José Sabogal (March 19, 1888, in Cajabamba – December 15, 1956, in Lima) was a Peruvianpainter and muralist who was "the most renowned early supporter"[1] and thus a leader in the artistic indigenist movement of his country.[2][3] As Daniel Balderston, Mike Gonzalez, and Ana M. López assert, Sabogal "became Peru's militant indigenist and aesthetic nationalist, and led this movement for the next thirty years.[4]
He was born in Cajabamba, Cajamarca, Peru and traveled extensively in Europe (particularly Italy) and North Africa from 1908 to 1913 before enrolling in the National School of Fine Arts in Buenos Aires, Argentina where he studied for five years.[5][6]
In 1922 he married a poet and writer María Wiesse. The couple had two children: José Rodolfo Sabogal Wiesse (1923-1983) and Rosa Teresa Sabogal Wiesse (1925-1985).
Although Sabogal's own descent was Spanish rather than indigenous, he promoted pre-Columbian culture and esthetics.[5] A six month stay in Cuzco prompted his indigenism; he took an interest in depicting the city and its inhabitants.[6] In 1919 his Cuzco paintings attracted attention at an exhibition in Lima.[6] As Jane Turner explains, "in 1919 was the first exhibition of the work of JOSÉ SABOGAL at the Casa
Brandes in Lima, an event that would be immensely influential on the future..."[7]
Sabogal decided to promote Peruvian art to international audiences after a 1922 visit to Mexico where he met Diego Rivera, José Clemente Orozco, and David Alfaro Siqueiros.[6] These efforts were so successful that in "the field of the visual arts, the most striking phenomenon of the 1920s was the rise of José Sabogal (1888-1956), founder and long-time leader of the so-called 'Peruvian School' of painting."[8]
Shreffler, Michael J. and Jessica Welton. Garcilaso de la Vega and the "New Peruvian Man": José Sabogal’s frescoes at the Hotel Cuzco. Art History. (Jan/Feb 2010, Vol 33), 124–149.
^Holliday T. Day, Hollister Sturges, Edward Lucie-Smith, and Damián Bayón, Art of the fantastic: Latin America, 1920-1987 (Indianapolis Museum of Art, 1987), 128.
^Sara Benson, Paul Hellander, and Rafael Wlodarski, Peru (Lonely Planet, 2007), 49.
^Ed. Leslie Bethell, A Cultural History of Latin America: Literature, Music and the Visual Arts in the 19th and 20th Centuries (Cambridge University Press, 2008), 88.
^Daniel Balderston, Mike Gonzalez, and Ana M. López, Encyclopedia of contemporary Latin American and Caribbean cultures (CRC Press, 2000), 4.
^ abKristin G. Congdon and Kara Kelley Hallmark (2002). Artists from Latin American Cultures: A Biographical Dictionary. Greenwood Press. pp. 238–240.
^ abcdefgJane Turner, ed. (2000). Encyclopedia of Latin American and Caribbean Art. Macmillan Reference Limited. p. 614.
^Jane Turner, The dictionary of art, v. 24 (Grove's Dictionaries, 1996), 509.
^Institute for the Study of Ideologies and Literature, Instituto de Cine y Radio-Televisión, I & L, Ideologies & literature v. 3, nos. 11-14 (Institute for the Study of Ideologies and Literature., 1980), 76.
