This text is an article written by Peruvian writer Pedro Barrantes Castro on the indigenous art movement of Peru.
The indigenous art movement was at its peak in Peru between the 1920s and 1940s. It was part of a broader movement within Peruvian society: the redefining of the national identity through native elements. Although at times it focused on the revaluationof “theindigenous” and glorious Incan past, it also took up the defense of a mestizo identity as the integration of “the native” and “the Hispanic.” The principal ideologue and undisputed leader of indigenous art was José Sabogal (1888–1956), for whom a deep sense of “roots” decisively influenced the regionalist trends of art in Spain (Ignacio Zuloaga [1870–1945], among others) and in Argentina (Jorge Bermúdez [1883–1926], to name just one); these are countries in which Sabogal spent his formative years. When he returned to Peru at the end of 1918, he settled in Cuzco where he created nearly forty oil paintings about the persons and landscapes of that city, later exhibited in Lima (1919). This exhibition is considered the formal beginning of an indigenous art movement in Peru. His second solo exhibition in Lima was presented at the Casino Español (1921), and it solidified his reputation. In 1920, Sabogal joined the faculty of the new Escuela Nacional de Bellas Artes, later serving as its director (1932–43). He formed there a group of painters who adhered to the indigenous art movement, such as Julia Codesido, Alicia Bustamante (1905–68), Teresa Carvallo (1895–1988), Enrique Camino Brent (1909–60), and Camilo Blas (1903–85).
A fierce opposition to this trend arose in the mid-1930s—because it was perceived as official and exclusionary—ultimately resulting in Sabogal’s dismissal from the Escuela Nacional de Bellas Artes in 1943. The followers of the indigenous trend viewed it as unjust, and it produced a movement of solidarity with the painter that was expressed in letters, newspaper articles and social events.
Although Vinatea Reinoso was not one of Sabogal’s direct disciples, his work is considered part of the indigenous art trend. From a young age in Arequipa, the artist stood out for his love of drawing and he created his first book of caricatures at age thirteen. In 1917, he presented his first solo exhibition of this genre at the Vargas Hermanos photography studio located in his native city. In January 1918, Vinatea Reinoso arrived in Lima, where he illustrated various publications in the city; in October of that year, he held his first exhibition at the Rosay bookstore. Two years later, he joined the staff at Mundial magazine (launched that same year) as artistic director. In 1919, he joined the recently created ENBA (Escuela Nacional de Bellas Artes), which was led by Daniel Hernández, the Spanish sculptor Manuel Piqueras Cotolí and José Sabogal.In 1920 at the Estudio de Fotografía Rembrandt, he exhibited work (caricatures, landscapes, and sketches of indigenous topics) that echoed the prevailing nationalism of that center of study. Three years later, he undertook his first study trip to the south of Peru, and his subsequent work alternates between these landscapes and those of the Peruvian capital. In August 1926, he held his first solo exhibition at the ENBA, which would secure his position on the art scene. As opposed to José Sabogal and his group, Vinatea Reinoso’s work is characterized by a technical refinement derived from his studies with Hernández, and lacks the deliberate raw quality of Sabogal’s painting. Although he was connected to different indigenist groups both in Lima and other cities in Southern Peru, Vinatea Reinoso never formally joined any collective project. At the beginning of 1928, he traveled to Puno and Arequipa, where he created a series of sketches for a show in Buenos Aires which never took place because of his early death in 1931.
