This article, published in the newspaper La Crónica (Lima, 27 December 1975), quotes the opinions expressed by a group of artists shortly after the announcement that Joaquín López Antay, the altarpiece artist from the Andean region of Peru, had been awarded the National Culture Prize. Opinions were divided between those who—like Víctor Delfín, Ernesto Zamalloa, and Alfonso Moreno—agreed with the jury’s decision because they thought it helped to level the playing field between “cultured” art and “popular” art. Those who disagreed with the jury—Juan Manuel Ugarte Eléspuru and Milner Cajahuaringa—did not think the two forms of art could be compared, since handcrafts were anonymous and repetitive, whereas “cultured” art expressed the artist’s personal, transcendent feelings.    

This is the first document that identifies the different positions taken by Peruvian artists in response to the recognition of a traditional (“popular”) artist who was regarded as an “artisan.” The article highlights the opinions expressed by the sculptor and painter Víctor Delfín (b. 1927), an early advocate for obliterating the line that separated “cultured art” from “popular art,” and the painters Juan Manuel Ugarte Eléspuru (1911–2004) and Milner Cajahuaringa (b. 1932), both of whom staunchly championed the difference between “art” and “handcrafts.”

An announcement on December 26, 1975 confirmed that the National Culture Prizes (for the 1973–74 biennium) had been awarded by the Peruvian government through the Instituto Nacional de Cultura to honor the greatest contributions to the development of Peruvian culture. The jury’s decision in the art category (which had traditionally included painting, sculpture, music, and architecture) ignited one of the most heated debates in the history of Peruvian art. The ensuing controversy underscored simmering tensions and suspicions regarding the cultural policies of the revolutionary government of the armed forces led by General Juan Velasco Alvarado (1968–75). This administration claimed to be committed to a progressive agenda, a claim supported mainly by the Agrarian Reform of 1969 which was accompanied by the government’s enthusiastic attempt to glorify the image of the peasant population and lifestyle at the expense of other forms of cultural expression that were considered more “Western.” On this occasion the prize was awarded to Joaquín López Antay (1897–1981), who was chosen over well-known visual artists such as Carlos Quízpez Asín (1900–83) and Teodoro Núñez Ureta (1912–88) and the German-born academic musician Rodolfo Holzmann (1910–92).   

[Regarding this conflict, see the following articles in the ICAA digital archive: by Alfonso Castrillón, Leslie Lee, and Carlos Bernasconi “Fundamentación para el dictamen por mayoría simple a favor del artista popular Joaquín López Antay” (doc. no. 1135896); by Francisco Abril de Vivero, Luis Cossio Marino, and Alberto Dávila “Artistas plásticos cuestionan premio” (doc. no. 1135960); and (anonymous) “‘No todos nos quieren ni en Lima ni en Ayacucho’: así comentó sobre cuestionamiento a premio” (doc. no. 1135930)].