Documents of Latin American and Latino Art

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 first part of the interview covers the start of his career and his training in Europe. After living in Buenos Aires (where he returned to his art studies), he returned to Peru in 1919. Sabogal states that “the Cuzco area cast a powerful spell [...]

Gertrudis Chale writes to Libero Badii about her stay in the Peruvian city of Arequipa. She mentions the Indianist Peruvian artists José Sabogal and Julia Codesido, commenting sensitively on the native and popular art, seminal concerns of her work [...]

In this article the writer and journalist José Eulogio Garrido discusses the indigenist painting of José Sabogal. Garrido describes the painter as “a man with a voice and vision of his own who expresses that voice and vision in visible ways that [...]

In this review “Juan Eye” (the pseudonym used by the writer Sebastián Salazar Bondy) discusses the José Sabogal exhibition at the SAP (Sociedad de Arquitectos del Perú, Lima). The author states that Sabogal deserves to be acknowledged in the [...]

Though he does not mention a change as such in José Sabogal’s latest paintings, the author detects the presence or hint of certain nuances he had not noticed before. Carlos Raygada compares Procesión del Señor de los Milagros—painted in 1923, [...]

López Merino begins his article by remarking on the success of Sabogal’s exhibition in Buenos Aires, “where the most discerning critics acknowledged the respect he enjoys in Latin America.” The writer describes the exhibition of prints as a [...]

Article written by Ernesto More, signed with the pseudonym Jerome, in which he criticizes the direction adopted by the Escuela Nacional de Bellas Artes (ENBA), based in Lima, Peru. The author affirms that ENBA was created by an oligarchic government [...]

This article, written in 1919, was published several months after José Sabogal’s first exhibition due to, as the author explains, “the congestion of opinions, appraisals, and enthusiasm” that circulated at the time. Elvira García y García [...]

This is Antonio Berni’s essay on four Peruvian painters,José Sabogal, Julia Codesido, Camilo Blas, and Teresa Carvallo, in which he describes both their technical abilities and the subject matter of their works. Berni stresses the importance of [...]

This article discusses the first exhibition in Lima (at Casa Brandes, in 1919) of the work of José Sabogal, who, after many years of study in Europe and Argentina, speaks out against the prevailing academicism in Peru and the art “of likeness” [...]

Óscar Fritz compares José Sabogal’s influence on the Peruvian visual arts to Martin Luther’s impact during the Reformation: a process that “sought to return to an earlier simplicity, to embrace a form of evangelical speech that mimicked the [...]

Sabogal was from the province of Cajamarca but studied in Europe and Argentina; here he is described as a talented painter who was considered “rare” in Lima art circles, so that his emergence in the capital city “will bring light to many.” [...]

The Peruvian intellectual Jorge Falcón interviews José Sabogal about the painter’s visit to Mexico in 1942, mentioning that on his arrival in the country, the Mexican government—via the director of the Instituto Nacional de Bellas Artes y de [...]

Referring to the visual art he saw in Mexico, José Sabogal says that contemporary Mexican painting is already “the most serious American movement in art. It represents something truly national, truly American.” Its exponents (he mentions José [...]

Luis Alberto Sánchez wrote this article on the occasion of the closing of José Sabogal’s exhibition at the Universidad Nacional Mayor de San Marcos (Lima, 1931). According to Sánchez, “Sabogal is a painter who represents all of Peru,” and [...]

In 1937, Ricardo Peña wrote about José Sabogal’s work on the occasion of his exhibition at the Sociedad Filarmónica, suggesting that the paintings on display could be classified, in terms of “his ethical and artistic approach,” into three [...]

According to the author of this article, José Sabogal’s work is unquestionably “the most serious attempt ever undertaken in Peru to create an essentially national—that is, Peruvian—art.” Noting also that Cuzco is a highly appropriate [...]

The author of this article thinks that Peru does a better job of addressing its potential in the artistic arena than in the social or political sphere, although this has begun to change in recent years. In his opinion, José Sabogal’s paintings are [...]

This article about José Sabogal and his work, published in the Peruvian newspaper El Comercio, was written by Óscar Esculíes after visiting the artist’s workshop at the ENBA (Escuela Nacional de Bellas Artes). According to the Paraguayan writer [...]

In this newspaper article José Eulogio Garrido describes his impressions on first meeting José Sabogal in the city of Trujillo (where he was born), and admits to having been one of the few people who were able to recognize an outstanding artist [...]

The author notes José Sabogal’s comments about his earlier travels and his training in Europe, which he said was helpful for learning “the tricks of the trade, how to move one’s hand smoothly, that’s all,” but claimed that he resisted any [...]

The aim of this article by José Uriel García, known throughout Peru for his book El nuevo indio, published in 1930, is to argue that José Sabogal is the emblematic contemporary Peruvian painter. Sabogal is, in García’s view, a founding figure [...]

