Pre-Columbian art
Great civilizations have succeeded one another on Peruvian territory since the first occupations, over 100 million years ago. Archaeology enthusiasts will appreciate the stones of the Ancash region sculpted by the Sechín, the Chan Chan site and its 9 citadels from the Chimú era. Near Trujillo, the superb bas-reliefs left by the pre-Inca Moches civilization adorn precious places of worship. The Huaca del sol and Huaca de la Luna temples bear witness to an impressive artistic mastery. The following centuries saw the creation of Recuay and Chincha ceramics, and finally, the remains of the Inca culture, the most famous in Latin America, which flourished between the 13th and 16th centuries. The MAP Museo de Arte Precolombino in Cusco traces millennia of stunning aestheticism. The Nazca civilization, which flourished in southern Peru between 200 and 800 BC, is famous for its geoglyphs, lines and patterns carved into the ground and visible from the air. Their polychrome ceramics with zoomorphic motifs are also of great beauty.
Like them, the Incas favored geometric patterns to create a visual vocabulary that was easy to read. To this know-how is added a sophistication replete with cosmological references. In pre-Columbian art, female divinities are associated with the Moon, and male divinities with the Sun. Other themes evocative of local spirituality include the relationship with death and human sacrifice as a cosmic regulator.
Peru's descendants of the Incas continue to bring their culture to life at the Museo Inka in Cusco and the Museo Larco in Lima. Here, 45,000 pre-Columbian works trace the emergence of the civilizations that populated Peru, right up to the Inca Empire.
Lima school, Cusco school
Initiated by the arrival of the Italian Jesuit Bernardo Bitti in the viceroyalty of Peru at the end of the 16th century, Lima painting reflects the Spanish rigor then in vogue. The dark Lima School was inspired by Zurbarán and other Spanish masters. The capital's main churches were endowed with paintings of real artistic merit, such as those in the Cathedral and San Francisco Church.
Paradoxically, it was in Cusco, the former capital of the Inca Empire, that painting experienced its most spectacular boom. With the creation of the School of Fine Arts and under the influence of Bitti, the most vibrant artistic movement in Spanish America was formed here. In the 17th and 18th centuries, thousands of paintings by indigenous and Creole artists were shipped from Cusco to La Paz, Lima and Quito. This trade became one of the city's primary sources of wealth. Far from the Spanish canons, the School of Cusco produced a luminous style of painting, populated by pink, chubby characters (the archangels are evanescent adolescents in contemporary garb) and suave, sunny landscapes, a reflection of European art in full renaissance. For the first time, the Virgin is associated with the cult of Mother Earth or Tierra Madre (Pachamama). From 1650 onwards, local artists such as Diego Quispe Tito and Antonio Sinchi Rocca asserted their Baroque influence. In the 18th century, painters moved away from classical religious themes in favor of an "indigenous" vision of the world, including pre-Hispanic symbols: Madonnas are richly dressed in cloaks embroidered with indigenous motifs, and colors hark back to earlier civilizations. This was the apogee of the Cusco School, reflected in the use of gilded ornamentation as a means of identification.
The Cusco School lost its originality at the beginning of the 19th century, before running out of steam.
Indigenism
Following the declaration of independence in 1821, Peruvian art presented the native as a foreigner. Gradually, the pre-Columbian heritage re-emerged, culminating in Indigenism in the 1920s. This trend influenced Peruvian modernism, as seen in the works of José Sabogal, Camilo Blas, Julia Codesido and Elena Izcue. It affects all fields of creation.
Mario Urteaga (1875-1957) was one of the first Peruvian artists to take an interest in the indigenous peasants of his province of Cajamarca, along with José Sabogal and Camilo Blas (1903-1986). In 1936, he became the first Peruvian painter to enter New York's Modern Art Museum. His home in Cajamarca, where he lived and wrote politically committed articles, has recently become a museum run by his descendants. His works can be found in museums throughout Peru and around the world.
Despite his early death, Jorge Vinatea Reinoso (1900-1931) left a considerable body of work. In addition to his work as a press caricaturist, he painted the natives and people of the sierra. His brushwork is lively, his colors bold, and his canvases are often humorous. His paintings can be admired in most of the country's museums. The colorful art of José Sabogal (1888-1956) is also characterized by serious faces and villages lost in the Andes. Committed to showing indigenous reality, Sabogal redefined "Peruvianness" on the basis of the heritage of his ancestors. His paintings document the thousand facets of Peru, revealing to locals little-known aspects of their own country. This master of authenticity met with success right from his first exhibition in Lima in 1919. As director of the Lima School of Fine Arts, Sabogal trained a whole generation of Peruvian artists, including the talented Enrique Camino Brent.
