Fernando de Szyszlo
Fernando de Szyszlo, born in Lima, Peru in 1925, studied both architecture and art at the Art School of the Pontificio Universidad Católica in Lima between 1944-1946. He traveled to Europe, first to Paris, where he became involved with the intellectual milieu in the Cafe Flore of the Latin Quarter. There, with many other young artists, he pondered Existentialism, particularly his position as Latin American vis-à-vis international modernism. He considered how to develop his artistic style in response to universal movements while still preserving his own Latin American integrity. In Paris he met Andre Breton, founder of surrealism, who had long been an enthusiast of primitive cultures and traditions, especially those cultures of Latin America.
Szyszlo was inspired by Breton’s various thoughts and admonitions, especially his dictation that artists must listen to “the voice from the depths of shadows.” Subsequently Szyszlo turned his attention back to Modernism, and experimented with Cubism, Surrealism, and Latin American regionalism, European Informalism to evolve his own particular style. His art is defined as lyrical abstraction which mainly references the pre-Hispanic ancient sites and landscape, melded into abstract representations of its essence. His style is characterized by enigmatic, spectral figures and forms loosed in a shrouded void of strikingly contrasting colors and shadows; the art is viscerally evocative, haunting and enigmatic.
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