Abstract Painting Meets Quechua Poetry. Szyszlo, Westphalen, and Arguedas Towards a 'Peruvian Artistic Tradition' (1952-1963)

Abstract

This article examines how Emilio Adolfo Westphalen have read the series of paintings Apu Inka Atawallpaman (1963) by Fernando de Szyszlo. The purpose is to show the way Westphalen was reading those abstract paintings within the coordinates of an Andean cultural tradition. Moreover, I suggest that the figure and ideas by José María Arguedas were an important influence within the artistic field. During the 1950's and 1960's in Peru, there was an imperative of peruanidad in the practice of painting without falling into folklore. It is precisely Arguedas who proposes the idea of an art and literature in which world and community should coexist.