Artist
Biography
de Szyszlo, Fernando
Lima, Peru 1925 — Lima, Peru 2017
Fernando de Szyszlo was a Peruvian painter, sculptor, printmaker, and teacher who was a pioneer and key actor in the development of Latin American abstract art since the mid-1950s. He is known for his unique fusion of surrealism and elements of Andean culture, creating a distinctive style that often reflect themes of identity, myth, memory, and time. Through abstract forms, rich colors, muted palettes and pre-Columbian imagery, his paintings display a formal mastery of light and shadow. Equally important for Szyszlo were the textiles of Chancay and Paracas and the convulsive history of the Americas.
In Szyszlo’s own words, “I have been educated within the parameters of surrealism, not in painting per se but in the surrealism text and content from Breton…that is understanding art as a way to bring out from our unconscious living things untouched by the external world and expressing them out in art pieces. Carl Jung used to say that one’s unconscious has common denominators with the collective unconscious and if a person manages to bring out something from deep in his interior, someone else may be able to interpret it. That is how I have based all my work, using artistic languages from my age and time, nourished by pre-Columbian and autochthonous content”.
Born in Peru, he studied art at the Pontificia Universidad Católica del Perú, after abandoning his initial studies in architecture. After his graduation in 1948, at the age of 24 years old, he travelled to Europe to continue his studies on Fine Arts. Eager to participate in the art scene, he met Surrealist poets Octavio Paz and André Breton and studied the works of great masters in Florence and Paris. Inspired by a variety of artistic movements like Surrealism, Abstract Expressionism, and Futurism, Szyszlo’s work continuously engaged audiences and captivated Pervuian art history.
Upon his return to Peru, Szyszlo became a major force for artistic renewal in his country breaking new ground by expressing a Peruvian subject matter in a non-representational style. In 1962, he became a professor of art at Cornell University. In 1965 he became a visiting lecturer at Yale University.
Throughout his life, he collected meaningful awards and accolades such as “Chevalier de L’Ordre des Arts et des Lettres”, granted by the French Republic or “Grand Officer Bernardo O’Higgins for the Arts and Letters”, awarded by the Republic of Chile, among others.
He has been included in hundreds of solo exhibitions in Latin America, Europe, and the United States. His work is found in public and private collections throughout the world, including the Museum of Modern Art, New York, Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, New York, Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, Art Museum of the Americas, Washington, D.C., Museo de Arte de Lima, Peru, Museu de Arte Moderna, São Paulo, Brazil, Museo Nacional de Arte, La Paz, Bolivia, Museo de Arte Contemporaneo Arequipa, Peru, the Museum of Latin American Art, Long Beach, California, and so forth.
Works
No works available for this artist.