Fernando de Szyszlo
Regreso a Mendieta, 2016
acrylic on canvas
59 × 47 1/2 inches
Fernando de Szyszlo
The Death and the Maiden, 2013
mixed-media
63 x 78 3/4 inches
Fernando de Szyszlo
Piedra de Sol, Homenaje a Octavia Paz, 2009
charcoal and acrylic on canvas
67 × 60 inches
(Peru, 1925-2017)
Fernando de Szyszlo is one of the foremost artists to emerge from post-world war Latin America. Szyszlo's art hovers in the twilight between figuration and abstraction. His paintings evoke the still, monumental, power of Pre-Hispanic forms, while at the same time suggesting the dynamic, often violent, energies at their core. Szyszlo’s paintings display a formal mastery of light and shadow and, in later works, the counterpoint of weighted mass and sinuous linearity. It is impossible to imagine Szyszlo’s paintings without Surrealism, Futurism and Abstract Expressionism. Equally important for Szyszlo are the textiles of Chancay and Paracas and the convulsive history of the Americas.