of the artist’s [...]

This article by the critic Carlos Raygada is about the painter and poet César Moro, considered “one of the few exponents of modern art in Peru.” According to Raygada, Moro’s work is unknown because it “never appears in the kind of [...]

The author, César Guillermo Corzo, notes that Mario Urteaga’s painting stands out for its skillful use of a brush, which he handles “with an ease that is almost childlike.” He states that his work is not influenced by literature or imitation, [...]

Reviewer Jorge C. Muelle confesses that he was wary before seeing the Mario Urteaga show at the Sociedad Filarmónica (Lima, 1937)—after all, “praise of spontaneous painters almost always leads them to ‘improve’ their resources, to copy [...]

In this text, art critic Carlos Raygada points out that Mario Urteaga’s painting became well known pursuant to his previous exhibition at the Sala Alcedo in Lima (1934) and to winning first prize at the V Salón de Verano de Viña del Mar (1937). [...]

This is the second of the two textbooks published by Elena Izcue, which were designed to teach art based on pre-Hispanic motifs at Peruvian schools. It includes two introductory texts. The first, addressed to teachers, explains how the pedagogical [...]

In his interview with Carlos Raygada, Héctor Velarde explains that his work “has consisted of coordinating and realizing the original concept” for the Basílica de Santa Rosa de Lima, while abstaining as much as possible from any alteration of [...]

In this text, Elvira García y García asserts that, in Paris, Elena Izcue is considered “an outstanding artist, creator of a very special strain of art.” Though Izcue has triumphed at the annual shows of the Escuela Nacional de Bellas Artes ( [...]

In this article, Froylán Miranda Nieto argues that Ricardo Grau’s painting “contributes to Peru by wholeheartedly supporting avant-garde art.” He asserts that, because “neither Indianist nor Europeanizing,” the artist has a special place [...]

In this text, art critic Carlos Raygada asserts that Vinatea Reinoso is one of the “most refined and legitimate proponents” of “genuinely Peruvian painting.” The author makes reference to the most outstanding work in the reigning pictorial [...]

This essay was written on the first solo exhibition by the artist Vinatea Reinoso that consisted of around forty works reflecting “ardent nationalist fervor” inspired by the landscapes of Cuzco, Arequipa and Lima. It is seen that Cusco provided [...]

The author, Pedro Barrantes Castro, notes that since José Sabogal’s return to Peru—after a formative trip of twelve years through Spain, Italy and Argentina—he begins to paint “with an awareness of social circumstances,” something that has [...]

This article by Teodoro Núñez Ureta was written on the occasion of the death of painter Mario Urteaga. He recalls the tribute to Urteaga organized by the Instituto de Arte Contemporáneo (IAC) in Lima in 1955, and the need to classify the work of [...]

This is the text of the entire talk delivered by Fernando de Szyszlo and part of the tribute organized by the IAC (Instituto de Arte Contemporáneo) in 1955 in honor of the painter Mario Urteaga. Szyszlo describes him as a highly idiosyncratic [...]

This text by Rafael Larco Herrera discusses the careers of Peruvian artists Elena and Victoria Izcue. The author mentions specifically Elena’s workbook El arte peruano en la escuela, published in 1926, which earned a great deal of acclaim in Peru [...]

In this essay, a local editor reported that the New York exhibition comprised both works by the Izcue sisters (Elena and Victoria) as well as pre-Hispanic pieces. Such an approach, he writes, demonstrates “a revival” based on the “search for [...]

In this interview with the sisters Elena and Victoria Izcue, the editor states that they are “notably national artists who have known how to nobly disseminate the motives of Peruvian art abroad.” He highlights their effort in making themselves [...]

The editor of this note—who may be identified as Ernesto More—recounts briefly the artistic trajectory of his brother Carlos More, starting from his studies in the Peruvian Sierras during his younger years to his formative years while on a trip [...]

The celebrated avant-garde artist César Vallejo states that every person has their Ingres violin—a French expression meaning that everyone has a hobby they are passionate about—after having visited a show in Paris featuring “works of madness [...]

This text lists the works of the I Salón de Arte Abstracto held in Lima, Peru in January 1958. The brief prologue states that the exhibition’s mission is to demonstrate how painting in Peru has followed the same “logical” artistic development [...]

This programmatic statement by the Grupo Arte Nuevo was included in the catalogue for their second exhibition, which ran from October to November 1966 at the MALI (Museo de Arte de Lima). Faced with “a world molded by the dramatic evolution of [...]

This newspaper article about the closing of the first premises occupied by the IAC (Instituto de Arte Contemporáneo) in Lima was written by Francisco Moncloa at the request of the director of the magazine Oiga. Moncloa lists a series of “anecdotes [...]

The critic Juan Acha discusses the imminent opening of three exhibitions in Lima in late 1965—the installation Mimuy and the solo shows by Luis Arias Vera and Gloria Gómez Sánchez—which the critic describes as “very important.” Acha says [...]

Writing in the ironic style he affects in his articles, the columnist Luis Rey de Castro deplores Luis Zevallos Hetzel’s attitude, which reminds him of an old word game that, in Spanish, is based on a repetition of the letter P: “Peruvian pop [...]

In this article Aitor Castillo talks about Pop Art in connection with the exhibition of works by Luis Zevallos Hetzel at the gallery of the Fundación para las Artes (Lima, 1969). Without directly mentioning it, Castillo refers to the controversy [...]

This brief anonymous article addresses the debate on the subject of Motociclista No. 3, by Luis Zevallos Hetzel, winner of the first prize at the painting competition organized by the Festivales de Ancón (a resort on the outskirts of Lima). The [...]

This is the first extensive challenge to the artistic credentials of Motociclista No. 3, the painting by Luis Zevallos Hetzel that was awarded first prize at the painting competition organized by the Festivales de Ancón. The challenger is Augusto [...]

This is a brief letter from the writer Alberto Valdivia Portugal to Caretas magazine about the first prize recently awarded at the painting competition organized by the Festivales de Ancón. After (apparently) congratulating the winner, Luis Zevallos [...]

In this interview, the writer Mario Vargas Llosa criticizes governmental cultural plans during the first phase (1968–75) of the self-styled Gobierno Revolucionario de las Fuerzas Armadas del Perú. Vargas Llosa says the results of those plans have [...]

This interview with the Indigenist painter Julia Codesido was published in the Lima newspaper La Crónica on the occasion of her exhibition at the Delphic Studios gallery (New York, 1936). The interviewer talks about the warm welcome Codesido [...]

This is the review of the exhibition of works by Julia Codesido at the Delphic Studios gallery (New York, 1936), originally published in El Universal Gráfico de México and reprinted in the Lima newspaper La Crónica. The writer of the Mexican [...]

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