In addition to working in oils, Peruvian artist José Sabogal made numerous woodblock prints. India Huanca represents an indigenous woman from the Junín Region of central Peru, known as Huanca. The format of the woodcut is inherently rough, allowing the grain of the wood to show through and create the illusion of texture on the printed page. Restricted to only two colors, black and white, the image is one of stark contrasts. India Huanca is a bust-length image of a middle-aged indigenous woman depicted in profile. Given the limitations of the print format, Sabogal does not focus on the details or colors of her ethnic costume. She is wearing a simple high-necked tunic, which does not define her but rather serves to focus attention on her facial features. Rendering her in profile allowed Sabogal to highlight her aquiline nose, prominent eyebrow ridges, and pointed ears. Her hair is parted in the middle and falls in a cascading braid around her ear and onto her shoulder. He rendered her face in a mottled pattern to emulate the ruddy weathered features of Andean peoples. She does not look out or acknowledge the viewer, but rather appears to be squeezing her eyes shut as if resisting the outside world. Given the specificity of her features, this print most likely represents a specific individual. But at the same time, her features seem to be slightly exaggerated to align her with a larger idea of the Huanca ethnic type. This image, therefore, aligns with the 19th century costumbrista paintings, images of ethnic types, but simultaneously challenges this trend through its focus on the individual. Born in Cajabamba, Peru, José Sabogal spent from 1909 to 1911 traveling and studying in Spain, Italy, France, and North Africa. Upon his return to South America, he enrolled at the Academia Nacional de Bellas Artes in Buenos Aires and later taught art in Jujuy from 1913 to 1918. When he finally returned to Peru, Sabogal traveled first to the ancient city of Cuzco. There he painted over forty canvases of Cuzco’s landscapes, colonial vistas, and indigenous inhabitants, which he brought with him to Lima in 1919 to mount the exhibition Impresiones del Ccoscco at the Casa Brandes. The show’s success led to an invitation to teach painting at the newly founded Escuela Nacional de Bellas Artes in Lima in 1920. In 1922 Sabogal married poet and writer María Wiesse. That same year he traveled to Mexico where he met the muralists Diego Rivera, José Clemente Orozco, and David Alfaro Siqueiros. He incorporated many of the ideas he learned from the muralists into his art and teaching. By the mid-1920s a select group of students, including Julia Codesido, Teresa Carvallo, Enrique Camino Brent, and Camilo Blas, had embraced his teachings and formed a contingent of artists whose work came to be known as Indigenism. In addition to painting, Sabogal created several murals in Lima and his prints appeared frequently in Peruvian journalist and intellectual José Carlos Mariátegui’s avant-garde journal Amauta (1926-1930). Sabogal was appointed director of the Escuela Nacional de Bellas Artes in 1932, a post he held until he resigned in 1943. In the 1940s he collaborated with Luis E. Valcárcel to found the Instituto Libre de Arte Peruano at the Museo Nacional de la Cultura Peruana, which promoted the study and preservation of Peruvian folk art. Sabogal died in 1956.