Sabogal, José (1888–1956)

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Sabogal, José (1888–1956)

José Arnaldo Sabogal Dieguez, born in Cajabamba, Cajamarca, on March 19, 1888, was a Peruvian painter and print-maker who portrayed Peru's cultural and regional diversity in his depictions of indigenous figures and themes. In this his art resembled the work of Peruvian writers Ciro Alegría and José María Arguedas. His work is characterized by the use of strong color, expressive brushwork, and delineated forms. Sabogal's emphasis on Indian figures placed him at the center of Peruvian indigenismo during the 1920s. He contributed to José Carlos Mariátegui's vanguard magazine Amauta and taught at the Escuela Nacional de Bellas Artes, where his art was integral to the institution's role in defining an arte nacional, as well as to President Augusto B. Leguía's moderniaing ideology of the patria nueva.

Under Sabogal's tutelage, first as teacher and later as director of the art school, a group of indigenista artists—Camilo Blas, Enrique Camino Brent, Teresa Carvallo, and Julia Codesido—were to ensure indigenismo's lasting influence on Peruvian art. During his career Sabogal painted a number of murals and was important in reviving interest in popular art forms in Peru. He died in Lima on December 15, 1956.

See alsoArt: The Twentieth Century .

BIBLIOGRAPHY

Antrobus, Pauline. Peruvian Art of the Patria Nueva, 1919–1930. Ph.D. dissertation, University of Essex, 1997.

Falcón, Jorge. Simplemente Sabogal: Centenario de su nacimiento 1888–1988. Lima: Ediciones Hora del Hombre, 1988.

Lauer, Mirko. "La pintura indigenista peruana: Una vision de los años noventa!" In Voces de Ultramar: Arte en América Latina, 1910–1960, pp.73-79. Las Palmas de Gran Canaria, Spain: Centro Atlántico Arte Moderno, 1992.

Torres Bohl, José. Apuntes sobre José Sabogal: Vida y obra. Lima: Banco Central de Reserva del Peru, Fondo Editorial, 1989.

                                        Pauline Antrobus