This is a report on the visit of the Andean altarpiece artist Joaquín López Antay—the winner of the 1975 National Culture Prize in the art category—to the INC (Instituto Nacional de Cultura). The report includes his statements as well as those made by Dr. Martha Hildebrandt, who was the director of the institution at the time. López Antay suggests that the prize honors all Peruvian artisans; he applauds the government’s attempts “to reclaim Peruvian culture” and insists that handcrafts are “as transcendent as music, painting, or sculpture,” since there are no differences in art, only specializations. Hildebrandt, for her part, notes that the Prize acknowledges López Antay’s contribution to Peruvian culture and “breaks with the tradition of cultured art, in keeping with the new directions embraced by the government’s cultural policies.” She also has a stern response to the protestations voiced by the painter and former director of the Escuela de Bellas Artes, who does not consider López Antay to be a creator. “Manuel Ugarte Eléspuru is a creator? Can a painter who copies foreign techniques be called a creator? What genre has Manuel Ugarte created?”

Although the INC (Instituto Nacional de Cultura) was in fact dependent on the Ministry of Education, it played a leading role in the development of cultural policy under Martha Hildebrandt’s stewardship during General Juan Velasco Alvarado’s regime. This created friction with groups that were associated with the ASPAP (Asociación Peruana de Artistas Plásticos) [Peruvian Association of Visual Artists] which expressed the greatest outrage over the decision to award the prize to López Antay, as well as other INC initiatives that were considered detrimental to “cultured” art.

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 Alfonso Bermúdez “Premio a López Antay suscita controversias. Unos: consagración del arte popular. Otros: una cosa es arte y otra artesanía” (doc. no. 1135879); 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)].