ABSTRACT
This chapter focuses on Gomez Sicre's collection and exhibition of abstract painting from the Andes in the 1950s and 1960s. Andean artists combined variants of European and North American abstraction, with an exploration of the aesthetics of popular and pre-Columbian art forms to create a unique interpretation of the trend that reflected their environment and cultural circumstances. While judging from the cover image there was little apparent visual connection between the paintings on display and Andean forms or narratives, author of the text for Szyszlo's exhibition brochure, saw in them the "tragic grandeur" of Andean legends. In the context of the Cold War, as an employee of a US based organization, had to assure the public that his agenda corresponded with US values. Andean artists' turn to pre-Columbian and popular art as source material served as a means to differentiate their work from that of their European and North American counterparts while still creating in the "universal" language of abstraction.
