Fernando de Szyszlo was a Peruvian painter, best known for his use of pre-Columbian imagery and muted palette. Szyszlo’s art was an attempt to reinvent surrealist themes in a Latin American context, concerned more with feelings related to indigenous mysticism than artistic vanity. Born on July 5, 1925 in Lima, Peru, he studied art at the Pontificia Universidad Católica del Perú, after abandoning his initial studies in architecture. The artist spent time traveling in Europe as a young man, meeting the surrealist poets Octavio Paz and André Breton. He died on October 9, 2017 in Lima, Peru. Today, De Szyszlo’s works are in the collections of the Museum of Modern Art in New York, the Museo de Arte Contemporáneo de Arequipa in Peru and the Museum of Fine Arts in Houston, among others.
