Montevideo, 1937. This is the statute that authorizes the Comisión Nacional de Bellas Artes to organize the Primer Salón Nacional de Bellas Artes. The statute addresses all matters concerned with the election of a jury charged with awarding prizes at the Salón and the distribution of said prizes and rewards, as well as other specific bylaws regarding the immigration status of participants and guidelines for works submitted.

The statute that established the Salón de 1937 was the first such statute issued by the Executive Branch of the government of Uruguay. It has been modified over the course of time and is still, to this day, the official regulation that applies to this event. The first statute established three basic sections: Painting, Sculpture, and Prints-Drawing Arts, which affirmed its academic tradition with its disciplinary categories and its classification of different techniques and materials within each discipline. In Article 1, under the heading Salón Nacional de Bellas Artes, the category of “Artes Plásticas” [Visual Arts] has been added in parenthesis, in an attempt to make a distinction between such arts and the other branches of the Fine Arts, music and theater. The statute stipulates that two of the nine members of the jury shall be elected by the participating artists, which means that the remaining members, selected by the Comisión Nacional de Bellas Artes, will be in the majority. The statute was signed by the President of the Republic, Dr. Gabriel Terra (1873–1942), and by the Minister of Public Education, Eduardo Víctor Haedo (1901–70).

[For additional information, see the following texts in the ICAA digital archive: by the Ateneo de Montevideo “1er Salón Independiente de Artes Plásticas [agosto 1937]” (doc. no. 1186701); and issued by the Poder Ejecutivo [Executive Branch], Montevideo, Uruguay, “Decreto del P. E. que instituye la Comisión Nacional de Bellas Artes” (doc. no. 1186589)].