Documents of Latin American and Latino Art

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 [...]

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 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 essay, the author analyses the works created by the Peruvian painter Jorge Vinatea Reinoso in the years following his exhibition at the ENBA (Escuela Nacional de Bellas Artes) in 1926, noting that, after the conclusion of the exhibition, [...]

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 [...]

This letter by Mariano Ibérico was written at the request of painter Antonino Espinosa Saldaña. More specifically, Ibérico was asked to share his opinion on the polemic surrounding the course on Incan art given at the Escuela Nacional de Bellas [...]

This is a letter that was sent by José Sabogal in response to his colleague, Antonino Espinosa Saldaña, who requested his opinion on the polemics surrounding the course on “Inca Art” that was being offered at the ENBA (Escuela Nacional de [...]

The author, Augusto Aguirre Morales, questions the stance of painter Antonino Espinosa Saldaña, who does not believe Peruvian precolonial art is “art.” He challenges Espinosa’s premise that cultural differences among men are an obstacle to the [...]

The author, Antonino Espinosa Saldaña, proposes to replace the course name “Arte incaico” [Incan Art]—used by the ENBA beginning in 1930, with “Arqueología pre-incaica y su aplicación a las artes decorativas” [pre-Incan archeology and [...]

The author, Augusto Aguirre Morales, (who was selected by the ENBA to teach the controversial course) defends the existence of “Incan art,” using the examples conserved in museums and the testimonials of historians. He asserts that it was the [...]

Painter Antonino Espinosa opens this letter questioning the pertinence of the “Arte incaico” [Incan Art] course at the ENBA—to be offered by writer Augusto Aguirre, author of the novel El pueblo del sol [The People of the Sun]—arguing that [...]

This essay is on the newspaper add announcing the commencement of the Inca Art courses and studies at the ENBA (Escuela Nacional de Bellas Artes) in Lima by the Peruvian writer Augusto Aguirre Morales. The studies, a program that was fully [...]

In this essay, the author, after praising the arts of Peru for their acknowledged nationalistic direction and after recognizing the role of the ENBA (Escuela Nacional de Bellas Artes), the author points out to certain explainable exaggerations as [...]

In this document, the author, Mercedes Gallagher, had offered assessments similar to those of painter Enrique Domingo Barreda—that is, against indigenous art—except for the indigenous scenes painted by Francisco Laso. She asserts that “there [...]

This text is an article written from Paris by painter Enrique Domingo Barreda, in which he attacks the prevailing indigenous art trend in Peruvian art. He states that “motivated by a ridiculous vanity, everyone in Peru paints natives and believes [...]

This is a review of the lecture given by David Alfaro Siqueiros—“La pintura mexicana moderna y el arte para la victoria”—at the ENBA (Escuela Nacional de Bellas Artes) in Lima. It was billed as an explanation of the “true nature of the [...]

Article written by Ernesto More, signed with the pseudonym Jerome, in which he criticizes the direction adopted by the Escuela Nacional de Bellas Artes (ENBA), based in Lima, Peru. The author affirms that ENBA was created by an oligarchic government [...]

In this essay, the author states that the ENBA (Escuela Nacional de Bellas Artes) was created by an oligarchic government that maintained academic instruction as an ornamental necessity, and that its principal purpose and contribution was to create [...]

This essay is on the editor Ernesto More whom in his article warns of the notable existence of an assembled artistic movement in the country rather than a movement that is favored, stating “Peru needs to abolish the Escuela de Bellas Artes or [...]

These statements, that were collected and published in Cascabel, a weekly newspaper in Lima, were made by the artists Francisco González Gamarra, Domingo Pantigoso and Carlos More, as well as, by the sculptors Ismael Pozo, Luis Agurto and Romano [...]

The author recalls his visit, three years earlier, to the Academy of Spain in Rome, where, in his judgment, “the inexplicable frivolity and artifice of modern art are halted.” He praises the work of director Eduardo Chicharro, as well as that of [...]

Nota periodística sobre la trayectoria artística de José Sabogal, entonces trabajando en una nueva pintura de título Garcilaso. El autor señala que “en el rostro de la figura defínense, gracias a un hábil efecto de luz, las dos razas”, y a [...]

This newspaper article states that, in the ten years since the death of Daniel Hernández, the first director of ENBA, very little “progress has been made, due to the regrettable guiding principles of a faculty” that is committed to imposing an [...]

In his article, Guillermo Rouillón deplores the dismissal of José Sabogal from his position as director of the ENBA (Escuela Nacional de Bellas Artes). According to Rouillón, Sabogal is undoubtedly “the promoter and guide of Peru’s entry into [...]

This is an open letter—signed by the directors of the Sociedad de Bellas Artes del Perú—to the Minister of Public Education Enrique Laroza, that was published in the Lima newspaper La Prensa. The signatories express their agreement with the [...]

The signatories to this open letter addressed to the then-president of Peru, Manuel Prado, request that José Sabogal be reinstated as director of the ENBA (Escuela Nacional de Bellas Artes). They point out that ever since he was appointed (in 1932 [...]

The synopsis and the annotations in English are coming soon. However, our bilingual readers can click on “Español” to access this information in Spanish [...]

The author claims that José Sabogal’s ouster from the leadership of the ENBA (Escuela Nacional de Bellas Artes) is both a political and a spiritual event. Garrido insists that, ever since Sabogal was appointed as director, “his life and his [...]

In the author’s opinion there has seldom been a fairer appointment, because José Sabogal is not a token candidate, he is a hard-working painter. Another factor is the “authentic Peruvian-ness” of what José Eulogio Garrido calls the fervent [...]

This text by eminent thinker, politician, and journalist José Carlos Mariátegui comments on José Sabogal—the founder of pictorial Indianism in Peru—on the occasion of his upcoming show at the Sociedad Amigos del Arte in Buenos Aires (1928). [...]

The critic Carlos Solari (alias “Don Quijote”) reviews about thirty works that José Sabogal, the founder of Peruvian indigenist painting, brought to Lima after spending several months in Cuzco (c. 1925). In Solari’s opinion, the painter is [...]