3/27/10

Handing down the craft to the next generation! (photo courtesy of the artist) www.pinturascusco.galeon.com

This Cusco Painting School workshop was exactly what I wanted to see in Cusco! I was initially very impressed by these Colonial style paintings when I came to Cusco back in February and since then I have become determined to see a workshop that produces these reproductions and reinterpretations of 16th-18th century Cusco School paintings.   My goal, as it is with all the workshops I have been visiting, is to see the technique, the materials, and find out how the workshop is organized.

The workshop is run by Elvin Taca. He studied in the Cusco Fine Art School where he learned how to paint in the Cusco style. I was surprised to learn that he was never taught how to mix traditional paints or use more historically accurate materials. This workshop is really no different from the retablo workshops in terms of the quality of the materials used. The oil paint comes from tubes and much of the glues and mineral spirits are those you find in a hardware store and could be used by any carpenter. They churn out paintings incredibly fast, and their rendering skills are very good. I was excited that I was able to watch one of the members of the studio paint the ornaments on the Virgin Mary’s mantel in a painting. I am intrigued by the way the textile decorations are addressed in colonial paintings and I was happy to get the opportunity to see them being painted and to learn what materials they use to produce the effect.

Painting gold details

Closeup

There are 6 members of the workshop and tasks are divided into 3 parts: background and basic clothing, gold detailing, and the face/flesh. To prep the canvas they paint on a ground that is a mixture of a synthetic glue sizing with an acrylic paint (some workshops also will use chalk and plaster of paris in their ground). When the canvas is being prepared they have it stretched on stretchers but after the ground dries they remove the canvas from the stretchers (this allows for more flexibility while paintings). Elvin himself is in charge of the final touches including the face and hands. If they have a deadline to meet and need the paintings to dry more quickly they will use a dryer called tekno. The gold that they use is an artificial gold dust that is mixed with a carpenter grade glue or varnish. They do not typically use any real gold on their paintings. It takes 3 people 3 days to finish an 18″ by 24″ painting.

Waiting for the final step!

Materials for the goooooold

The members of the workshop are both family and non-related apprentices, all of which Elvin trains. This is actually one of the first times that I have visited a workshop in Peru where it IS NOT exclusively family members in the workshop.   Elvin only sells his work to Alfredo in Cuzco but he also has clients in Nicaragua, Lima, Italy, and Ecuador. When Elvin gets bored he does some other, creative pieces that he doesn’t sell.

The these paintings are incredibly cheap if you buy them directly from the workshop as opposed to from a third party/artisan shop. I was absolutely astounded when Elvin told us that one of the very nicely rendered and detailed paintings hanging in the workshop that a commissioned piece for a man in Ecuador was only around $50. Ridiculous! Elvin says that normally everything is sold through a 3rd party (like through Alfredo’s shop in San Blas). They do market themselves online! And if you would like to commission any works from them please email: elvileo@hotmail.com or kmigabriel@gmail.com

$50.... Wow.

In terms of organization between the different Cusco painting workshops, there isn’t much. Elvin says that while they all know each other there is no guild or committee or anything like that established. Because of this there is some “copying” of other Cusco painters. However since most of the paintings are already copies of previous archetypes it isn’t so much of a problem. Occasionally Elvin will incorporate other European style saints, virgins, or motifs into his paintings (typically Italianate).

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Elvin had a book, called Barocco Andino, (Riccardo Scotti, Barocco Andino: Arcangeli guerrieri, madonne e dee, santi meticci, Ananke, Torino 2009) that contained images many contemporary Cusco School paintings. It is published by an Italian author and the main page on the website actually has a fairly good summary of the Cusco School and briefly discusses the workshops that produce them. It was even helpful after translating it from Italian to English using GoogleTranslate! Here it is if you are interested in reading more about this fascinating school of painting:

