Peru’s government has appointed renowned artist Fernando de Szyszlo as the new president of the commission for the Memory Museum, daily El Comercio reported.
Szyszlo takes on the post following the resignation of Peruvian novelist Mario Vargas Llosa from the position in September. Vargas Llosa resigned in protest of an executive decree that was widely seen as a defacto amnesty for Peruvian military men accused of human rights violations. The decree was later repealed.
The museum is to honor the 70,000 people that died during the 20 years of political violence in Peru between the Maoist Shining Path insurgents and government security forces.
Szyszlo was born in Lima in 1925 and studied at the Catholic University’s School of Plastic Arts. After returning to Peru after traveling at age 24 to Europe, where he studied Rembrandt, Titian and Tintoretto, Szyszlo became an important Peruvian artist through non-representational style.
In 1947, Szyszlo held his first solo exhibit in Lima and since then has had more than 100 individual exhibitions in Latin America, Europe and the United States. He has been a key figure in advancing abstract art in Latin America.
