Jorge Eduardo Eielson (April 13, 1924 – March 8, 2006) was a

Peru , image_flag = Flag of Peru.svg , image_coat = Escudo nacional del Perú.svg , other_symbol = Great Seal of the State , other_symbol_type = National seal , national_motto = "Firm and Happy f ...

vian artist and writer. As an artist he is known for his

quipu ''Quipu'' (also spelled ''khipu'') are recording devices fashioned from strings historically used by a number of cultures in the region of Andean South America. A ''quipu'' usually consisted of cotton or camelid fiber strings. The Inca people ...

s, a reinterpretation of an ancient Andean device, they are considered precursors of

conceptual art Conceptual art, also referred to as conceptualism, is art in which the concept(s) or idea(s) involved in the work take precedence over traditional aesthetic, technical, and material concerns. Some works of conceptual art, sometimes called insta ...

Life and career

Eielson was born in

Lima Lima ( ; ), originally founded as Ciudad de Los Reyes (City of The Kings) is the capital and the largest city of Peru. It is located in the valleys of the Chillón, Rímac and Lurín Rivers, in the desert zone of the central coastal part of ...

. His father died when he was seven years old so he was raised by his mother. At a young age he developed artistic tendencies: he played the piano, drew copiously and recited poetry. Eielson switched schools several times until at the end of his secondary education he met the anthropologist and writer

José María Arguedas José María Arguedas Altamirano (18 January 1911 – 2 December 1969) was a Peruvian novelist, poet, and anthropologist. Arguedas was an author of Spanish descent, fluent in the Native Quechua language, gained by living in two Quechua househ ...

who introduced him to the artistic and literary circles of Lima as well as to the knowledge of the ancient civilizations of Peru.Canfield
''Jorge Eielson''
. Retrieved August 3, 2008. Eielson started studies at the

National University of San Marcos The National University of San Marcos ( es, Universidad Nacional Mayor de San Marcos, link=no, UNMSM) is a public research university located in Lima, the capital of Peru. It is considered the most important, recognized and representative educ ...

in 1941. He won the National Poetry Award three years later and the National Drama Award in 1948, when he also held a successful

art exhibition An art exhibition is traditionally the space in which art objects (in the most general sense) meet an audience. The exhibit is universally understood to be for some temporary period unless, as is rarely true, it is stated to be a "permanent exhi ...

at the Lima Gallery . In the same year, he traveled to Paris under a French government scholarship, in that city he exhibited at the Colette Allendy gallery before traveling to Switzerland thanks to a UNESCO scholarship. In 1951, he traveled to Italy for a summer vacation and decided to settle permanently in Rome. During this period he wrote the collection of poems ''Habitación en Roma'' and two novels: ''El cuerpo de Giulia-No'' and ''Primera muerte de María''. In the late 1950s, he abandoned

avant-garde The avant-garde (; In 'advance guard' or ' vanguard', literally 'fore-guard') is a person or work that is experimental, radical, or unorthodox with respect to art, culture, or society.John Picchione, The New Avant-garde in Italy: Theoretical ...

and resorts to using materials such as earth, sand and clay to sculpt in the canvas surface; at first he uses this technique to depict landscapes but gradually moves towards human figures represented through clothing of various kinds. In 1963 he started his first

, reinventing this ancient Andean device with fabrics of brilliant colors, knotted and tied on canvas. Eielson's quipus were exhibited in the 1964

Venice Biennale The Venice Biennale (; it, La Biennale di Venezia) is an international cultural exhibition hosted annually in Venice, Italy by the Biennale Foundation. The biennale has been organised every year since 1895, which makes it the oldest of ...

to wide acclaim. In the mid-1970s, he traveled to Peru where he devoted himself to the study of pre-Columbian art; during this period, the ''Instituto Nacional de Cultura'' (National Institute of Culture) published most of his poetry under the title ''Poesía escrita''. He received a Guggenheim Fellowship in 1978 for a lecture in New York. Written works:Tauro, ''Enciclopedia'', vol. VI, p. 884. ;Poetry * ''Reinos'' (1944) * ''Canción y muerte de Rolando'' (1944 and 1959) * ''Mutatis mutandis'' (1967) * ''Poesía escrita'' (1976) * ''Canto visible'' (1977) * ''Noche oscura del cuerpo'' (1989) ;Novel * ''El cuerpo de Giulia-No'' (1971)

Notes

References

* Bayón, Damián. "Art, c. 1920–c. 1980". In: Leslie Bethell (ed.), ''A cultural history of Latin America''. Cambridge: University of Cambridge, 1998, pp. 393–454. * Canfield, Martha
''Jorge Eielson biography''
* Tauro del Pino, Alberto. ''Enciclopedia Ilustrada del Perú''. Lima: Peisa, 2001.

External links

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{{DEFAULTSORT:Eielson, Jorge 1924 births 2006 deaths Peruvian LGBT artists Peruvian LGBT poets 20th-century Peruvian poets Peruvian male poets 20th-century male writers Peruvian expatriates in Italy 20th-century Peruvian LGBT people