This article was published on November 12, 1977 in the Lima newspaper La Prensa. It contains several quotes from the letter written by Oscar P. Landman, the President of the Fundação Bienal de São Paulo to the INC (Instituto Nacional de Cultura del Perú), praising Peru for its contribution—consisting of a collection of folk art—to the 1977 XIV Bienal de São Paulo. Landman mentions “the great success” of the works and the number of daily visitors (“from 2500 to 3000 people”). On the subject of the protests against the INC for not having sent works by “fine artists” to participate in other sectors of the biennial, Landman argues that “the regulations called for salons devoted specifically to showing retrospectives and folk art” and that “of course major Peruvian artists will show their work at the next Latin American Biennale in 1978.”

In 1977, a collection of folk art was sent to the XIV Bienal de São Paulo as Peru’s sole contribution to the event. The biennial’s organizing committee had invited Peru to participate as part of the “Anthological Exhibitions,” one of the event’s three sections, whose objective, according to the rules, was to show works that would “reflect a participant’s cultural and artistic past” through works by a recognized artist or a collection of works from a particular movement, period, or place.” [XIV Bienal Internacional de São Paulo (São Paulo: Prefeitura do Municipio, Governo do Estado, Governo Federal, 1977), pp. 3 y 8]. In Peru, however, it was thought that the INC (Instituto Nacional de Cultura del Perú) had specified the nature of the shipment. This misunderstanding revived the controversy that had arisen in late 1975 when the same Peruvian institution granted the art prize or Premio Nacional de Cultura to the folk artist Joaquín López Antay (1897−1981), a retablista who created traditional altarpieces. What happened in the case of the São Paulo biennial once again prompted a group of “highbrow” visual artists (or those with greatest access to the market) to air their complaints, on the grounds that the so-called “arts and crafts” were not real works of art and that the INC was blocking the development of true art.

[Regarding this Brazilian event, please see the following texts in the ICAA digital archive: 

“Protesta contra INC manifiestan plásticos” (no author) (doc. no. 855211); “Perú: a presença da arte popular” by Leslie Lee (doc. no. 857190); “Populismo inframarxista” (doc. no. 855232) and “¿Autenticidad o exotismo?” (doc. no. 855918), both by Francisco Abril de Vivero; “Humillados y ofendidos” by Ismael Pinto (doc. no. 855252); “El Perú en la Bienal de Sao Paulo” by Jorge Caillaux (doc. no. 855937); “Arte popular peruano en Sao Paulo” by Alfonso de la Torre [Seymour] (doc. no. 855899); and “Arte popular do Peru: 14a. Bienal Internacional de Sao Paulo ’77” (no author) (doc. no. 857172)].