# Peruvian Indigenista Graphics (Amauta and Neo-Peruvian Design)

> The woodcut-led print graphics of Peru's indigenist movement, in which the Andean face and pre-Columbian ornament stand for a modern Peruvian nation. Sabogal's Amauta covers set one carved head, cut in heavy black masses, under blunt capitals on cheap newsprint. His woodcuts drew in part on the engraved gourds (mates burilados) of the central highlands. Elena Izcue flattened ancient textile and ceramic motifs into repeats and borders for schools, print and cloth. Her strand is drawn and printed or woven, not cut in wood. The tone exalts Indigenous culture more than it denounces injustice.

- Period: 1923–1945
- Where: Latin America & Caribbean
- Origin: Lima. José Sabogal, the painter who led Peru's indigenist movement, published his first woodcut in a magazine, in Mundial in November 1923 (woodcut illustrations made from his drawings had already appeared in Ruzo's El atrio de las lámparas, 1922), after a trip to Mexico in which he met Rivera, Orozco and Siqueiros. He then proposed the name of José Carlos Mariátegui's magazine Amauta (32 issues, September 1926 to 1930) and set its graphic identity, logotype and covers, with covers by his former student Julia Codesido while he was away in 1928. In parallel Elena Izcue, also a former student of his, turned pre-Columbian motifs into a modern design vocabulary in her drawing manual El arte peruano en la escuela (Paris, 1926) and in textile designs made in Paris from 1927 to 1938. The end date marks Sabogal's books on Andean popular art (Mates burilados, 1945).
- Branch: Avant-garde
- Also known as: Indigenismo graphics, Amauta covers, Arte neoperuano, Peruvian indigenist woodcut
- Page: https://stylogeny.com/styles/peruvian-indigenista-graphics/

## Use it with care

This is an image of Indigenous Andeans made largely by non-Indigenous artists in Lima: Sabogal was of Spanish descent, and the movement exalted an idealised 'indio' as a national symbol rather than speaking for living Quechua and Aymara people, who were at the same time fighting gamonalismo and land seizures. Amauta did print a Boletín de Defensa Indígena on these struggles, but its imagery idealised rather than represented them. Do not reuse its stern Indigenous heads as a shorthand for 'Peruvian' or 'ancient', and do not lift pre-Columbian or living textile motifs onto products as generic 'Inca pattern'. Name the source culture of archaeological motifs (Izcue drew largely on Nazca ceramics and Paracas or Chancay weaving, and the Paracas textiles came from an excavated coastal necropolis). When working with Andean subjects or motifs today, involve Quechua and Aymara artists and weaving communities, credit and pay them, and name where each motif comes from.

## How it works

- Put one carved image on the cover: a solemn Andean head or figure, centred and alone, with no scene around it.
- Cut the figure in heavy black masses and let contours dissolve into high contrast, without modelling or perspective.
- Take the mark-making of Andean popular craft, such as the engraved lines of mates burilados, into the woodblock instead of copying academic drawing.
- Set the title in pared-down block capitals and keep the layout blocky and frontal.
- Turn pre-Columbian textile and ceramic motifs into flat, symmetric repeats, borders and vignettes that a schoolchild or a printer can draw again.
- Print in black, or black and one colour, on plain paper, so the magazine stays cheap and the woodcut carries the weight.

## Its design choices

Defining choices make the style, characteristic ones are usual, occasional ones turn up now and then.

### Layout & composition
- [Central symmetry](https://stylogeny.com/design-choices/central-symmetry/) (characteristic)
- [Framed panels](https://stylogeny.com/design-choices/framed-panels/) (characteristic)
- [Isolated object](https://stylogeny.com/design-choices/isolated-object/) (characteristic)
- [Classical text block](https://stylogeny.com/design-choices/classical-text-block/) (occasional)
- [All-over field](https://stylogeny.com/design-choices/all-over-field/) (occasional)

### Space & hierarchy
- [Single focal point](https://stylogeny.com/design-choices/single-focal-point/) (defining)
- [Measured density](https://stylogeny.com/design-choices/measured-density/) (characteristic)
- [Repetition & rhythm](https://stylogeny.com/design-choices/repetition-and-rhythm/) (characteristic)
- [Extreme scale contrast](https://stylogeny.com/design-choices/extreme-scale-contrast/) (occasional)

