Jorge Eduardo Eielson (1924 Lima, Peru – 2006 Milan, Italy) was a Peruvian poet and visual artist, internationally recognized for his innovative approach to form, material, and communication.
Eielson left Peru at the age of 24 after receiving a scholarship in literature, settling permanently in Europe. There, he established connections with leading figures of contemporary art, including Lucio Fontana, Alberto Burri, Piero Dorazio, Raymond Hains, Mimmo Rotella, Emilio Vedova, Joseph Beuys, Daniel Buren, Kenneth Noland, and Bruce Nauman. These encounters deeply influenced the development of his unique visual language. In 1970, he moved to Rome, further refining his artistic practice while remaining engaged with both European and Latin American avant-garde circles.
Since his youth, Eielson demonstrated a natural aptitude for the arts, producing a versatile oeuvre spanning painting, sculpture, performance, and installation. He is best known for his Quipus series, begun in 1963 and pursued over four decades. Inspired by the pre-Columbian Incan quipus—ancient knotted record-keeping devices—Eielson’s Quipus translate language into material form. Raw canvas is stretched, twisted, knotted, and painted in monochrome or polychrome bands; each knot, color, and intersection encodes meaning, transforming the flat surface into a three-dimensional structure rich with symbolic and linguistic depth. This approach culminates in his Nodos, works in which tension and torsion create dynamic interactions of space, material, and meaning.
Eielson’s work bridges his Peruvian heritage with the international avant-garde. He emerged as part of Peru’s “Generation 1950” before relocating to Europe, where he continued to innovate and gain recognition. Throughout his career, he participated in four Venice Biennales (1964, 1966, 1972, 1988) and Documenta V (1972). His work has been widely exhibited internationally and is held in major collections, including the Museum of Modern Art, New York; the Museo de Arte de Lima, Peru; the Rockefeller Collection, New York; and the Blanton Museum of Art, Texas.
A major retrospective of his work was organized in 2017–2018 at the Museo de Arte de Lima, reaffirming his legacy as one of Latin America’s most innovative and internationally engaged artists. Eielson died in Milan in 2006, leaving a profound impact on contemporary art through his poetic, sculptural, and performative explorations of material, space, and meaning.
For information on available works by the artist, please contact the gallery.