Towards abstraction
Peruvian abstraction, led by Fernando de Szyszlo, reveals itself as a form of resistance, an alternative to folkloric nationalism. He revived the geometric motif bequeathed by Inca art. A pioneer of Peruvian abstract art, Fernando de Szyszlo (1925-2017) is known for his red clay paintings that draw on pre-Columbian imagery. His style, imbued with archaic mysticism, was a model for his generation. His cultivated art is total, blending indigenous culture with literature, poetry and cinema. This committed artist opposed totalitarianism by founding the Movimiento Libertad with his friend Mario Vargas Llosa in 1987.
Described by the Times as "Peru's most acclaimed painter", Sérvulo Gutiérrez Alarcón (1914-1961) was a self-taught artist who became interested in sculpture during his apprenticeship with the Argentinian Pettoruti. His sculpture Amazonia won a prize in 1942. Impervious to the European avant-garde, he glorified indigenous influence, giving it an expressionist style rendered by textural effects in paint. At the end of his career, his mystical subjects brought him radically closer to Fauvism.
Photography and its great names
Photographer Martín Chambi was born into a farming family in Coaza (Puno) in 1881. At an early age, he learned the photographer's trade in Arequipa, where he settled in 1920. Martín Chambi explored variations in light and the staging of portraits. His special way of treating his models, both humble and attentive to their personalities, made his studio extremely popular with all strata of society. As a committed photojournalist, he is helping to raise awareness of indigenous cultural identity. A gallery financed by Scotiabank houses some of his photographs in Cusco, in the Palacio del Inca Tupac Yupanqui.
Mario Testino, the eldest son of a large Lima family, left to try his luck in London in 1976. His talent soon brought him to the forefront of fashion photography, leading him to publish in prestigious magazines such as Vogue and Vanity Fair. The MATE Museo Mario Testino in Lima's Barranco district is dedicated to him.
For the past twenty years, Morfi Jiménez's photographic portraits have questioned human behavior in the midst of its environment. His compositions, somewhere between fiction and reality, are reminiscent of classical painting. Born in 1974, he exhibits worldwide.
Contemporary art
Contemporary art draws heavily on folk traditions. Indigenous myths allow contemporary artists to express the anxieties of modern society. The works exacerbate feelings such as fear, disdain and aggression. Peruvian popular culture is valued as an inexhaustible source of inspiration. Artists such as Angel Chavez and his naïve, indigenous painting, Kukuli Velarde and his ceramic sculptures, or Christian Bendayan and his critique of consumerist society, are of particular note.
The Peruvian painter and sculptor Victor Delfín, born in 1927, is world-renowned for his sensual works, whose subjects are animals, often birds or horses. In 1965, he moved to Barranco and explored the diversity of materials (wood, metal, fabric) without ever straying far from his pre-Columbian roots. He created Lima's most admired sculpture, the monumental El Beso, which stands in the Miraflores Love Park. His home in Barranco has been converted into a museum, Casa Taller Delfín.
In Lima's Barranco district, several small galleries exhibit contemporary art, including 80 m², Wu and Lucia de la Puente. Contemporary art can also be found at Lima's Museum of Contemporary Art (MAC), or in underground venues such as Espacio Los únicos, run by two artists. Several addresses in Miraflores: the Centro de la imagen (Galerie El Ojo Ajeno) specializing in contemporary photography, from Peru and elsewhere; the free exhibitions at the Centro Cultural Ricardo Palma; the Sala Luis Miro Quesada Garland town hall gallery.
In Lima, street art in Barranco
In the heart of this Pacific-side district, between colonial mansions and colorful little houses, art takes on a whole new meaning. In the spirit of bobo chic, graffiti and murals flourish in Barranco. All over the place, they convey messages, usually political. You don't need to decipher them to admire this profusion on the walls of buildings, private residences, bars or on the walls of a tunnel. And yet, in 2015, the current mayor had many of the micro-village's frescoes covered in yellow paint. Why? Officially, to honor Lima's Unesco World Heritage status. Unofficially, the anger expressed was disturbing. To calm tempers, the mayor organized a "Las Paredes Hablan" (The Walls Speak) competition to regulate street art. The new murals painted for the occasion mark a revival of urban art in Lima, against a backdrop of cultural heritage. It's worth noting, however, that international artists have participated in the second generation of graffiti. As you stroll through the streets of Barranco, push open the doors of the galleries. Inside, you'll discover a form of street art to take home with you! The Jade Riveira museum-gallery is a good example.
