Documents of Latin American and Latino Art

Rodrigo Quijano argues that Tiempo detenido—the installation by ceramicist Carlos Runcie Tanaka—does more than illustrate a traumatic event. Since its beginnings, Quijano asserts, the work has been linked to the artist’s search for identity. To [...]

The author, Natalia Majluf, states that these works, created using the techniques of the “minutemen” photographers that work in provincial city plazas, could initially be thought as ethnographic or touristic photography. Nevertheless, when [...]

In this text, Rodrigo Quijano argues that Lima 01—a series of photographs of inverted images of interiors of old abandoned buildings in downtown Lima—addresses questions of forgetting and urban decay. The series makes reference to the design of [...]

[This article is] a debate between the German Marxist intellectual Iring Fetscher and the writer Mirko Lauer for the Peruvian magazine U-tópicos Entornoalovisual, moderated by Gustavo Buntinx, the editor of the magazine. This issue of the magazine [...]

This editorial was published in number 4/5 (1984) of U-tópicos. Entornoalovisual, the Peruvian magazine. In the text, Gustavo Buntinx states that, while the Marxist proposal has yet to be carried out, Marxism itself tends to be distorted and reduced [...]

This editorial appeared in number 2/3 (1983) of the magazine U-tópicos: Entornoalovisual (Lima). The text refers to the ongoing failures of the Peruvian government’s cultural organizations over the course of two decades, including the “ [...]

On the back cover of number 4/5 of the magazine U-tópicos: Entornoalovisual (Lima, 1984), a brief anonymous article discusses the iconographic scenes painted on truck mudguards. The writer points out that, despite being ignored “by [...]

In this text, José Eulogio Garrido speaks of his journey to Lima in order to see José Sabogal’s art in his home. Indeed, that was “one of the basic reasons I undertook the pilgrimage to Lima.” But Garrido saw only two works in the artist’s [...]

In this article, José Sabogal discusses Peruvian traditional art, which in his opinion, is “the key point, in the Americas, where Hispanic America began. When indigenous cultural expressions were combined with the invasion of Mediterranean visual [...]

In this article, the editor of the newspaper Noticias de Arequipa interviews José Sabogal on the occasion of the artist’s visit to Arequipa, and they talk about contemporary Peruvian painting and traditional art. On the former topic, Sabogal [...]

This article by José Sabogal is about the recent work produced by the Indigenist painter Camilo Blas. The author discusses Blas’ two scenes of Cajamarca that are to decorate the new Salón de Palacio, which opened in 1924 in celebration of the [...]

José Sabogal states that his commentary regards what occurred before the creation of the Museo de Artes Vernaculares, the latter being indispensable because they possess “holdings that are essential to this time, as they have been throughout all [...]

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 [...]

In this speech, José Sabogal discusses the mural paintings and architecture of Arequipa, while summarizing the history of Peruvian art in the twentieth century. Both he and his followers sought “to interpret the landscape and expressions of its [...]

This is an article by José Sabogal on the civil architecture of the Peruvian city of Arequipa. He highlights one of the most original constructive solutions of the Spanish during the colonial era. Given the lack of wood in the environment, the [...]

The reviewer states that indigenist art has found “a new devotee” in Julia Codesido. Responding to her show in Lima in 1929, author Carlos Solari explains the painter has not taken a slavish stance, but rather has evolved slowly “in progressive [...]

In this text, Clodoaldo López Merino, under the pseudonym of “EGO,” asserts that even before this show of painting, Julia Codesido had consolidated her prestige as an artist. She had studied at European academies and at the Escuela Nacional de [...]

The author, César Guillermo Corzo, notes that Mario Urteaga’s painting stands out for its skillful use of a brush, which he handles “with an ease that is almost childlike.” He states that his work is not influenced by literature or imitation, [...]

Reviewer Jorge C. Muelle confesses that he was wary before seeing the Mario Urteaga show at the Sociedad Filarmónica (Lima, 1937)—after all, “praise of spontaneous painters almost always leads them to ‘improve’ their resources, to copy [...]

In this text, art critic Carlos Raygada points out that Mario Urteaga’s painting became well known pursuant to his previous exhibition at the Sala Alcedo in Lima (1934) and to winning first prize at the V Salón de Verano de Viña del Mar (1937). [...]

The synopsis and the annotations in English are coming soon. However, our bilingual readers can click on “Español” to access this information in Spanish [...]

This is the second of the two textbooks published by Elena Izcue, which were designed to teach art based on pre-Hispanic motifs at Peruvian schools. It includes two introductory texts. The first, addressed to teachers, explains how the pedagogical [...]

Ventura García Calderón asserts in this prologue that, in Latin America, the Spanish and Indian races did not mix and that the former ignored the latter even though it was, in his view, “one of the most perfect civilizations in the world.” He [...]

In his interview with Carlos Raygada, Héctor Velarde explains that his work “has consisted of coordinating and realizing the original concept” for the Basílica de Santa Rosa de Lima, while abstaining as much as possible from any alteration of [...]

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 [...]

In this text, Elvira García y García asserts that, in Paris, Elena Izcue is considered “an outstanding artist, creator of a very special strain of art.” Though Izcue has triumphed at the annual shows of the Escuela Nacional de Bellas Artes ( [...]

