Fernando de Szyszlo (Lima, 1925)
Duino-Nueve (Orrantia), oil on canvas, 1992
39 x 39 inches

"In 1949, after a year in Europe which he spent mostly in Paris, Peruvian painter Szyszlo returned to Lima with a style that was fully abstract. His sense of abstraction, however, was more connected to Peru’s ancient cultures than to the international language that had been developed in the United States and Europe at the time. The color harmonies were reminiscent of age-old textiles and his brushstrokes recalled worn out threads and fibers. Eventually, elements developed into geometric shapes similar to those frequently found in pottery and relief decorations, or textural effects emulating knotting and weavings. These are some of the elements that have characterized his work ever since.

In this particular piece there is an unusual figurative reference in the shape of a silhouette of an Indian shaman. The image is developed with the help of abstract, geometric signs and symbols that interact and intertwine to create an almost mystical presence. The neutral background adds to the feeling of an atmosphere from where the elusive figure seems to emerge, or perhaps dissolve, as if in a dream of oracles and ominous connotations, in the vast expanse of an abandoned site. Szyszlo’s paintings are always evocative of Peru’s extraordinary pre-Columbian past, and make stoical reference to its troubled destiny.

The painting has been recently requested as a loan by The National Trust for Museum Exhibitions, a nonprofit, Washington-based organization, to be part of the 2002-2003 U.S. traveling exhibition entitled Back to the Future, which reunites works of the most important Latin American artists of the 20th century.

Szyszlo is recognized today as the most important living Peruvian painter."

—Félix Angel, Curator, IDB Cultural Center