José Sabogal

Peruvian artist José Sabogal (1888 - 1956) was one of Peru's premier indigenistas. Sabogal was of Spanish, rather than Indian descent, but that didn't stop him from becoming one of the most active artists promoting the life and culture of the indigenous peoples of Peru.

The work at left is called "Arquitecto Quechua." This page includes a brief bio and several of Sabogals' works.

Sabogal became involved in the indigenista movement and began considering himself an indigenista after a trip to Mexico in 1922, where he saw the impact of the murals of artists like Rivera, Siqueiros, and Tamayo. As a teacher, he urged his students to ignore the European movements like Fauvism and Cubism, and to focus on the methods and techniques native to their people. Sabogal was initially rejected for the indigenist themes that he was later celebrated for, and there are still those who reject his work. People like this think his work depicts the "proud and grand Inca instead of a depiction of the actual misery within which Indians lived."

No one tries to deny the huge influence he has had on Latin American art. Or art as a whole, for that matter.