Peruvian Embassy marks bicentennial with art exhibition

Peruvian Ambassador Daul Matute Mejia (sixth from left) poses with embassy officials at the opening of “In Praise of the Shadow.” The exhibition, dedicated to the works of Peruvian abstract artist Fernando de Szyszlo, opened Tuesday at KEB Hana Bank Headquarters Hall in Jung-gu, central Seoul. (Sanjay Kumar/Korea Herald)

The Peruvian Embassy opened an art exhibition Tuesday to celebrate the bicentennial of the country’s independence. “In Praise of the Shadow” is dedicated to the works of Fernando de Szyszlo, one of Latin America’s most renowned abstract artists.

Fernando de Szyszlo was a Peruvian painter, sculptor, printmaker and teacher who gained prominence in the mid-1950s. The often indefinable figures that appear in his works are offset by his love of color, texture and eye-catching patterns. The often extremely decorative and strong form is due to the artist’s admiration for pre-Hispanic textiles, which created tensions in his works -- works that stand between physical and spiritual transformation, on the one hand, and death and ritual on the other.

The exhibition runs till July 16 at the KEB Hana Bank Headquarters Hall in Jung-gu, central Seoul.

Thanking KEB Hana Bank for its generous willingness to cooperate with the Peruvian mission, Peruvian Ambassador Daul Matute Mejia said the exhibition, highlighting the most important contemporary Peruvian painter, was an important way to publicize Peruvian culture in South Korea and commemorate 200 years of independence.

By Sanjay Kumar(sanjaykumar@heraldcorp.com)

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