### Typography
- [All caps](https://stylogeny.com/design-choices/all-caps/) (defining)
- [Hand-lettering](https://stylogeny.com/design-choices/hand-lettering/) (characteristic)
- [Ornamented display](https://stylogeny.com/design-choices/ornamented-display/) (occasional)
- [Grotesque & neo-grotesque](https://stylogeny.com/design-choices/grotesque-and-neo-grotesque/) (occasional)

### Colour
- [Monochrome](https://stylogeny.com/design-choices/monochrome/) (defining)
- [Limited spot colours](https://stylogeny.com/design-choices/limited-spot-colours/) (characteristic)
- [Earth & mineral](https://stylogeny.com/design-choices/earth-and-mineral/) (characteristic)
- [Flat fields](https://stylogeny.com/design-choices/flat-fields/) (characteristic)
- [Light ground](https://stylogeny.com/design-choices/light-ground/) (characteristic)

### Form & shape
- [Stylised figuration](https://stylogeny.com/design-choices/stylised-figuration/) (defining)
- [Angular & zigzag](https://stylogeny.com/design-choices/angular-and-zigzag/) (characteristic)
- [Rectilinear](https://stylogeny.com/design-choices/rectilinear/) (occasional)
- [Non-representational](https://stylogeny.com/design-choices/non-representational/) (occasional)
- [Distortion & exaggeration](https://stylogeny.com/design-choices/distortion-and-exaggeration/) (occasional)

### Surface & texture
- [Carved line](https://stylogeny.com/design-choices/carved-line/) (defining)
- [Paper & letterpress bite](https://stylogeny.com/design-choices/paper-and-letterpress-bite/) (characteristic)
- [Flat](https://stylogeny.com/design-choices/flat/) (occasional)

### Ornament
- [Folk & sacred symbols](https://stylogeny.com/design-choices/folk-and-sacred-symbols/) (defining)
- [Geometric tessellation](https://stylogeny.com/design-choices/geometric-tessellation/) (characteristic)
- [Borders & frames](https://stylogeny.com/design-choices/borders-and-frames/) (characteristic)
- [Restrained accents](https://stylogeny.com/design-choices/restrained-accents/) (characteristic)

### Imagery
- [Line illustration](https://stylogeny.com/design-choices/line-illustration/) (defining)
- [Pattern & repeat](https://stylogeny.com/design-choices/pattern-and-repeat/) (characteristic)
- [Painterly illustration](https://stylogeny.com/design-choices/painterly-illustration/) (occasional)

### Medium & production
- [Woodblock & linocut](https://stylogeny.com/design-choices/woodblock-and-linocut/) (defining)
- [Letterpress](https://stylogeny.com/design-choices/letterpress/) (characteristic)
- [Pen, brush & ink](https://stylogeny.com/design-choices/pen-brush-and-ink/) (occasional)
- [Textile & craft](https://stylogeny.com/design-choices/textile-and-craft/) (occasional)

### Tone & intent
- [Utopian & idealistic](https://stylogeny.com/design-choices/utopian-and-idealistic/) (characteristic)
- [Romantic & sensual](https://stylogeny.com/design-choices/romantic-and-sensual/) (characteristic)
- [Nostalgic & retro](https://stylogeny.com/design-choices/nostalgic-and-retro/) (characteristic)
- [Authoritative & institutional](https://stylogeny.com/design-choices/authoritative-and-institutional/) (occasional)
- [Spiritual & sacred](https://stylogeny.com/design-choices/spiritual-and-sacred/) (occasional)
- [Agitational & persuasive](https://stylogeny.com/design-choices/agitational-and-persuasive/) (occasional)
- [Communal & popular](https://stylogeny.com/design-choices/communal-and-popular/) (occasional)

Avoids: Technological & futurist, Ironic & self-aware, Diagonal axis, Visual tension, Photomontage, Straight photography, Gradients, Gloss & highlights, Whiplash line, Playful & witty

