Folk Art of faith.

• Author: Kiernan, James Patrick
• Position: Americas !Ojo!

BEGINNING OCTOBER 3, 2003, the Gallery at the American Bible Society in New York City showcases sixty-six of the most exceptional of the devotional works from the collection of Antonio Fernando Lulli, including retablos (table-top altars), santos (carved-wood figures of saints), sculptures, and carved gourds. All were made in the twentieth century by artisans who were either self-taught or trained as apprentices in traditional workshops. Finding Faith: Folk Art of Peru from the Collection of Antonio Lulli remains on view through December 31, 2003.

"I believe these traditional art forms serve as a road map to my culture," says Ambassador Lulli, an eighty-one-year-old diplomat still in service as cultural advisor to the Mission of Peru to the OAS. "For me, they also have been stepping stones to devotion. This exhibition permits me to honor my country and it folk artists, many of whom are friends from long ago and whose work has accompanied me for many decades."

Ambassador Lulli often acquired works directly from the artist, forming relationships with such masters as Hilario Mendivil and Antonio Olave, both of whom were active in Cuzco in the fifties and sixties.

In Folk Art of Peru, the life of an artisan is affectionately depicted in Nicario Jimenez's wood and polychrome retablo (1986), which depicts a maker of retablos (perhaps Jimenez himself) in a workshop--bent over in labor, woven hat on head, cross in hand, surrounded by more than eleven altars yet to be sold.

Such delight in portraying daily life resulted in hybrid styles and forms unique to Peruvian culture. Some objects in the exhibition refer to the specific natural environment of Peru, as in carved-wood figures depicting the Three Kings mounted on elephant, donkey, and llama. Other artists literally clothe European forms in indigenous garb, as...