Four special rooms were set aside at the First Inter-American Biennial of Paintings and Prints. The first was devoted to the late Diego Rivera (1886-1957) and represented all his periods. The second room housed the works of José Clemente Orozco (1883-1949), including paintings belonging to the museum of Guadalajara that were completely unknown in Mexico City. Paintings by David Alfaro Siqueiros (1896-1974) were shown in the third room, where the artist exhibited recent works he had painted while traveling in Europe and Asia, in which his new pictorial theories were displayed. The fourth room was to have been devoted to the paintings of Rufino Tamayo (1899-1991), but when he declined the invitation to participate, the works of the Brazilian painter Candido Portinari (1903-62) were shown instead. Tamayo had criticized the cultural policies of the Mexican government ever since 1950, claiming that it did not support the full diversity of pictorial trends. At that time, Tamayo had wanted to be included as one of the "Big Four" and achieved that aim when invited to the Venice Biennale and the International Exhibition of Mexican Art in Paris. But by 1958 he felt sufficiently well established to decline the invitation to an official event on the grounds that, in his opinion, the government only supported socio-political realism. Miguel Álvarez Acosta, the director of the Instituto Nacional de Bellas Artes (1954-58) and Miguel Salas Anzures, head of the Departamento de Artes Plásticas [Visual Arts Department] (1957-1961) of the Instituto Nacional de Bellas Arte y Literatura [National Institute of Fine Arts and Literature] (INBAL) organized the two biennials that were shown at the Museo Nacional de Artes Plásticas (Palacio de Bellas Artes). TheFirst Biennial (June 6 through September 30, 1958) consisted of four exhibition-tributes to José Clemente Orozco (1883-1949), Diego Rivera (1886-1957), David Alfaro Siqueiros (1896-1974), as well as the Brazilian Candido Portinari (1903-62). There was widespread dissatisfaction during this biennial due to the organization and to the meddling with the jury on behalf of the Frente Nacional de Artes Plásticas. On the occasion of the Second Biennial in 1960 many artists, such as José Luis Cuevas (1934-), Francisco Icaza, and Arnold Belkin (1930-92), among others, refused to participate in protest against the incarceration of Siqueiros in Lecumberri, a Mexico City prison. The following countries participated in both biennials: Argentina, Bolivia, Brazil, Canada, Colombia, Costa Rica, Cuba, Chile, Dominican Republic, Ecuador, El Salvador, Guatemala, Haiti, Honduras, Mexico, Panama, Paraguay, Peru, Puerto Rico, United States, and Venezuela. The official and most commonly used name for the Biennial was "Bienal Interamericana de Pintura y Grabado" [Inter-American Biennial of Paintings and Prints], though it was also called "Bienal de Artes Plásticas" [Visual Arts Biennial], and "Bienal Panamericana de Pintura" [Pan-American Biennial of Painting], among other coinages.
