Indigenismo
インディヘニスモ / 1920s–1950s / Style / Latin American Avant-garde
A movement, centred on the Andean countries, that made the bodies, dress and land of indigenous people the subject of the nation. It took local frame and local colour as its standard in place of a European ideal, and spread through painting, printmaking, photography and architectural ornament. It shifted the question of what beauty is measured against.
Depiction of indigenous bodies and dress / The colour range of Andean earth and sky / Monumental mass in the figure / Quotation of pre-Columbian ornament
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Dictionary entry
- Best used for
- National and regional cultural identity for museums, festivals and tourism, where the imagery must come out of the place rather than be applied to it · Portrait direction that treats non-European proportion and dress as the standard rather than the exception
- Type
- A firm, broad-stemmed face whose weight matches the mass of the figure, with pre-Columbian geometry used sparingly as rule and border.
- Composition
- A frontal figure occupying most of the height against a high plateau horizon, the ornament confined to the edges.
- Material
- Ochre, oxide red and the hard blue of high altitude, on matte surfaces that hold earth tones without gloss.
- Caution
- Taking the ornament without the people: pre-Columbian pattern applied as decoration to an otherwise European image is exactly the appropriation the movement formed against.
- Further study
- José Sabogal and the Peruvian development / Its difference from Mexican muralism / Criticism of its representation of indigenous people