Palette: #e9dfc6, #1b1814, #a3352b, #c08b3e, #6a4a30

Typefaces: Sabogal's pared-down, hand-drawn block capitals for the Amauta logotype and cover titles, Lettering cut into the woodblock with the image, as on indigenist book and magazine woodcuts, Jobbing letterpress text type of Lima print shops such as the Imprenta Minerva, which printed Amauta (Sabogal in 1931 urged Cunan's editors to vary type he called 'bien vulgar'), Stepped, grid-built letters and signs drawn from pre-Columbian textile motifs, as in Izcue's school drawing plates

Known for: José Sabogal, cover of Amauta no. 1 (Lima, September 1926): the head of an Indigenous man, which became the magazine's recurring sigil; José Sabogal, cover of Amauta vol. 4, no. 26 (September–October 1929), Archivo José Carlos Mariátegui, Lima; Julia Codesido, Amauta covers made while Sabogal was travelling (May–November 1928); José Sabogal, woodcuts for María Wiesse's novel Nocturnos (Lima, 1925): small blocks of about 9 × 11 cm in which contour lines dissolve into high-contrast masses; Elena Izcue, El arte peruano en la escuela / L'art péruvien à l'école / Peruvian art in the school (Paris: Editorial Excelsior, 1926, with a second volume in 1929), a trilingual drawing manual built on pre-Columbian motifs; Elena Izcue, cover of La Escuela Moderna (1914) using pre-Columbian elements, an early sign of the style; Regional Peruvian magazines of the 1920s whose woodcut style Sabogal's work helped shape: Kosko, Kuntur, Boletín Titikaka and Cunan; Redes de vanguardia: Amauta y América Latina, 1926–1930, exhibition by the Museo de Arte de Lima and the Blanton Museum of Art (Madrid, Lima, Mexico City and Austin, 2019–2020), with a projection of all 32 Amauta covers

## Where it comes from, and what it’s close to

- Influenced by: [Expressionist Woodcut Graphics](https://stylogeny.com/styles/expressionist-graphics.md) (1905–1925)
- Influenced by: [Andean Woven Graphic Systems](https://stylogeny.com/styles/andean-woven-graphics.md) (c. 600–present)
- Influenced by: [Art Deco](https://stylogeny.com/styles/art-deco.md) (1910–1939)
- Alike in its design choices: [Literatura de Cordel Woodcut](https://stylogeny.com/styles/cordel-woodcut.md) (1940–present), 77% alike
- Alike in its design choices: [Norwegian and Finnish National Romantic Graphics (Munthe & Karelianism)](https://stylogeny.com/styles/nordic-national-romanticism.md) (1880–1922), 74% alike
- Alike in its design choices: [Rorke's Drift Linocut](https://stylogeny.com/styles/rorkes-drift-print.md) (1962–1982), 68% alike
- Alike in its design choices: [Celtic Revival Illumination & Lettering](https://stylogeny.com/styles/celtic-revival.md) (1861–1951), 66% alike
- Alike in its design choices: [Tibetan Woodblock Print Culture (Pecha & Prayer Flags)](https://stylogeny.com/styles/tibetan-woodblock-print.md) (c. 1410–present), 64% alike
- Alike in its design choices: [Tarot de Marseille Woodcut Cards](https://stylogeny.com/styles/tarot-de-marseille.md) (1639–present), 64% alike