THE BAROQUE ANDEAN

After the “conquest” of America by Europeans, following the missionaries, Christians and nobles came in the “New Continent” also some artists with the intent to produce works that decorate many churches were being built everywhere and the mansions of the rulers. In a few years, numerous requests for works of art imposed the need to train very quickly some local artists. Was born in Cuzco (Peru), the most important school of painting in America, producing paintings in large quantities and many important works, many unsigned and others made collectively. For obvious reasons, European-style settlement reached with Peru about 50 years late and, therefore, until the middle of the century. XVII, the model to follow was the late Italian Renaissance and later Baroque. The first important works made in American territory, however, were the paintings of Italian Mannerist Bernardo Bitti (since 1575), a Jesuit brother. Later, Matthew Perez de Alesio, born in the Kingdom of Naples, then controlled by Spain, founded in Lima a Centro Sperimentale “to obtain pigment equivalent to those in Europe with new recipes. The third Italian artist who worked in the Viceroyalty was Medoro Angelino, born in Rome around 1567 and arrived in Peru around 1600. The role models were the paintings by Spanish painter Zurbarán and Murillo, Rembrandt and then. Diego Quispe Tito (1611-1681), the most famous artists of Cuzco, was inspired to Flemish models, introducing the Peruvian landscape painting and entering its vegetation unreal figures with distorted perspectives. The “School of Cuzco”, influenced the eighteenth-century painting of the whole Andean (School of Quito in Ecuador, School of Potosi, Bolivia, in addition to schools of Chile, Argentina, Colombia, Venezuela, Panama, Uruguay and Paraguay) and was the most important for the quality and quantity of works produced. Gradually, the artists of Cuzco broke away from European models and left the real world, advancing the story. So they began to paint angels wrapped in royal robes and wield firearms, naive and childlike landscapes devoid of perspective, precious decorations on all the clothes, golden rays, necklaces and jewelry on Madonnas and saints. The “Andean Baroque, also called Mestizo Style” and was characterized by a “rejuvenation” of the subjects mannered, obtained with an archaism that responded to the indigenous mentality. The Augustinian missionaries, meanwhile, devoted to the task of comparing and contrasting them to the local deity of Christ, Mary and the saints, to find a mutual identification, leading to the consolidation of an ambivalent symbolism in works of art in the Andean world. Thus, at the same time, it allowed the maintenance and transmission of religious myths original, resulting in the creation of a precise local iconography. The indigenous culture through the works of art produced by the School of Cuzco, with Mannerism and Baroque managed to fit in with the Western pattern, and through these formal expressions still survives in the nineteenth century, carrying with it the ideals of the cultural effects that were kept alive until today. In general, therefore, we are faced with myths, desires, and American ideas, expressed in a Western language. In the city of Cuzco, even today, some art shops continue to produce beautifully crafted paintings, reproducing and interpreting the classic iconography of the past. The teachers leading the various art workshops, guided groups of artists specialized in a specific part of the work, which eventually leads to the creation of collective works and, therefore, rarely signed. Thus, a responsible prepare the canvas on which you must paint, a different design path, then there are those who prepared the background colors, shadows, the rich flesh tones and golden decorations, and then the work will be supervised final before being considered complete.

Book of contemporary Cusco School Paintings by Riccardo Scotti, Barocco Andino: Arcangeli guerrieri, madonne e dee, santi meticci, Ananke, Torino 2009

Some contemporary Cusco School paintings in Barocco Andino by Riccardo Scotti, Barocco Andino: Arcangeli guerrieri, madonne e dee, santi meticci, Ananke, Torino 2009

***Recently I received some excellent images from Elvin Taca’s studio (including the first image in this entry) and I would like to share them with you!

GREAT photo of the workshop process! (photo courtesy of the artist) www.pinturascusco.galeon.com

Working on a large commisson! (photo courtesy of the artist) www.pinturascusco.galeon.com

Elvin working on a piece. (photo courtresy of the artist) www.pinturascusco.galeon.com

Excellent last supper! (courtesy of the artist) www.pinturascusco.galeon.com

(courtesy of the artist) www.pinturascusco.galeon.com

Another work by the studio (photo courtesy of the artist) www.pinturascusco.galeon.com

Great image of various angels that Elvin's studio has painted (courtesy of the artist) www.pinturascusco.galeon.com