Ricardo Grau

RICARDO GRAU (Bordeaux, France, 1907 – Lima, Peru, 1970).
“Figure,” 1953.
Oil on canvas.
Signed and dated in the upper right corner.
In good condition.

Painted in 1953, this work belongs to one of the most significant periods in the career of Ricardo Grau, a key figure in the renewal of 20th-century Peruvian painting. During these years, the artist developed a personal style that combined the influences of the European avant-garde with references to pre-Columbian cultures, exploring the boundaries between figuration and abstraction.

The composition features a complex interplay of anthropomorphic figures and plant elements, defined by thick, dark outlines and an intense palette of reds, greens, blues, and yellows. The forms intertwine in a space of ambiguous depth, where the fragmentation of volumes and overlapping perspectives reveal the influence of Cubism, while the imaginative freedom of the figures evokes Surrealism. The chromatic richness and the dynamism of the brushstrokes also reflect Grau’s interest in formal synthesis and the expressive resources of pre-Hispanic Peruvian art.

Ricardo Grau studied at the schools of Fine Arts in Brussels and Paris, where he was taught by artists such as André Lhote and Fernand Léger. After returning to Peru in 1937, he played a decisive role in introducing international artistic movements, in contrast to the predominance of Indigenism. He served as director of the National School of Fine Arts in Lima from 1945 to 1949 and participated in the exhibition *The Latin-American Collection of the Museum of Modern Art*, held at MoMA in New York in 1943. His work is represented in institutions such as the Museum of Contemporary Art in Lima and the Museum of Contemporary Art at the University of Chile.