(b. Bordeaux, France, 1907; d. Lima, Peru, 1960).
The work of Ricardo Grau typifies the changing climate of artistic production in Peru after the decline of Indigenism. When Grau arrived in Lima from Paris in 1937, his work was hardly distinguishable from that of other artists of the School of Paris. But from the mid-1940s to the early 1950s he was one of a group of artists, architects, and intellectuals who, in the magazine Agrupación Espacio (Space Grouping), called for a move toward modernism. By the 1960's Grau's work had transformed into abstraction, and his experimentation had made him a forerunner in movements of artistic renewal in Lima. His art was appropriate for the emergent bourgeoisie, who sought to modernize Peru and rejected its traditional culture. Sources:
Edward J. Sullivan, ed. Latin American Art in the Twentieth Century. London: Phaidon Press, 1996. pg. 197.
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