Cajamarca is part of a series of oil paintings under the same title, which, in Szyszlo’s words, narrates “a sort of glimpse of the execution of the last Inca, Atahualpa, by Francisco Pizarro.” In addition to the piece in the AMA collection, there are three other works in collections in Lima. “It was the first time,” stated Szyszlo, “that I had created a series of paintings trying to capture a feeling that was escaping me. I’ve created several series since, always trying to catch the painting that escapes. Painting is the murder of a dream.” The production of this group of works, whose title alludes to the place where Atahualpa was killed in 1533, started in 1959 and continued in the following years. Cajamarca is a testimony of the social and realistic indigenism of a deep nationalization of the plastic vocabulary of the international avant-gardes, which constitutes Szyszlo’s main contribution to Peruvian and Latin American art. Furthermore, as Dore Ashton states, “it reveals the intention to reinvent historical painting,” because, unlike realistic paintings, this is not the literal depiction of an event. There are no heroes or victims, nor protests or restitutions. What can be found here is merely the subjective interpretation of a dramatic moment, full of meaning for the history of Peru and America. Szyszlo does not describe or judge, but he evokes. In formal terms, the piece is structured through thick black stripes that, due to their depth and gesturality, are reminiscent of Rouault, Hartung, and Soulages. The stripes seem to be outlining the body of Atahualpa schematically and, around them, a poem of shapes and archaic colors—bright reds, purples, and blues—unfurls, suggesting Tamayo’s influence.
Fernando de Szyszlo, born in Lima, did not obtain his training from art schools, but rather in the progressive circles of Lima culture in the second half of the 1940s. Starting in 1944, his participation in the gatherings at the Librería Ayra and the Peña Pancho Fierro, his involvement in the editorial committee of the magazine Las Moradas (1947-1949), as well as his close relationship with the Agrupación Espacio—a group seeking to change the attitude towards architecture and modern art—were defining. Driven by these catalysts, Szyszlo began a quest to combine the expression of the native with a plastic vocabulary removed from a realistic conception and closer to the international avant-gardes. As a result of this search, he discovered the work of Rufino Tamayo in 1948 and began to explore the shapes and colors that revolve around the myths of the pre-Hispanic culture of Chancay on the coast of central Peru. The years he spent in Paris (1949-1950) were also crucial as he came into contact with other Latin American artists who shared his interests (Octavio Paz, Rufino Tamayo himself, and Alejandro Obregón, among others), as well as European artists who influenced his poetics (Breton and the surrealists) and style (Hartung and Soulages). Szyszlo’s art reached maturity within an avant-garde language, a lyrical abstraction, and a pre-Hispanic universe, which the artists considered to be “a second cultural source, different from that brought by the conquistadors.” He gained recognition in the 1950s as one of the key agents in renovating Latin American art and held several exhibitions, including one at the Pan American Union, which boosted the internationalization of his career. During that same decade, he received various accolades, such as honorable mentions at the São Paulo Biennials (1957, 1961) and his participation in the Venice Biennial (1958) in representation of Peru. Since then, he has held numerous exhibitions around the world, but his work has always remained substantially true to itself.
