Documents of Latin American and Latino Art

In the opinion of Alejandro Romualdo Valle, the work created by Alfredo Ruiz Rosas that recently won a first prize is evidence of a significant improvement in Peruvian art. He sees it as a result of the consolidation of several art trends that are [...]

Here, Edgardo Pérez Luna praises the mural by Teodoro Núñez Ureta executed in the building that housed Peru’s Treasury Department. The writer argues that the allegories created by the painter in the mural elude the conventions of the genre and [...]

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 time the argument is about the expression “significant painting,” which the author Francisco Miró Quesada Cantuarias contrasts with the term “abstract painting.” He claims that the former has a logical or scientific meaning, which his [...]

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 [...]

This is the catalogue, written in French, for the exhibition of drawings by Juan Devéscovi and poems by Xavier Abril that was presented at the Maison de l’Amérique Latine [Latin American House] in Paris (November 1927). In his introduction, Jean [...]

In this article, Juan F. Ballón discusses the recent revolutionary process that began in Arequipa and went on to overthrow the dictator Augusto B. Leguía. In Ballón’s opinion, it was a “total” revolution that involved “all the events, all [...]

This article by Juan F. Ballón is about the avant-garde revolution that took place in the 1930s in Peru, which he believes was inspired “by childish and propitiatory feelings.” He claims that despite its apparent utilitarianism, this movement is [...]

The author analyzes the joint exhibition at the Galería de Lima. He states that the space dedicated to Fernando de Szyszlo requires effort to be promulgated given how unusual it is for the local [arts] scene. He points out that in these types of [...]

For the author, Carlos Reygada, the works exhibited exemplify a presumptuous attitude that merely imitates the “penultimate” European trends, although without first grounding them in a serious study of the pictorial material. In his judgment, [...]

This page from the culture magazine Espacio reproduces the reviews offered by artist Guido Strazza and critic Samuel Pérez Barreto regarding the second individual show of Fernando de Szyszlo at the Galería de Lima (June 1949). Strazza begins his [...]

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 [...]

The author praises Fernando de Szyszlo’s first exhibition (May 1947) for breaking with the “imitative painting” practiced by other young [artists] “who adhere to the dead formulas of the Escuela de Bellas Artes.”  Identifying “two views [...]

Sarcastic praise offered by Juan Ríos for the IAC (Instituto de Arte Contemporáneo) given the institution’s defense of the prologue authored by critic Juan Acha for the catalogue for the Exposición Homenaje for painter Sérvulo Gutiérrez, [...]

The author, Juan Ríos, responds to the statement released by the IAC regarding the controversy generated by the opinions offered by critic Juan Acha in the catalogue for the Exposición Homenaje for Sérvulo Gutiérrez. Ríos believes it is “too [...]

This is the communiqué issued by the Instituto de Arte Contemporáneo (IAC) [Institute of Contemporary Art] in Lima on the subject of the disagreement between the writer Juan Ríos and the art critic Juan Acha about the opinions expressed by Acha in [...]

Author Juan Ríos continues his exchange of open letters by responding the publication of a letter in El Comercio (Lima, October 19, 1961), wherein Juan Acha defends himself against the accusation that he showed disrespect to Sérvulo Gutiérrez in [...]

Well-known writer Sebastián Salazar Bondy states that, as in the case of Sérvulo Gutiérrez, there are lives and works “that stimulate debate, that appear destined to be fought over even after they have come to an end.” Regardless of the [...]

Author Juan Ríos responds to the letter published by El Comercio wherein Juan Acha responded to the first letter Ríos had sent to protest Acha’s assessment in the prologue to the catalogue for the Exposición Homenaje for Sérvulo Gutiérrez, [...]

Although Juan Ríos recognizes in this open letter to El Comercio the right people have to give their opinion “on the work of any artist, living or dead,” he believes that “unless the painter requests otherwise, then the prologue of a catalogue [...]

Writer Juan Ríos offers a brief biography of Sérvulo Gutiérrez based on the memories of their first encounter in Paris (1938): “he gave the impression of a force of nature encased in a slight and high-strung body of a man;” he highlights the [...]

This text is writer Sebastián Salazar Bondy’s response to the criticism of artistic nationalism voiced by Luis Miró Quesada Garland in El Comercio newspaper (Lima, September 25, 1955) [see in the ICAA digital archive “En blanca y negra” (doc [...]

The author notes a dual American inheritance from both indigenous and western cultures in the Rufino Tamayo paintings exhibited in Lima. Playing against what he calls “Americanism” or “absolute indigenous-ness,” Alejandro Lora Risco [...]

In search of an expression that would be authentically Latin American, Alejandro Lora Risco establishes the difference between American culture and reality, the latter referring to the material facts of life on the continent. Reflecting on his [...]

Spanish poet Juan Larrea comments on the Carlos More exhibition in Lima in 1931 and states that, before More, the Peruvian mountain ranges were illustrated and interpreted by people “who could not see them without deforming them in an arbitrary and [...]

