Documents of Latin American and Latino Art

In his introduction, Juan E. Ríos—the author of this overview of Peruvian painting from the first half of the twentieth century—describes Peruvian art as “the creation of a visual equivalent of reality, rather than a mere copy of it” denying [...]

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 [...]

In this text, Raúl María Pereira reflects on the history of painting in Peru, affirming that the Incan “genius in form and color” lived on despite the Spanish conquest, not as a parallel or marginal entity, but as a force that acted on “the [...]

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 [...]

This is a review of the state of art in the capital city of Peru, written by the academic painter Enrique Domingo Barreda on the occasion of the I Salón organized by the Municipality of Lima. In his opinion, this competition exposed “the appalling [...]

This [document is a commentary by] Mercedes Gallagher de Parks on artistic activities in Lima during the summer of 1943, including plays by Louis Jouvet, performances of Coronel de Bassil’s Russian ballet, and concerts by the Sociedad Filarmónica [...]

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 [...]

This essay proposes that a “Latin American identity” was an idea based on two facts: the influence of the decadent post-war European culture and secondly, the geopolitical circumstances of Latin American governments confronted with North American [...]

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 first chapter of his book Del buen salvaje al buen revolucionario, Carlos Rangel Guevara presents the Europeans’ mythical view of the Americas. He emphasizes that even today, the myth of the “noble savage,” associated with a Golden Age [...]

In this chapter of the book Hacia el indio y su mundo, by the Venezuelan indigenous scholar Gilberto Antolínez, the author presents the ideas that inform his anthropological research, as well as his critique of the Venezuelan American tradition. In [...]

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 [...]

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 [...]

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 [...]

In this article, Luis Fernández Prada detects “a tendency to vindicate our coast,” one that, because lacking in a clear agenda, might end up becoming an authentic school of art. He points out, in contrast, the artistic deficiencies of “sierra- [...]

Well-known avant-garde author Ricardo Peña recounts the cosmopolitan education of Ricardo Grau, whom he describes as a “concertmaster of international figures.” In his paintings, he notes a tonal atmosphere that is austere and excessive. He [...]

The anonymous author of this article contrasts the favorable response on the part of Peruvian intellectuals and artists to the work of Spanish artist Victorio Macho and their response to María Izquierdo, considered “ambassador of a hypothetical [...]

In this text, art critic Carlos Raygada asserts that, though Mario Urteaga has never before shown his painting in the capital, his work is not that of a beginner. Raygada describes Urteaga as a self-taught artist who, because he began painting in 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 [...]

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 [...]

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, Luis Fernández Prada asserts that Ricardo Grau’s show of painting is “worthy of note” in a prudish Peruvian art scene characterized by unremarkable shows. In his view, the show “constitutes a resounding reaction against [...]

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, [...]

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 [...]

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 [...]

Peruvian writer Sebastián Salazar Bondy sent this open letter to his fellow members of the Agrupación Espacio—a group of modern architects, artists, and writers based in Lima—from Buenos Aires. Salazar Bondy asserts that both art and thought [...]

This letter by Mariano Ibérico was written at the request of painter Antonino Espinosa Saldaña. More specifically, Ibérico was asked to share his opinion on the polemic surrounding the course on Incan art given at the Escuela Nacional de Bellas [...]

This is a letter that was sent by José Sabogal in response to his colleague, Antonino Espinosa Saldaña, who requested his opinion on the polemics surrounding the course on “Inca Art” that was being offered at the ENBA (Escuela Nacional de [...]

The author, Augusto Aguirre Morales, questions the stance of painter Antonino Espinosa Saldaña, who does not believe Peruvian precolonial art is “art.” He challenges Espinosa’s premise that cultural differences among men are an obstacle to the [...]

The author, Antonino Espinosa Saldaña, proposes to replace the course name “Arte incaico” [Incan Art]—used by the ENBA beginning in 1930, with “Arqueología pre-incaica y su aplicación a las artes decorativas” [pre-Incan archeology and [...]

The author, Augusto Aguirre Morales, (who was selected by the ENBA to teach the controversial course) defends the existence of “Incan art,” using the examples conserved in museums and the testimonials of historians. He asserts that it was the [...]

Painter Antonino Espinosa opens this letter questioning the pertinence of the “Arte incaico” [Incan Art] course at the ENBA—to be offered by writer Augusto Aguirre, author of the novel El pueblo del sol [The People of the Sun]—arguing that [...]

This essay is on the newspaper add announcing the commencement of the Inca Art courses and studies at the ENBA (Escuela Nacional de Bellas Artes) in Lima by the Peruvian writer Augusto Aguirre Morales. The studies, a program that was fully [...]

In this document, the author, Mercedes Gallagher, had offered assessments similar to those of painter Enrique Domingo Barreda—that is, against indigenous art—except for the indigenous scenes painted by Francisco Laso. She asserts that “there [...]

This text is an article written from Paris by painter Enrique Domingo Barreda, in which he attacks the prevailing indigenous art trend in Peruvian art. He states that “motivated by a ridiculous vanity, everyone in Peru paints natives and believes [...]

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 [...]

These statements, that were collected and published in Cascabel, a weekly newspaper in Lima, were made by the artists Francisco González Gamarra, Domingo Pantigoso and Carlos More, as well as, by the sculptors Ismael Pozo, Luis Agurto and Romano [...]

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 [...]

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 [...]