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 as within other centers of culture. It states that “realism” can no longer remain the only form of artistic language, let alone the dominant one, after the rise of “abstraction” at the beginning of the 20th century. [It also states that] today, the latter [abstraction] occupies “its own place, and is based on the most pure and objective artistic aesthetic ideals.

During the 1950s, under pioneering abstract artists Juan Barreto (1913-91), Juan Manuel de la Colina (n. 1917), Antonino Espinosa Saldaña (1893-1969) and Enrique Kleiser (1905-77), Peru abandoned the narrow framework of experimentation (both solitary and private) characterized by the limited formulations of non-figurative painting that had prevailed at the end of the 1940s.Although the latter’s [Kleiser] show, held in 1950, was the first featuring this trend in the country, it fell to a new generation of artists to wage the definitive battle for abstract art. Thus the triumph of painter Fernando de Szyszlo (n. 1925) —who won the III Salón Moncloa, held in Lima on October 1955— indicated the value obtained by abstract painting at the end of two years of sharp debate on its relevance for the country [regarding the III Salón Moncloa, see in the ICAA digital archive, “En blanca y negra,” by Luis Miró Quesada Garland (doc. no. 859754)]. The I Salón de Arte Abstracto, organized by painters Eduardo Moll (n. 1929) and Benjamín Moncloa (n.1927), undoubtedly took on greater significance. It took place at the Museo de Arte de Lima (June 1958) and was the first collective show featuring non-figurative art in Peru. The high number of participants (thirty in total) included the most talented young artists on the local scene.Despite the negative reviews generally garnered by the show, [see those by Sebastián Salazar Bondy (1924–64) [“Visita al Salón de Arte Abstracto,” (doc. no. 1137318)] and painter Carlos Aitor Castillo (1913-2000) [“Primer Salón de Arte Abstracto,” (doc. no. 1137342)], the Salón foretold the importance that non-figurative language would play in the following decade, even though it would continue to have opponents such as Castillo (also see these documents in the ICAA digital archive “Crónica de arte: I Salón de Arte Abstracto” by Moll (doc. no. 1137359); and “Primer Salón de Arte Abstract” by Garland (doc. no. 1137215)].