The Eunuchs of War XII

From his first controversial exhibition in 1969, which confirmed a return to figurative painting in Peru, the work of José Tola has influenced the development of pictorial expressionism in Lima. Initially characterized by a meticulous and perfectionist style, with which he depicted deformed or clearly marginalized individuals, by the mid-1980s Tola’s figurative expressionism had developed towards much simpler forms. In The Eunuchs of War XII, the use of cut-out supports enables him to free the figure from the constriction of the frame. The figure outlined in this work appears to form itself, as if it were self-generated; it does not inhabit it own space but instead invades ours with its presence. In this type of piece, Tola manages to evade and transcend the ease of expressionist gesture by forging figures whose actual forms evoke anguish. In this way, The Eunuchs of War XII dispenses with references to, or evocations of, actual situations while, nevertheless, transforming itself into one of the most precise commentaries on the crisis of the individual in the context of the social violence that defined the 1980s in Peru. (NM)