José Sabogal was a Peru

Peru

Peru , officially the Republic of Peru , is a country in western South America. It is bordered on the north by Ecuador and Colombia, on the east by Brazil, on the southeast by Bolivia, on the south by Chile, and on the west by the Pacific Ocean....

vian painter

Painting

Painting is the practice of applying paint, pigment, color or other medium to a surface . The application of the medium is commonly applied to the base with a brush but other objects can be used. In art, the term painting describes both the act and the result of the action. However, painting is...

 and muralist who was "the most renowned early supporter" and thus a leader in the artistic indigenist

Indigenism

Indigenism, Native nationalism, or Indigenous nationalism is a kind of ethnic nationalism emphasizing the group's indigeneity to their homeland...

 movement of his country. 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.

Indigenism

Although Sabogal's own descent was Spanish rather than indigenous, he promoted pre-Columbian culture and esthetics. A six month stay in Cuzco prompted his indigenism; he took an interest in depicting the city and its inhabitants. In 1919 his Cuzco paintings attracted attention at an exhibition in Lima. 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..."

Sabogal decided to promote Peruvian art to international audiences after a 1922 visit to Mexico where he met Diego Rivera

Diego Rivera

Diego María de la Concepción Juan Nepomuceno Estanislao de la Rivera y Barrientos Acosta y Rodríguez was a prominent Mexican painter born in Guanajuato, Guanajuato, an active communist, and husband of Frida Kahlo . His large wall works in fresco helped establish the Mexican Mural Movement in...

, José Clemente Orozco

José Clemente Orozco

José Clemente Orozco was a Mexican social realist painter, who specialized in bold murals that established the Mexican Mural Renaissance together with murals by Diego Rivera, David Alfaro Siqueiros, and others...

, and David Alfaro Siqueiros

David Alfaro Siqueiros

José David Alfaro Siqueiros was a social realist painter, known for his large murals in fresco that helped establish the Mexican Mural Renaissance, together with works by Diego Rivera and José Clemente Orozco, and also a member of the Mexican Communist Party who participated in an...

. 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."

Education and academic career

He was born in Lima, Peru and traveled extensively in Europe (particularly Italy

Italy

Italy , officially the Italian Republic languages]] under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages. In each of these, Italy's official name is as follows:;;;;;;;;), is a unitary parliamentary republic in South-Central Europe. To the north it borders France, Switzerland, Austria and...

) and North Africa from 1908 to 1913 before enrolling in the National School of Fine Arts in Buenos Aires

Buenos Aires

Buenos Aires is the capital and largest city of Argentina, and the second-largest metropolitan area in South America, after São Paulo. It is located on the western shore of the estuary of the Río de la Plata, on the southeastern coast of the South American continent...

, Argentina

Argentina

Argentina , officially the Argentine Republic , is the second largest country in South America by land area, after Brazil. It is constituted as a federation of 23 provinces and an autonomous city, Buenos Aires...

 where he studied for five years.

Sabogal taught at the Escuela Nacional de Bellas Artes, Lima (National School of Fine Arts, Lima) from 1920 onward. He served as its director from 1932 to 1943. Afterward Sabogal and Luis E. Valcárel cofounded the Instituto Libre de Arte Peruano (Free Institute of Peruvian Arts) at the Museo Nacional de la Cultura Peruana (National Museum of Peruvian Culture).