School of Fine Arts

The new Peruvian painting

By Edgardo Pérez Luna

The current Peruvian painting now has a brilliant generation of new artists emerged from the National School of Fine Arts. In the cozy halls of the Institute of Contemporary Art, the expression of the new plastic tendencies is exhibited. We are pleased to separate them for their singular qualities, and because they are the happy fruit of a resolute vocation forged in terms of honesty and sincere artistic search.

Dante Gavidia, Alfredo Basurco, Nelly Bulnes, Gerardo Chávez, Enrique Galdos, José Milner, Edmundo Panta, Alberto Quintanilla, Oswaldo Sagástegui and Tilsa Tsuchiya are the new painters who insinuate, animated by a renovating vitality, the promise of a possible national artistic style. They are the result, in our opinion, of the pedagogical orientation imparted in this first center of plastic instruction. Through them, for the first time in the National School of Fine Arts we perceive that the supreme art of knowing how to look and feel, which is indispensable in the learning of art, has begun in a more substantial way. That is to say, we are in the presence of a work of purification of the expressive instrument for a richer grasp of reality. Individual sensitivity is expressed with plastic vigor and maturity. In this beautiful parade of abstract compositions, of transpositions of elements from the outside world to a purer, cleaner inner world, a dimension of undeniable transcendence emerges. It is a painting of assimilation and recreation, a painting of emotion, of invention. The painting of our days.

Of course, as in all cases, most of this painting transits, initially, informalism, gestural painting, the painting of matter. It is a sign of the times. Peruvian painting these days is aligned with the new international conceptions. On the other hand, it should be noted that some of these artists reveal a considerable technical training. They know the chromatic resources and the possibilities of handling impasto, stain, pigment and chromatic matter. There is a plausible quality in the handling of strict color, in color as a propensity for pictorial expression. In some cases the pigment is worked with surprising ease, for example in the cases of Basurco, Bulnes, Galdos, Quintanilla and Tsuchiya.

It is, therefore, gratifying to see that the new generations work with reason and show that a place of honor awaits them in today's Peruvian plastic arts.

From left to right and from top to bottom:

Dante Gavidia, Oswaldo Sagástegui, Alberto Quintanilla, Gerardo Chávez, Enrique Galdos, Nelly Bulnes, Tilsa Tsuchiya, Edmundo Panta, José Milner and Alfredo Basurco.

The teachers of the National School of Fine Arts are largely responsible for the emergence of the most recent brilliant generation of Peruvian painters. In engraving, from left to right: Alberto Dávila, Ricardo Sánchez, Carlos A. Castilla, Víctor Delfín (then professor of anatomical drawing and Director of the Regional School of Fine Arts of Puno), Emilio Goyburu and Juan Manuel Ugarte Eléspuru, Director of the National School of Fine Arts. In engraving there are two distinguished masters who had a notable influence on the new painting: Ricardo Grau and Sabino Springett.

LIMA, SUNDAY, JANUARY 31, 1960

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THE STRANGE STORY OF THE PAINTER OF THE JUNGLE

Right: Víctor Delfín and his wife, Haydée. This is the Huallaga as it passes through Tingo Maria. Below: Half naked, the Delfin.

I would like to sincerely thank all the friends I have left in the beautiful city of Tingo Maria for their help and cooperation for the best success of the work I carry on my back, the jungle. It is not cheesy romanticism if I say that the three canvases are full of the hearts of those who have encouraged me with their affection during my stay in Tingo Maria. It has all the tradition that the artist paints his place of work. Da Dürerito, he falls in love forever with Tingo. To all those who helped me more directly or more quietly, I will always keep in mind: Doctor Bucz, Mr. Freeman, Professor Lubbock, the American students, Antonio Abarca, Alfonso Rivera, Mr. Méndez, the painter Ríos, Juan Ampuero, Guido Aráoz, Club América, Alianza Oriental, Escuela Experimental, Ballet, Jockey Club, Tomás Rodríguez, Bernardo del Águila, and forgive me if I omit someone because of my bad memory. See you soon!

J.B.A.

One night when we were a group of friends sitting at the “Oasis” bar in Tingo María, a man of regular height, dark, wearing a white shirt and with a smoking pipe between his teeth, sat down at our table. He introduced himself as Victor Delfin, a former student of the School of Fine Arts in Lima. He was arriving from, he said, the most remote corners of the jungle, and had finally achieved his dream of devoting himself completely to painting.

Thus began one of the most intriguing episodes I remember, a story that proved to me that when a man of rare inner strength sets his mind to something, he achieves it. The man had become a “living hermit” in the green heart of Peru's jungle interland. He lived like a true native.

Then he told us several different and strange things. Among them, that he - driven by his passion for painting - had left Lima with his wife Haydée, and his little son David, to go into the jungle, in a place called “Las Palmas”, six hours downriver from Tingo María. They were in a hut in the heart of the jungle.

-The rest is that of this strange and exciting story,“ said our jungle painter.

He had gone as far as the deepest recesses of the Huallaga - he had even reached part of the Las Palmas hamlet in the jungle hills. He was determined never to leave the jungle.

Victor and Haydée lived with their little son David, a year and a half old.

Dolphin, leaning over the reddish earth of the jungle, his expression stern and severe; Haydee always with the enthusiastic and cheerful gleam of her pretty brown eyes and with her white complexion still tender with mud.

-Yes, those were hard times,“ Victor Delfin recalls, and his wife nods smiling, looking on lovingly. ”Extreme decisions were made,“ she told me. We burned the furniture. We got rid of everything that wasn't useful for painting and living.”

