Puka Wamani

The work of Fernando de Szyszlo represents the most coherent attempt to give abstraction, generally considered an international language, a local expression. Puka Wamani, from the series of the same name (1966-1969), is one of his most characteristic works, in which the evocations of claws and fangs, or of archetypal images such as the circle, are endowed with magical allusions. The forms are defined through textures loaded with pigment that are fully integrated via an atmosphere created with transparencies and effects of light. Inspired in Quechua poetry, or in epic local history, Szyszlo’s work was transformed into a paradigm of that tendency which the Colombian critic Marta Traba defined as an “art of resistance”; mid-way between the dangers of cultural colonialism and folkloric nationalism. The title evokes the culture of the Andean world, but does not limit the work to a single interpretation. In this way, the emblematic character of the forms is highlighted for, although they are defined, cannot be read literally. (NM)