Commentary by essayist Alejandro Lora Risco on the Mexican art show organized in Lima by La Crónica newspaper. From within the event’s massive audience, the author highlights the presence of the individuals most likely to read his text: Peruvian [...]

Argentinean architect Ángel Guido—invitee to the I Congreso Internacional de Peruanistas—summarizes the genesis of modern painting in general terms: “Until Impressionism, toward reality. Afterward, toward ‘unreality.’ From there, the [...]

In this interview, Alejandro Romualdo Valle (“Xanno”) reacts to the ideological turn that the debate as to whether or not there are painters in Peru has taken. He states that the real problem facing Peruvian art “is the lack of critics.” [...]

In his response to the article published by the Agrupación Espacio, writer and critic Juan Ríos asserts that there are two positions in art today: “art for art’s sake” and socially committed art. He considers abstraction the extreme of the [...]

In response to de Szyszlo’s controversial statement “there are no painters in Peru,” sculptor Cristina Gálvez mentions four whom she considers excellent: Juan Manuel Ugarte Eléspuru, Ricardo Grau, Sérvulo Gutiérrez, and Julia Codesido. [...]

Painter Aquiles Ralli rejects the comments made by Fernando de Szyszlo that became a national scandal: “there are no painters in Peru.” He juxtaposes the work of the “good artists,” those who diligently “work in silence and never advertise [...]

The author, Federico Costa y Laurent, considers the discussion about nonfigurative art to be anecdotal when he states that “painting, as such, simply is.” He claims that the core issue in the debate comes down to “sincerely living the essential [...]

In this text, Sérvulo Gutiérrez asserts that any classification that entails “dividing art” is conventional and falls into pigeonholing. It is misguided since it implies taking “a part for the whole.” Sérvulo Gutiérrez questions whether [...]

In this critical review of the exhibition of works by Enrique Kleiser at the Galería de Lima in October 1950, Carlos Raygada praises the painter’s bold attempt to ignore his academic roots and experiment with the abstract ideas that “are in [...]

This article, which is signed with the initials “F. F.,” reviews the exhibition of work by Enrique Kleiser, the Swiss-Peruvian artist, at the Galería de Lima. This was the first time that abstract—“better said, nonfigurative painting had [...]

The author establishes a contrast between the bourgeois “sincerity of heart” and the “sincerity of the spirit” that characterizes the avant-garde. Ramiro Pérez Reinoso believes that this concept of the heart has been plagued by a “ [...]

This article was written from Europe by the Peruvian writer and politician César Falcón. In his opinion, “Incan art” constitutes a legacy lacking in ideological direction and, in his judgment, transcendence. He attributes it with a dearth of [...]

In this open letter from Fernando de Szyszlo to El Comercio newspaper, the artist responds to the remarks published on its pages by critic Carlos Raygada (Lima, May 29, 1951) regarding de Szyszlo’s exhibition of abstract paintings at the Asociació [...]

In this text, critic Carlos Raygada comments on the show of abstract paintings by fellow Peruvian Fernando de Szyszlo held at the Sociedad de Arquitectos del Perú in Lima in May 1951. While Raygada praises the works’ “total commitment to the [...]

In this text, critic and librettist Samuel Pérez Barreto (S. P. B.) comments on the show of abstract paintings by fellow Peruvian Fernando de Szyszlo held at the Sociedad de Arquitectos del Perú in Lima. Pérez Barreto points out the deep [...]

In this interview, Ricardo Grau reviews the major trends in the European visual arts from Manet to “the art known as Abstract,” identifying the School of Paris as the center of contemporary art. However, he also points out the importance of both [...]

Carmen Saco, who studied at the Escuela Nacional de Bellas Artes (ENBA) in the 1920s, was one of the first professional women sculptors in Peru. The time she spent at the ENBA proved decisive to the nationalist bent of a body of work characterized by [...]

In this article, the Peruvian poet César Vallejo reflects on the genre of portrayal, referring specifically to a bust of himself that was produced by the Spanish sculptor José de Creeft and exhibited at the 1925 International Exhibition in Paris. [...]

In this interview with Sérvulo Gutiérrez, the painter states that the European tradition is the most advanced in the world, showing his preference for both the School of Paris and Surrealism. In his opinion, the return to European models is the [...]

Here, the writer sketches the artistic development reflected in the work of Alfredo Ruiz Rosas through the five years covered by the exhibition in the Peruvian capital. Bondy acknowledges the persistence of  “the same emotion” in the artist’s [...]

The writer Luis Miró Quesada Garland considers it wrong to brand any painting as either “Neo-Realist” or “Social Realist” based on a subjective interpretation of reality, with idealized figures and/or deformation as (a) technique(s). The [...]

In his comments, Sebastián Salazar Bondy praises the early accomplishments of the painter Sigfrido Laske, especially given the local milieu, “where art training is not as comprehensive as desirable.” His evidence of the artist’s talent is [...]