They themselves, at the cost of patient and laborious efforts, built a large hut. Before starting to cultivate coffee, which is the basis of their plantation, they had to cut down the forest and clean it, a thankless task. The confinement could be interrupted many times with dangerous fainting spells, except for a shirt and a pair of pants, they had nothing more than a machete in hand under an oppressive sun that raised the temperature to more than thirty degrees Celsius. For days they fed on inquisitive plants, avocados and oranges.

-We're a little better now,“ says Victor. ”We have some paper blocks and we started painting. We no longer feel imprisoned or limited to rigid “comfort‘.’

-I have brought several sheets,“ Victor adds, ”some of my compositions are completely free. In those hours I paint, and paint, and paint.“

-I don't know if we'll ever get to exhibit the paintings we did for the Charity or the ones I have yet to do. I've been told that things are not going well.“

David -the little son- runs barefoot in front of the hut and calls his mother.

My son was born in the jungle - he lives and for him,“ Haydée says in a dreamy, golden-clean voice. ”He is life. Since we arrived he has not lived or been the color of a hospital.“

The couple met at the “Conde Ají” School. The Count was a stage director in Tingo Maria in a small theater company. The Delfins were recognized by tourists who admired their effort to go into the jungle and live with the natives. An American painter left some special inks that were acquired by the Delfins to continue painting.

Haydée, united by her love, by the forest and by her man, has found in her life the serene, hard days of her life. In the smiling and calm look of the Dolphins, one can see the happiness of those who are convinced that they have found their way among men. They are admired as those who with inner joy fight arm in arm against adversity.

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Juliaca, October 1959

“ORIENTATION”

STREET REPORT

REPORT TO THE DIRECTOR OF THE SCHOOL OF FINE ARTS, PUNO

-In which school did you perfect your knowledge of art?

-In the National School of Fine Arts of Lima as a scholarship holder since 1946 and then as a student of mural painting.

-Who were your teachers?

-Mr. Alejandro González, who besides being a good painter is a tireless student of Peruvian art and is currently in charge of the artistic crafts section of the School of Fine Arts. As a mural teacher I had the prestigious Peruvian muralist Carlos Quispe Asín, one of the best national muralists, whose work we can appreciate in the building of the Ministry of Public Education.

Then as a teacher Mr. Sabino Springer, a painter who has exhibited in Peru and has participated in Biennials abroad; otherwise all the teachers of the School of Fine Arts of Lima collaborate in the artistic development of any student and also instill that spiritual and ethical taste that give the teachers more than teachers are friends: Alberto Davila, Segundo Springer, Juan Manuel Ugarte (Director of the School), Carlos Attilo Castillo and the sculptor Joaquin Roca Rey. Also, the direct collaboration of critics of great merit as Juan Acha (J. Nahuevca) and Fernando de la Jara, who maintain columns in various newspapers and magazines such as “El Comercio” and “La Prensa” of Lima.

-Did you participate in art exhibitions?

-I have participated in many group exhibitions, in painting and six more: At the ANEA, at the Art Institute of the Municipality of Lima and the Institute of Contemporary Art; also in an exhibition held in Buenos Aires. By participating in contests I have obtained the following prizes and rewards:

1950 First Prize in Painting “San Juan de Amancas” at the National School of Fine Arts.

1947 - 1951 and 1956 - 1958 Scholarships National School of Fine Arts.

1954 Second Prize awarded by the Municipality of Piura - Piura Week.

1956 Second Honorable Mention in the Salon of the Municipality of Lima.

1957 First Honorable Mention in the Salon of the Municipality of Lima.

1958 National Painting Award “Ignacio Merino” and Promotion of Culture.

-Were you a professor at any school?

1954 -1954 Degree of Professor of Plastic Arts No. 46781 issued in October 1954.

1955 Professor of the Teacher Training Course of Guadalupe by Directorial Resolution No. 302.

1957-1958 Professor of Drawing and Manual Arts at the Almirante Guisse School in Lima and Santa Margarita School in Callao and the Sacred Hearts School in Recoleta.

-Could you tell us how you were appointed Director of the Regional School of Fine Arts of Puno?

-Through a contest organized by the Directorate of Culture of the Ministry of Public Education, in which I presented papers to the public with art notes published in Regístulas, with the participation of several teachers of outstanding merit. I was appointed by Ministerial Resolution No. 5770 dated 27-4-59.

-What conditions does your school offer to students who have graduated from a Cultural Center?

-In the School that I direct none of the Professors of this Regional School of Fine Arts of Puno, is a graduate of any Superior Center of Culture.

-What are the dispositions of the Puneño Student for Art?

-In general in Puno there is a great disposition for art (music, painting, poetry, literature, etc.), but it is curious, I still do not find this type of student with a strong artistic vocation willing to take art seriously as a means of artistic expression and willing to investigate the problems of plastic art and the influences that our art has suffered.

-In what condition did you find the school when you took over its management?

-It is quite abandoned, because it lacks until now, for example, a School of Painting works as it should, without hygienic service, without a lot for live models, without adequate lighting for drawing, inadequate classrooms for study, the eleven days of taking charge of the Directorate I made a trip to Lima, again, to expose this situation to the Minister, the current one is providing us with the best facilities.

-Thank you, Mr. Delfín, for your interesting statements. I hope that, as Director of Culture, your school will be able to adequately fulfill its public work.

-To the Representatives for Puno: Teófilo Monroy Solórzano and Jorge Basadre. To the gentlemen of Amat, who have offered me their valuable cooperation, to the distinguished Monrroy, who gave me all his support. We hope that the representatives do not forget that the artistic culture of their land needs the decisive and energetic collaboration of their authorities. We are trying to restore the school with scarce resources. Our students are ninety-four, including twenty-four at night. We have no better lighting installation....

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