This text was written by Félix Nakamura for the catalogue for the exhibition Los pintores de Sarhua, that took place at the Huamanqaqa Gallery in Lima in 1977. Nakamura provides an account of his visit to the workshop operated by the artists Víctor Yucra Felices, Primitivo Evanán Poma, and Juan Quispe Michue, who would later relocate to the Pueblo Joven shantytown in the Chorrillos neighborhood in Lima. The author indicates that this is where, “with patience seasoned with centuries of wisdom, they produce their increasingly well-known painted boards or quelcas.” He also explains the iconography of the boards and their original function in Sarhua; in the village, “after building their house or putting a roof on it, families would receive quelcas from friends and relatives. The 7 or 9 spaces on the boards showed the sun and the moon, catholic saints, and each member of the family engaged in their habitual customs or chores.” The painted boards were then placed on the ceiling of the most important room in the house. Nakamura also provides information about the artists participating in the exhibition: Yucra began painting as a child and later migrated to Lima where he made a living selling vegetables. There he met Evanan, who was a school janitor and who also knew how to create quelcas. “They decided to work together ‘to shed light on who we are, our culture, and the problems we have had and are still confronting.’” Since 1975 they have been exhibiting their works, “to the surprise and admiration of connoisseurs of contemporary Andean art.” They have subsequently taught their craft to younger artists from Sarhua, and brought them into the workshop, as in the case of Quispe. Nakamura notes that “the path they chose to raise awareness of ‘the culture of Sarhua’ is hard and risky, incredible and wonderful, not only in terms of their survival, but also to prevent the city from ‘continuing to invade the countryside and impose its tastes’ (Pablo Macera).”

This essay was written by the Peruvian journalist, researcher, and photographer Félix Nakamura (b. 1938) for the catalogue for the exhibition Los pintores de Sarhua. It reflects the broad interest in the so-called wooden boards from Sarhua and the bibliography they have generated since they were first exhibited in Lima in 1975. The Sarhua quelcas were painted wooden boards that were originally created in the Andean community of Sarhua, in the Department of Ayacucho, in the mountainous region of Central-Southern Peru, when a new house was built and the roof was put on. The godparents would give the owners of the new house a painted beam, showing the members of the family engaged in their everyday activities. The boards thus became symbols that associated the family’s genealogy with community activities and religious symbolism. 

During the 1960s, however, initially due to major economic difficulties and then to the political violence affecting the area, many people from Sarhua (Sarhuinos) migrated to the city of Lima to do all kinds of jobs. In this context, two artists from Sarhua, Primitivo Evanán Poma (b. 1944) and Victor Yucra (1940-91), organized a workshop that, in 1985 became the ADAPS Association whose goal was to produce Sarhua painted boards in Lima. They had their first exhibition in 1975 at the Huamanqaqa Gallery in Lima, directed by the collector Raúl Apesteguía (1927–96). New versions of the traditional boards were exhibited, and later, in order to adapt them to an urban market, they changed the format, the materials, and the iconography, to include costumbrista motifs that reflected their local daily lives. In so doing they gave free rein to a different kind of creativity that was no longer connected to the social ritual for which the quelcas were originally produced.

The painted boards of Sarhua therefore became an example of the sort of traditional art that, due to social changes that affected its creators, evolved into a different art form. They are usually classified as  “folk or popular art,” a term that has been used—often in discriminatory ways—to refer to all kinds of things that are not considered part of the official art system. This has prompted a series of important debates in the Peruvian art milieu, especially since the 1970s. See the documents relating to the controversy surrounding the retablista or altarpiece craftsman Joaquín López Antay (1897−1981).

[Regarding this controversy and the ensuing debate, see the following documents in the ICAA digital archive: “Fundamentación para el dictamen por mayoría simple a favor del artista popular Joaquín López Antay” by Alfonso Castrillón, Leslie Lee, and Carlos Bernasconi (doc. no. 1135896); “Premio a López Antay suscita controversias: unos: consagración del arte popular. Otros: una cosa es arte y otra artesanía” by Alfonso Bermúdez (doc. no. 1135879); “Artistas plásticos cuestionan premio” by Francisco Abril de Vivero, Luis Cossio Marino, and Alberto Dávila (doc. no. 1135960); and “No todos nos quieren ni en Lima ni en Ayacucho’: así comentó sobre cuestionamiento a premio (…)” (no author) (doc. no. 1135930)].

[For additional reading, see the following texts in the ICAA digital archive: “Las tablas pintadas de Sarhua” by Pablo Macera (doc. no. 1140935); “Hacen Quelcas” by Nilo Espinoza Haro (doc. no. 1140967); “Las quelcas de Sarhua” by Mario Razzeto (doc. no. 1140999); and “Las quelcas de Sarhua” by José R. Sabogal Wiesse (doc. no. 1140983)].