This publication reproduces the prologue that Peruvian writer and diplomat Ventura García Calderón wrote to the book El arte peruano en la escuela by Peruvian artist Elena Izcue, as well as an essay by Peruvian educator Elvira García y García [...]

In this text, art critic Carlos Raygada asserts that Vinatea Reinoso is one of the “most refined and legitimate proponents” of “genuinely Peruvian painting.” The author makes reference to the most outstanding work in the reigning pictorial [...]

In this essay, the author analyses the works created by the Peruvian painter Jorge Vinatea Reinoso in the years following his exhibition at the ENBA (Escuela Nacional de Bellas Artes) in 1926, noting that, after the conclusion of the exhibition, [...]

This essay was written on the first solo exhibition by the artist Vinatea Reinoso that consisted of around forty works reflecting “ardent nationalist fervor” inspired by the landscapes of Cuzco, Arequipa and Lima. It is seen that Cusco provided [...]

This text written in the early 1920s by Emilio Delboy, signed with the pseudonym “Yobeld,” asserts that “a healthy spirit of aesthetic culture” is taking shape in Lima thanks to young artists. The origin of this movement lies in the founding [...]

The author, Pedro Barrantes Castro, notes that since José Sabogal’s return to Peru—after a formative trip of twelve years through Spain, Italy and Argentina—he begins to paint “with an awareness of social circumstances,” something that has [...]

This article by Teodoro Núñez Ureta was written on the occasion of the death of painter Mario Urteaga. He recalls the tribute to Urteaga organized by the Instituto de Arte Contemporáneo (IAC) in Lima in 1955, and the need to classify the work of [...]

This is the text of the entire talk delivered by Fernando de Szyszlo and part of the tribute organized by the IAC (Instituto de Arte Contemporáneo) in 1955 in honor of the painter Mario Urteaga. Szyszlo describes him as a highly idiosyncratic [...]

The synopsis and the annotations in English are coming soon. However, our bilingual readers can click on “Español” to access this information in Spanish [...]

This article by Alberto J. Martínez discusses the use of stylized pre-Hispanic motifs to decorate one of the galleries of the Museo Nacional de Lima. In his view, “every effort to bolster a genuinely Peruvian form of artistic expression represents [...]

This text by Rafael Larco Herrera discusses the careers of Peruvian artists Elena and Victoria Izcue. The author mentions specifically Elena’s workbook El arte peruano en la escuela, published in 1926, which earned a great deal of acclaim in Peru [...]

In this essay, a local editor reported that the New York exhibition comprised both works by the Izcue sisters (Elena and Victoria) as well as pre-Hispanic pieces. Such an approach, he writes, demonstrates “a revival” based on the “search for [...]

In this interview with the sisters Elena and Victoria Izcue, the editor states that they are “notably national artists who have known how to nobly disseminate the motives of Peruvian art abroad.” He highlights their effort in making themselves [...]

Article by art critic Carlos Solari (under the pseudonym “Don Quijote”) regarding Manuel Piqueras Cotolí’s work in Lima. [Solari] states that after a decade in Lima during which he made “an immeasurable contribution to the arts of Peru,” [...]

After visiting the ENBA sculpture studios in Lima, the author comments on works by Coello and Pozo, and mentions the sculptress Carmen Saco. He then interviews Manuel Piqueras Cotolí, the architect from Madrid, in whose studio he examines two works [...]

The author of this obituary notice explains that Manuel Piqueras Cotolí was born in Córdoba, Spain, where he learned to appreciate the “architectural grandeur” of that city-museum. Manuel Solari Swayne lists the prizes the artist began [...]

The author recalls his visit, three years earlier, to the Academy of Spain in Rome, where, in his judgment, “the inexplicable frivolity and artifice of modern art are halted.” He praises the work of director Eduardo Chicharro, as well as that of [...]

The author of this article notes that Santa Rosa [Saint Rosa] has been glorified with altars, chapels, and temples in various parts of the world; he therefore believes that a basilica should be built in her honor in Lima, her home city. But first, he [...]

This interview with the Indigenist painter Julia Codesido was published in the Lima newspaper La Crónica on the occasion of her exhibition at the Delphic Studios gallery (New York, 1936). The interviewer talks about the warm welcome Codesido [...]

In the reviewer’s opinion, this exhibition confirms the undeniable progress that Julia Codesido has made in her work. Carlos Raygada claims that in this, her sixth exhibition at the Academia Nacional de Música in Lima, Codesido has turned away [...]

According to the author, this exhibition heralds “a magnificent advance” in Julia Codesido’s painting because “a different spirit inspires her latest compositions.” In his opinion, 1931 marks the end of her earlier phase and the beginning [...]

After mentioning the decorative nature of Julia Codesido’s exhibition, the author of this review discusses her portrayal of the Andean mountains, calling it: “an exceptional vision rather than a straight idealization.” The decorative nature of [...]

In the author’s opinion, Julio Codesido “has accepted the admiration for and establishment of a genuinely Peruvian style of painting.” This is her second exhibition in Lima and, according to the reviewer, it includes paintings that reveal [...]

In this review of Julia Codesido’s first exhibition at the Academia Nacional de Música Alcedo (Lima, 1929), Augusto Aguirre Morales describes her as a great exponent of Peruvian art. The writer submits a reading of her work based on its “ [...]