## Sources

- Museo Nacional Centro de Arte Reina Sofía, press dossier 'Redes de vanguardia: Amauta y América Latina, 1926-1930' (19 February – 27 May 2019; organised by MALI and the Blanton Museum of Art; curators Beverly Adams and Natalia Majluf), https://recursos.museoreinasofia.es/descargas/Documento/dossier_redes_de_vanguardia._amauta.pdf (Sabogal proposed the name and 'había establecido su identidad gráfica'; Camilo Blas and Julia Codesido; exaltation of Indigenous culture 'antes que en la denuncia social'; woodcut chosen for 'sus asociaciones primitivistas y su sencillez formal'; Sabogal's woodcuts, partly inspired by mates burilados, shaped Kosko, Kuntur, Boletín Titikaka and Cunan; Izcue's drawing method; projection of the 32 covers; tour to Lima, Mexico City and Austin; Sabogal, in Mexico around 1922, introduced the Guadalajara artists to woodcut)
- Claudia Catherine Valenzuela Suárez, 'Los grabados de José Sabogal en libros y revistas: aportes al diseño gráfico peruano a inicios del siglo XX', A&D (PUCP), no. 9, 2022, https://doi.org/10.18800/ayd.202201.002 (first woodcut in Mundial, November 1923; Nocturnos 1925 woodcuts c. 9 x 11 cm with dissolving contours and high contrast; earlier woodcut illustrations from his drawings for Ruzo's El atrio de las lámparas, 1922, cut by an outside workshop; Sabogal set Amauta's 'línea gráfica, el logotipo' and chose cover images; 1931 letter to Pantigoso on Cunan's type)
- Wikipedia (es), 'Amauta (revista)', https://es.wikipedia.org/wiki/Amauta_(revista) (September 1926 to 1930, 32 issues; Sabogal designed the first cover and graphic programme; Codesido covers May–November 1928; print run 3,500–4,000)
- 'Fisonomía bibliográfica de Amauta', in 'Amauta y su influencia', Obras completas de José Carlos Mariátegui (editors' note), https://www.marxists.org/espanol/mariateg/oc/amauta/paginas/fisonomia.htm (cover 'siempre ilustrada con dibujos de José Sabogal'; formats 35 x 25.5 cm for nos. 1-16, then 25 x 17.5 cm; regular edition on 'papel de periódico', 100 copies on papel Snov; printed at the Imprenta Minerva; Boletín de Defensa Indígena, 'El proceso del gamonalismo', from no. 5)
- Hyperallergic, 'An Avant-Garde Magazine That Promoted the Indigenism Movement' (on The Avant-Garde Networks of Amauta at the Blanton Museum of Art), https://hyperallergic.com/543985/the-avant-garde-networks-of-amauta-blanton-museum-of-art/ (cover head after Sabogal's 1925 painting Varayoc; 'rough-hewn, figurative woodcut prints'; 'pared down title fonts and blocky layouts'; Amauta no. 26 cover, Archivo José Carlos Mariátegui)
- The Public Domain Review, 'Peruvianizing Peru: Covers from Amauta Magazine (1926–30)', https://publicdomainreview.org/collection/amauta-covers/ (Sabogal made most of the covers; the first-issue head 'would become, in time, a kind of sigil')
- Wikipedia, 'José Sabogal', https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jos%C3%A9_Sabogal (1888–1956; leader of Peruvian indigenism, of Spanish descent; 1922 Mexico trip; taught at the Escuela Nacional de Bellas Artes from 1920 and directed it 1932–1943; Mates burilados, 1945)
- Wikipedia, 'Elena Izcue', https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Elena_Izcue (1889–1970; La Escuela Moderna cover, 1914, with pre-Columbian elements; studied under Sabogal; El arte peruano en la escuela, Paris, Editorial Excelsior, 1926 and 1929)
- Transatlantic Encounters (RRCHNM), 'Izcue, Elena', https://www.transatlanticencounters.rrchnm.org/items/show/5249 (in Paris 1927–1938; textile design; trilingual title of El arte peruano en la escuela, 1926; 'Incorporated pre-Columbian motifs in her work')
- The Public Domain Review, 'Drawing on Tradition: Elena Izcue's Peruvian Art in the School (1926)', https://publicdomainreview.org/collection/peruvian-art-in-the-school/ (mice 'inspired by Nazca ceramics'; a feline that 'resembles figures from Paracas or Chancay weaving'; most designs from cultures earlier than the Inca; Tello's excavation of Paracas textiles at a coastal necropolis)
- Natalia Majluf and Luis Eduardo Wuffarden, Elena Izcue: El arte precolombino en la vida moderna (Lima: Museo de Arte de Lima, 1999)

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From Stylogeny (https://stylogeny.com/), an atlas of graphic-design styles by Van Riel Online Services. How it is made: https://stylogeny.com/about/. Cite as: Stylogeny, “Peruvian Indigenista Graphics (Amauta and Neo-Peruvian Design)”, https://stylogeny.com/styles/peruvian-indigenista-graphics/