Fernando de Szyszlo: A Memory - AMA | Art Museum of the Americas
2018-10-11 18:00 - 20:00 (America/New_York) | Art Museum of the Americas, 201 18th Street NW, Washington DC 20006, Estados Unidos
Fernando de Szyszlo
A Memory

Organization of American States
Secretariat for Hemispheric Affairs
AMA | Art Museum of the Americas
201 18th Street NW
Washington DC 20006
OPENING RECEPTION
Thursday, October 11 6-8PM
RSVP
ON VIEW
October 11-November 13, 2018
Hours: Tuesday-Sunday 10AM-5PM

The OAS AMA | Art Museum of the Americas and the Permanent Mission of Peru to the OAS announce Fernando de Szyszlo: A Memory, an exhibition of work by the Peruvian master. This exhibition features works by Szyszlo from the AMA’s permanent collection, and archival papers and clippings documenting Szyszlo’s longtime relationship with the AMA. The exhibition opens to the public two days following the one-year anniversary of the artist’s death. However, rather than being a tribute exhibition assembled ‘in memory,’ this exhibit’s focus is ‘a memory,’ that of Szyszlo as documented and illuminated by his work.
Fernando de Szyszlo’s relationship with OAS art program dates back to the time of his first solo exhibition at the OAS art gallery in 1953. Szyszlo subsequently worked at the OAS as a consultant for the Visual Art Unit in 1958, and went on hold two additional solo exhibitions at the OAS AMA, 1985 and 1996. Ten of his works—murals, mixografias, and easel paintings—has found homes in the OAS art collection. This exhibition features seven of these works, a documentary film on the artist produced by the OAS Audio Visual program, and archival material on his solo shows at the OAS. Due in large part to AMA’s founding director José Gómez Sicre’s enthusiasm for Szyszlo’s work from the time the artist was barely known, and the long-term working relationship that the two shared, AMA’s art archives contain many rare materials that shine a light onto nuances of the artist’s life and career. AMA’s archives, devoted to the collection and preservation of papers and other records related to the art and artists of the Americas with particular focus on Latin American and the Caribbean, are generally accessible to researchers by appointment; for this exhibition, selected papers will be on view in the museum.
Szyszlo was part of the second generation of Latin American artists who traveled overseas, along with Mexican artist Rufino Tamayo and Colombian artist Alejandro Obregon, among others. His search for aesthetic identity was coupled with a dissatisfaction with imported modern art. As Thomas Messer explains, “Szyzslo belonged to that small group of artists who first did abstract art in the South American continent after World War II, and he was the first abstract painter in Peru in a time when abstract painting was not well regarded on his side of the world.” The impact of Tamayo’s work on Szyszlo charged him with an impulse to depict his own roots. During the time Szyszlo spent in Peru before going to Paris to study painting, he began to explore and incorporate depictions of Chancay tapestries into his work. There is little doubt that the artist represents a breaking point in Peruvian art history. Without hyperbolizing, there is much evidence to suggest that his work was the single most significant impetus for directions taken by the following generation of artists looking to reenergize modern art in Peru.
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. Throughout the rest of his lifetime, he held numerous exhibitions around the world. Szyszlo and his spouse both died on October 9, 2017 in an accident in their home.
The AMA serves as the principal instrument of cultural diplomacy of the OAS. AMA’s mission is founded on the notion that the arts are transformative for individuals and communities. This guiding principle promotes the core values of the OAS by providing a space for cultural expression, creativity, innovation, dialog, and learning, while highlighting themes such as democracy, development, human rights, justice, freedom of expression, and innovation. AMA’s work draws on contemporary art to showcase a constructive vision of the future of the Americas via local and hemispheric cultural exchange.
Accessibility: This exhibition will be on the museum’s second floor, which is not accessible. AMA’s first floor is wheelchair accessible by appointment, with a ramp that can be installed at the back entrance to the museum. There is a gravel pathway leading to the back entrance. There is one half-step leading from the first room into the first-floor galleries. There is a flight of winding stairs leading to the museum’s second floor. Restrooms are located on the second floor. For more information on accessibility, or to make an appointment to visit, please contact 202 370 0147 or artmus@oas.org

