This text is an interview by Peruvian journalist and intellectual Óscar Miró Quesada de la Guerra, writing under the pseudonym of “Racso,” with Peruvian artist Elena Izcue. The author indicates that, before they left for Paris—where the interview took place—both Elena and her sister Victoria were known in Peru for their stylization of Peruvian textiles and huacos [ancient pottery artifacts], which they transformed into “a national art.” Miró Quesada de la Guerra explains that the Izcue sisters went to Paris to learn the secrets of the decorative arts in order to begin to create an ornamental art that captures their country. Elena says that she has frequented a number of artists’ studios and workshops in pursuit of deep knowledge “of the many things that modern art has made practical.” Her primary concern was “to learn how to make works that breathe new life into Incan art.” She eventually learned hand-printing techniques at Jean de Berly’s studio and woodblock printing with a disciple of Maurice Denis who admired Gauguin. She was struck by the wood engravings by Gauguin she saw at an exhibition of his work at the Luxembourg Gardens Museum in Paris. She is now planning to study ceramics. She explains that her sister, Victoria, is attending a school of decorative arts. She praises European bookbinding of the day.

Peruvian journalist and intellectual Óscar Miró Quesada de la Guerra interviewed Elena Izcue in Paris.

The 1920s witnessed the birth of a modern movement in Peru that looked to pre-Columbian art and influenced the development of archeology as well as the search for sources of national identity advocated, during the period, by Indianism. Artists, researchers, and intellectuals investigated pre-Columbian motifs which, in the realms of the decorative and functional arts, they adapted to contemporary life. Artist Elena Izcue was crucial to this movement. At the margins of the Indianist group led by José Sabogal (1888–1956), she produced outstanding textile designs and works of applied art that brought her into contact with the fashion industries of Paris and New York. In 1927, thanks to a two-year fellowship from the Peruvian government, Elena and her sister Victoria went to Paris to further their studies in art. Pursuant to work in a number of different studios and workshops, their career in the decorative arts flourished. Known for fabrics printed with patterns inspired by pre-Hispanic art, their works were purchased by the House of Worth and other prestigious fashions houses, as well as private clients. In 1935, the Izcue sisters traveled to New York where, thanks to the efforts of philanthropist Anne Morgan (1873–1952), an exhibition of their works of modern art, along with pre-Incan textiles and ceramics, was held in the galleries of the Fuller Building. After the show closed, the sisters stayed on in New York for a few months to make works commissioned by different firms. In mid-1936, they returned to Paris where they resumed work in textile design. They were commissioned to decorate the Peruvian pavilion at the International Exposition of Art and Technology in Modern Life in 1937. For that project, they selected models, photographs, and samples of industrial products that provided a modern image of Peru, as well as works by contemporary artists. In the gallery of honor, works by the Izcues were on display alongside pre-Hispanic pieces. 

This text was written by Óscar Miró Quesada de la Guerra, an eminent Peruvian writer and multifaceted intellectual. Miró Quesada de la Guerra’s early work was focused on the humanities and social sciences, as well as law and education. In 1927, he traveled to Europe to study, publishing articles on a variety of subjects in the newspaper El Comercio—which his family owned—but mostly on science. He was a member of the Academia Peruana de la Lengua, the Academia Nacional de Historia, the Academia Nacional de Ciencias Exactas, Físicas y Naturales, the Sociedad Geográfica de Lima, and the Sociedad Peruana de Filosofía. He also formed part of El Comercio’s board of directors before becoming its general director.

[For further reading, see in the ICAA digital archive the following articles: Elena Izcue’s “El arte peruano en la escuela” (doc. no. 1146099); Elvira García y García’s “Una artista peruana en París” (doc. no. 1144288); Ventura García Calderón’s “Un loable esfuerzo por el arte incaico: Prólogo” (doc. no. 1144261); Alberto J. Martínez’s “En el Museo Nacional: un ensayo de decoración estilo incaico” (doc. no. 1144009); Rafael Larco Herrera’s “Las señoritas Izcue y el arte del antiguo Perú” (doc. no. 1143993); and Manuel Solari Swayne’s “Manuel Piqueras Cotolí” (doc. no. 1141324)].