In this letter from the critic and playwright Edgardo Pérez Luna, he defends his position against the text published by Luís Miró Quesada Garland in his column in El Comercio. The comments by Garland to which the writer refers covered both an exhibition of abstract art by the Frenchman Jean Dewasne and the polemical, nationalist mural executed by Teodoro Núñez Ureta.
October 1954 marked the launch of La construcción del Perú, an allegorical mural executed in the building of the Treasury Department, then called the Ministerio de Hacienda del Perú (now the Ministerio de Economía, Finanzas y Comercio). Created by Teodoro Núñez Ureta (1912–88), the most prolific and celebrated of muralists in Peru, the work was awarded the Ignacio Merino National Painting Prize. Nevertheless, the presentation of the mural gave rise to a significant controversy inevitably linked to the ongoing debate between abstract and figurative art that dominated the 1950s Peruvian art scene. This round began with an article written by Edgardo Pérez Luna (1928–84) praising the work [see the ICAA digital archive, “El mural de Núñez Ureta: un canto al esfuerzo del hombre” (doc. No. 1227007)]. This text was met by an immediate challenge from Luis Miró Quesada Garland (1914–94), the main ideologue of Modern art and architecture in Peru. [“En blanca y negra...” (doc. No. 865020)] However brief, the exchange of opinions set forth what each side considered “transcendent” in an artwork: art for art’s sake (according to Garland) [“Puntos de vista” (doc. No. 1227082)] and the social message that must prevail over aestheticism (according to Pérez Luna) “Puntos de vista” (doc. No. 865197)].