Amazogramas - Roberto Huarcaya
2018-11-15 - 2018-11-27 | Art Museum of the Americas, 201 18th Street NW, Washington DC 20006, Estados Unidos
Organization of American States
Secretariat for Hemispheric Affairs
AMA | Art Museum of the Americas
201 18th Street NW
Washington DC 20006
ON VIEW
November 15, 2018 – January 27, 2019
OPENING RECEPTION
Thursday, November 15 6-8PM
RSVP here
HOURS
Tuesday-Sunday 10AM-5PM
LOCATION
Organization of American States
Secretariat for Hemispheric Affairs
AMA | Art Museum of the Americas
201 18th Street NW
Washington, DC 20006
ADMISSION
Free
The OAS AMA | Art Museum of the Americas and the Permanent Mission of Peru to the OAS announce the opening of “Amazogramas,” an exhibition of the Peruvian artist’s large-scale photo-based installations, curated by Alejandro Castellote. Just over two years ago, he began a project that took him to Bahuaha Sonene, a national park in the Amazon jungle at southeastern Peru. Throughout the first year, Huarcaya made several trips in which he found it impossible to «depict» the vast web of emotions that the Peruvian jungle inspired. To solve the dilemmas he faced, Huarcaya chose to discard the sophisticated cameras he had used on his initial journeys. Instead, he chose to go back 175 years, and recover one of the first procedures used in photography: the photogram. The photogram is a technique that, without a lens or a camera, allowed for accurate reproductions of objects. Huarcaya’s solution to the difficulties of representation that paralyzed him was admitting the landscape´s superiority: to stop being an author – a monolithic authority – and become a mediator.
The expedition undertaken by Huarcaya probably had his own interior search as a destination; and it was that relationship between experience and introspection that gave him access to different and more effective solutions. In any process that we use to obtain answers, time is a galvanizing and protean element. A beautiful metaphor of that process is found in photographic paper, which slowly shows its latent image – it reveals its answer – within a developer’s container. The examples, metaphors and allegories provide us with images that help us to understand the world in its most minuscule or anecdotic dimensions, as well as its metaphysical ones.
Roberto Huarcaya was born in Lima in 1959. He obtained a degree in Psychology at the Universidad Católica del Perú (Lima, 1978-1984), and studied cinema at the Instituto Italiano de Cultura (Lima, 1982) and Photography at the Centro del Video y la Imagen (Madrid, 1989), and taught Photography at the Universidad de Lima (1990-1993), at the Gaudi Institute (Lima, 1993-1997) and at the Centro de la Fotografía, now Centro de la Imagen (Lima, since 1999) of which he is the founder and director. He has held solo exhibitions in museums and galleries in Lima, Buenos Aires, London, Sao Paulo, Lisbon, and other cities throughout Latin America and Europe.
Alejandro Castellote was born in Madrid in 1959, and began working as photography curator in 1982. From 1985 until 1996 he was director of the Photography Department at the Círculo de Bellas Artes (Madrid) where he organized five editions of the Festival FOCO. In 1987, he created the Minerva Photography Gallery at the Círculo de Bellas Artes, a space devoted to emerging photographers. He has been artistic director and founder of the International Photography Festival PhotoEspaña in Madrid from 1998 to 2000. During 2005 and 2006 he was a content adviser for C International Photo Magazine in London, and curated the exhibition C on Cities for the Venice Biennale of Architecture 2006. In 2012 was guest curator of the Singapore International Photography Festival and curated at MAPFRE Foundation (2013) the exhibition and book Spain throughout Photography. 1839-2010. In 2014, he was the curator of the DAEGU Photo Biennale in South Korea and in 2015 co-curator of the First Chang Jiang International Photography & Video Biennale, in Chongqing, China. In 2006 he was awarded with the Prize Bartolomé Ros for the best professional track record in photography in Spain. Since 2014 he has lived in Peru where is the director of the Latin American Master of Photography and Visual Arts at the Centro de la Imagen of Lima.
The AMA serves as the principal instrument of cultural diplomacy of the OAS. AMA’s mission is founded on the notion that the arts are transformative for individuals and communities. This guiding principle promotes the core values of the OAS by providing a space for cultural expression, creativity, innovation, dialog, and learning, while highlighting themes such as democracy, development, human rights, justice, freedom of expression, and innovation. AMA’s work draws on contemporary art to showcase a constructive vision of the future of the Americas via local and hemispheric cultural exchange.
This exhibition is made possible by the generous support of the Permanent Mission of Peru to the OAS and the FAMA | Friends of the Art Museum of the Americas.
Accessibility: AMA’s first floor is wheelchair accessible by appointment, with a ramp that can be installed at the back entrance to the museum. There is a gravel pathway leading to the back entrance. There is one half-step leading from the first room into the first-floor galleries. There is a flight of winding stairs leading to the museum’s second floor. Restrooms are located on the second floor. For more information on accessibility, or to make an appointment to visit, please contact 202 370 0147 or artmus@oas.org
For more information on AMA, please visit AMAmuseum.org

Presentación del estudio regional Niñez que cuenta : el impacto de las políticas de drogas sobre niñas, niños y adolescentes
2019-04-29 15:00 - 17:00 | Hall of the Americas, Organization of American States, 200 17th Street Northwest, Washington, DC 20006, United States
Presentación del estudio regional Niñez que cuenta : el impacto de las políticas de drogas sobre niñas, niños y adolescentes con madres y padres encarcelados en América Latina y el Caribe.
¡Agenda la fecha! Participa de este evento abierto al público: http://bit.ly/childhoodthatcountsDC
