Erotica and Peruvian Art
It is a fact possibly not so well known in Peru, or at least not acknowledged that one of the countries most recognized artists works were those of an erotic pin-up artists named Alberto Vargas who was born 9 February 1896 and lived to the ripe age of 86 years, dying on 30 December 1982. He was the son of noted Peruvian photographer Max T. Vargas. He is often considered one of the most famous of the pin-up artists. Numerous Vargas paintings have sold and continue to sell for hundreds of thousands of dollars. Vargas was born in Arequipa, Peru, Joaquin Alberto Vargas moved to the United States in 1916 after studying art in Europe in Zurich and Geneva prior to World War I. While he was in Europe he came upon the French magazine La Vie Parisienne, with a cover by Raphael Kirchner, which he said was a great influence on his work.
His early career in New York included work as an artist for the Ziegfeld Follies and for many Hollywood studios. Ziegfeld hung his painting of Olive Thomas at the theater, and she was thought of as one of the earliest Vargas Girls. Vargas' most famous piece of film work was for the poster of the 1933 film The Sin of Nora Moran, which shows a near-naked Zita Johann in a pose of desperation. The poster is frequently named one of the greatest movie posters ever made.
As a master of the erotic genre, Vargas has surpassed all but he was not the first to adopt this art form as a means of expression, and certainly not the first Peruvian. The Moche civilization flourished in northern Peru with its capital near present-day Moche and Trujillo, from about 100 AD to 800 AD. They had a highly advanced culture and artistic tradition. One of the aspects of Moche art was a preponderance of erotic ceramic pieces. I would assume because of the amount of ceramics that have survived that possibly these art forms existed in other materials less durable to the ravishes of time. These Peruvians celebrated life and sexuality without the restraints placed on Christian cultures. They embraced their humanity in a way that expressed human existence as part of nature, and sex as a natural aspect of the natural world. Other cultures throughout human history have, before being influenced by the in-humanistic codes of Christianity, with its loathing for anything previous and its all too moralistic human constructs of what is right and wrong also had strong traditions of artistic uninhibited expression.
Sex was less inhibited in ancient Pompeii than it is today in most countries. There were few prohibitions and sex was just one aspect, albeit a very significant one, of human nature. The motto in Pompeii, which could be found on the erotic art and walls, drinking vessels, as well as plaques, read "enjoy life while you can for tomorrow is uncertain". Sex ranked as a great way to enjoy oneself and others, and while the stereotypical Roman orgies were most likely not part of daily life, certainly sex was acceptable, practiced, and celebrated. Sex was a completely normal and fulfilling experiencing in Pompeii, and most of what we know about the eroticism that took place there was left on the walls and can be seen in the many sculptures that were recovered. The fact is that there are no cultures in the world that do not have some tradition of the celebration of sex as a normal and intrinsic part of society and the natural cycles of life, except the misconceived notions propagated by Christianity. It is my opinion that Christianity has caused more hardship, more strife, death, and suffering throughout history and than all the wars of the world combined.
César Moro is the pseudonym of Alfredo Quíspez Asín, a Peruvian poet and painter. He traveled to Paris in 1925 and most of his poetic works are written in French. Born Alfredo Quíspez Asín in Lima, Peru, he changed his name to César Moro at the age of 20 after a character by author Ramón Gómez de la Serna. Having studied French in Lima, Moro left for Paris in 1925 to pursue dance and art, but art and poetry became his main interests, and he exhibited in collective shows in Brussels in 1926 and in Paris in 1927. He entered into the exchange of ideas and art with the likes of André Breton, Paul éluard, Benjamin Péret, and, outside the surrealist group, Henri and Simone Jannot. During his “scandalous life”, he met and influenced many in the literary and art worlds.
At a time when the surrealists were developing their doctrines, he was a great influence. He remained so until his homosexuality came to light and he was ostracized by Andre Breton. Previous to this split he had contributed to André Breton’s surrealist journals of the 1920s and ’30s. Despite his relocation to Paris, Moro continued to publish in Latin America, including in the Peruvian periodical Amauta no. 14 (April 1928), which printed “Oráculo” (“Oracle”), “Infancia” (“Childhood”), and “Following you around.” In France he published a1933 anti-war manifesto “La mobilisation contre la guerre n’est pas la paix” and added a note condemning Peruvian dictator Sánchez Cerro’s bloody suppression of an uprising by sailors against poor nutrition and cruel discipline.
After his return to Lima in 1934, Moro continued to write against those in power. The police of dictator óscar Benavides entered Moro’s home and confiscated copies of his clandestine pamphlet CADRE (Comité de Apoyo a la Repúbica Espa?ola [Support Committee of the Spanish Republic]), which supported the Spanish Republic. Finally, in 1938, he was forced to flee Peru as a result of police harassment.
Peruvian painter Johnny Palacios Hidalgo [1970] was born in Lima, Peru and studied art between 1988-1998 in the National Art Museum and the National School of Fine Arts. He is another artist who has found his influences in the erotic and surreal genres of art. As a contemporary Peruvian artist, it is my opinion that he is technically one of the finest painters today in this genre.
"I'm trying to delve a little deeper into my technique, trying to find more details in the hyperrealism in order to get and give more credence to the ideas that I raise, they are fantasies, surrealism, ideas of an alternate world, different, parallel and ideal. The characters' work remains the same street characters to which I try to assign my own fantasies as if they were of them. "he said in an interview to the environment" THE SPOKESMAN "in August 2008.
He uses typically Peruvian iconography and personal symbology to create images of exquisite lightness. His has been influenced by Dali and his style evokes that of the great master of surrealism.
"The characters and my scenes are all together and are part of the same story, the same theater. Each artist has different styles, but in me is also the scenery, the facade, and floor. Salvador Dalí brought me back to my early days. I nourished his style, its fantastic images and started that way-not as now using more color. The color is currently more subdued because it is the relationship that I have in my environment, in Lima, which is more subdued. " (E12 STAGE, June 2003)
Will erotic art ever lose its luster in the minds of humans? I think not as long as humans have mines and are self-aware because sexuality and erotica have always been and will always be a part of human nature. They are a part of what it means to be human. These aspects of humanity and nature should be celebrated not only in our art but in our lives! To deny our sexuality is to deny our natural place within the cosmos!