Juan Ríos discusses the I Salón Municipal de Lima, which in his opinion, was a failure because most Peruvian artists decided to boycott the event due to widespread mistrust of the jury, which was made up of “distinguished civil servants or [...]

In his article about the exhibition of works by José Sabogal held at the Sociedad Filarmónica in Lima in 1937, Estuardo Núñez suggests that Sabogal’s paintings were not just the product of a particular school or trend but were required [...]

Luis Miró Quesada Garland acknowledges that the mural La construcción del Perú, by Teodoro Nuñez Ureta, entails a commendable attempt to integrate the visual arts with architecture in public buildings. However, he lodges the criticism that the [...]

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

In this essay, Peruvian art critic and diplomat Raúl María Pereira provides an overview of Peruvian painting from the first half of the twentieth century. While the author praises the first generation of academic painters, he believes that their [...]

The Peruvian intellectual Jorge Falcón interviews José Sabogal about his visit to several cities in the United States in 1942 at the invitation of the State Department. Sabogal admits that until then, he did not have a complete view of the [...]

The writer of this article claims that José Sabogal’s exhibition “will shake our art milieu out of its inertia,” referring to a previous review he wrote about the Peruvian indigenist painter’s exhibition in Buenos Aires in 1928. In his [...]

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

According to this article, this exhibition presented people in Lima with a rare opportunity “to see absolutely modern painting,” which prizes “emotive qualities, sincerity, and the power of values” more highly than the typical “familiar [...]

Francisco Moncloa applauds the decision to honor Joaquín López Antay, the Andean altarpiece artist who was awarded the National Culture Prize in the art category in 1975. Moncloa responds to critics who value “cultured art” above “handcrafts [...]

This newspaper article about the closing of the first premises occupied by the IAC (Instituto de Arte Contemporáneo) in Lima was written by Francisco Moncloa at the request of the director of the magazine Oiga. Moncloa lists a series of “anecdotes [...]

In August 1943 a ceremony was organized at the Cabane Club in Lima to honor José Sabogal. This document includes the honoree’s speech as well as the one given on that occasion by the poet José Gálvez, who refers to his doctoral thesis on [...]

On the occasion of the party organized for José Sabogal by “young Peruvians in Buenos Aires,” the author notes the group’s obvious admiration for and acknowledgment of the artist, based on their shared feelings and ideals. The works of art [...]

This questionnaire-like interview with José Sabogal addresses his recent stay in Mexico, which lasted for a number of months. The interviewer asserts that Sabogal “is one of our most valuable young artists,” and explains that he has already [...]

The author of this article provides a detailed, almost biographical description of José Sabogal’s apprenticeship, beginning with the modest circumstances of his family in his hometown of Cajabamba, which he left when he was sixteen years old. [...]

In this article, the indigenist Peruvian anthropologist Luis E. Valcárcel pays tribute to José Sabogal, following his death in 1956. In the author’s opinion, Cuzco (where the painter lived after spending several years studying in Europe) was [...]

According to César Francisco Macera, José Sabogal’s first exhibition in Perú (Lima, 1919) had a profound impact on the country; viewers were astonished and appalled at “the new landscape” they were looking at. Sabogal responded to critiques [...]

In her article, Mada Ontañón describes the conditions of José Sabogal’s trip to Mexico City in 1943, and recounts the conversation she had with the artist in his hotel during this visit. Ontañón begins by noting how the war has brought a great [...]

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 [...]

The Argentinean critic writing for El Diario newspaper considers José Sabogal “one of the most important painters in art from the Americas” owing to “a modern vision very much his own” and “a deeply poetic spirit” committed to capturing [...]

In this article about the indigenist painter José Sabogal’s relationship with Peru’s tradition arts, José María Arguedas explains that Sabogal was a member of the movement led by the thinker José Carlos Mariátegui, which was devoted to the [...]

In the author’s opinion there has seldom been a fairer appointment, because José Sabogal is not a token candidate, he is a hard-working painter. Another factor is the “authentic Peruvian-ness” of what José Eulogio Garrido calls the fervent [...]

The author explains that not many Latin American artists exhibit their work in Buenos Aires (other than those from the countries of the Río de la Plata region: Uruguay and Argentina), since European artists tend to be more enthusiastically received [...]

According to the author of this article José Sabogal is, above all, “someone who expresses Peruvian-ness,” one who has not only developed an original technique, but has also managed to expose profound and unprecedented aspects of the country’s [...]

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

In this [document about] Sabogal’s first exhibition in Lima, the author wrongly declares that he is a “painter from Cuzco” because that is where he painted the works in the exhibition. The reviewer also has some reservations about the canvases [...]

Espinoza Saldaña thinks José Sabogal has been making some profound changes in his work since his first exhibition in Lima. He comments in particular on the artist’s realism which makes no attempt to please, unlike those who are still enraptured [...]