Fernando De Szyszlo Valdelomar is a Peruvian artist who is a key figure in advancing abstract art in Latin America since the mid-1950s, and one of the leading plastic artists in Peru.

Szyszlo studied at the School of Plastic Arts of the Pontifical Catholic University of Peru. At the age of 24 he traveled to Europe where he studied the works of the masters, particularly Rembrandt, Titian and Tintoretto, and absorbed the varied influences of cubism, surrealism, informalism, and abstraction.

While in Paris he met Octavio Paz and André Breton and frequented the group of writers and intellectuals that met regularly at the Cafe Flore engaging in vigorous discussions on how they could participate in the international modern movement...