In this text, José Sabogal states that, upon their arrival, the Spanish were impressed by the architecture and art they found in America. They understood that “their fortunate victory could not be maintained if they did not consolidate it through artworks and construction projects” and so they sought to create works in the Renaissance style that would surpass the indigenous achievements. They organized great artistic workshops, produced work of great technical ability, including copies of engravings and paintings brought from Spain, although “without personality.” Sabogal contrasts the predominance of oil painting in the vice-regal period with the pre-Hispanic arts created with materials such as metal, ceramic, textiles, wood and stone. He argues that in this encounter between the Spanish and the indigenous natives something unexpected occurred: “the appearance of the criollo essence.” In Sabogal’s judgment, “our modern art” derives from the recent emergence of this human entity. He believes that the vernacular arts, born during the colonial period on the margins of official art, are those that “finally define aesthetic conflict.” They produce a “criollo-indigenous” architecture, silverwork that bears an unmistakably Peruvian signature, weavings and rugs typical of criollo tastes, plaster figurines, stone from Huamanga province and native woods, among other arts. He likewise mentions “chiseled mate,” pre-Hispanic in origin, persistent during the vice-regal period and enduring in our times, “evolving into perfect Peruvian art.” He also states that “when the criollo essence achieved a collective spiritual physiognomy, its interpreter appeared:” watercolorist Pancho Fierro.

This is an article by José Sabogal on the development of art in Peru, in which he emphasizes the confluence of western and indigenous elements that followed the conquest, and which gave rise to a modern Peruvian art. Sabogal and his group of followers pursued one topic with special interest, the study and re-evaluation of folk arts. They traveled through the country, meeting with native and mestizo artisans, whose names and works began to circulate in Lima, incorporating them into the official Peruvian arts. Sabogal likewise defined folk art as the paradigm of the “real Peruvian art,” because it was a mestizo art, the blending of indigenous and Spanish creativity. In his last period, Sabogal dedicated particular attention to the concept of “mestizaje” [miscegenation] as the element that defined the nation’s art, as in his judgment it was present not only in folk arts but also in vice-regal architecture and in the work of nineteenth century painter Pancho Fierro. On this topic he published texts such as “La cúpula en América” (1939), “Arquitectura peruana. La casona arequipeña” (1940), “Los mates burilados y las estampas del pintor criollo Pancho Fierro” (1943), “Pintura mural y Arequipa arquitectónica” (1944), and “Mariano Florez, artista burilador de ‘mates’ peruanos, murió en Huancayo. José Sabogal su admirador y amigo, le rinde homenaje” (1932) [texts reproduced for this project]. As director of the Instituto de Arte Peruano at the Museo de la Cultura Peruana (which he took up again in 1946), Sabogal proposed as fundamental aspects of the work the creation of a registry of vice-regal architecture and the collection and study of folk art objects for incorporation into the Museo de Artesanía y Artes Populares [see: Sabogal, José. Instituto de Arte Peruano. Informe sobre sus activiades, ca. 1950. Archivo IAP, MNCP]. [There are a great number of texts on this artist in the ICAA digital archive including the following by Sabogal himself: “Arquitectura peruana: la casona arequipeña (doc. no. 1173340); “La cúpula en América” (doc. no. 1125912); “Mariano Florez, artista burilador de ‘mates’ peruanos, murió en Huancayo: José Sabogal su admirador y amigo, le rinde homenaje” (doc. no. 1136695); “Los ‘mates’ y el yaraví” (doc. no. 1126008); “La pintura mexicana moderna” (doc. no. 1051636); and “Sala de arte popular peruano en el Museo de la Cultura: selecciones de arte” (doc. no. 1173418)].