Jorge Eduardo Eielson discusses Fernando de Szyszlo’s first exhibition at the Instituto Cultural Peruano Norteamericano in Lima. The Peruvian poet and visual artist (who later settled in Italy) describes de Szyszlo’s work as “painting that is so ambitious and focused (…) on the eternal problems of aesthetic adulthood” that it takes a pictorial approach that denies the material nature of the craft of painting and transcends the sensory level. Eielson considers that, although the works lack a solid technical basis, they represent a “naked, austere, and spiritual kind of painting.” The author provides a detailed formal analysis of several of the works at the exhibition, recognizing in them the decisive influence of Pablo Picasso and Rufino Tamayo. Eielson suggests that the painter’s main error may have been to think of each canvas as an immediate result.     

In May 1947, Expresión de principios, the magazine published by the Agrupación Espacio [Space]—a group of Peruvian architects, artists, writers, and intellectuals—marked the symbolic beginning of Peruvian artistic and architectural modernism by attributing to it a generational reachthat previous attempts at innovation had lacked. [See the ICAA digital archive for the article by Luis Miró Quesada Garland et al., “Expresión de principios de la Agrupación Espacio” (doc. no. 1126309)]. Shortly thereafter some members of the group acknowledged the radical nature of the idea and sought to expand the narrow outlook of the local visual arts through the example—gleaned from books and reproductions—set by the great masters of modernity. In May 1947, the same month that Expresión de principios appeared, one of its signatories, Fernando de Szyszlo (b. 1925), had his first solo painting exhibition at the Instituto Cultural Peruano Norteamericano (ICPN) [Peruvian North American Cultural Institute] in Lima, where he showed works that were clearly influenced by Pablo Picasso and Rufino Tamayo. The exhibition was praised by progressive critics such as Juan Barreto (1913–91) [see Juan Barreto, “Nota de arte: primera exposición de Fernando de Szyszlo” (doc. no. 1151195)]—a painter affiliated with the formalist modernism of the Return to Order—and Jorge Eduardo Eielson (1924–2006), one of the most talented young poets and artists of the period. In 1948, Eielson and Szyszlo joined forces to present a joint exhibition at the Galería de Lima, featuring experimental works that sought to include pre-Colombian elements influenced by the European avant-garde. The idea was promoted by the critic and journalist Samuel Pérez Barreto (1921–2003) as a solution to the dichotomy that existed between modernity and localism. Eielson went to Europe that year on a grant from the French government, where he had a distinguished career as a poet and visual artist. In 1949, before going to Paris, Szyszlo had his last solo exhibition. While he was there, he embraced cosmopolitan abstraction [see the review by Guido Strazza and Samuel Pérez Barreto, “Dos notas sobre Szyszlo” (doc. no. 1151228)]. The exhibition drew a harsh review from Carlos Raygada (1898–1953), a famous local critic, who deplored its extreme dependence on models known only through reproductions [see the article by Carlos Raygada, “Exposición Szyszlo” (doc. no. 1151246)]. Based on these (positive and negative) comments, Peruvian critics adopted an inflexible attitude regarding the arrival of experimental languages that adulterated the formats and circuits of “serious” visual arts.