Documents of Latin American and Latino Art

This was the first time a national publication—the Lima newspaper El Comercio—had published the guidelines for the Festivales de Lima, an event of great importance in Latin America that took place in October and November 1966. The event consisted [...]

To provide context for non-object art in Peru, researcher Hugo Salazar del Alcázar briefly cites theorist Juan Acha. Salazar del Alcázar is critical, however, in his description of a scene that in no way partakes of the avant-garde enthusiasm Acha [...]

Gustavo Buntinx interviews Claudia Polar, the director of the Galería Forum in Lima. They talk about the development of a market for young Peruvian art, which the gallery has been supporting since 1974. They discuss the changes in the local [...]

This essay reviews the origins (in 1997) of the work of Fernando Bryce who, unable to devote himself to painting, decided to explore the archives at the Ibero-Amerikanische Institut in Berlin and research the various reports there on the history of [...]

The author, Alfonso Castrillón, discusses a number of conceptual events that took place in Lima in the 1960s and compares them to other more recent ones, including the group exhibition Signo X Signo (1979) and Acción Furtiva (1980), performance [...]

This is the second part of the survey “Por qué no vivo en el Perú…” [Why I Don’t Live in Peru] conducted by the magazine Hueso Húmero in 1981. The magazine posed the question to seven intellectuals (painters, authors, critics, and [...]

This is the first part of the (two-part) survey “Por qué no vivo en el Perú…” [Why I Don’t Live in Peru] conducted by the magazine Hueso Húmero in 1981. The magazine initially posed this question to the following ten intellectuals ( [...]

 In this essay, Luis Lama Mansur discusses the period immediately after the military government led by General Juan Velasco Alvarado (1968–75), which he calls “the hangover years.” This period saw the loosening up of exports, the creation of [...]

In this essay, the historian Alfonso Castrillón discusses the work of Armando Williams. The author refers to an untitled painting, dated 1981, from his own collection, and learns that it was inspired by a photograph taken in Lima during the National [...]

In this essay, Gustavo Buntinx analyzes emerging Peruvian art, seeing it as part of a process that began twenty or twenty-five years earlier. He speculates on “what were or claimed to be alternatives in Peruvian high art during Fernando Belaúnde [...]

The critic Mirko Lauer interviews Fernando de Szyszlo, the Peruvian painter, who reminisces about his formative years in Europe after the Second World War. De Szyszlo mentions his decision to return to Peru “to contribute in any way to help things [...]

This newspaper article is about Fernando de Szyszlo’s exhibition at the Galería de Arte Moncloa Editores (April 1967). The anonymous columnist mentions the controversy that raged over abstract painting and provides comments from those who define [...]

In this essay the author Hugo Salazar discusses how different social groups in Peru use kitsch or “huachafo” words to express their particular tastes in discriminatory terms. He reviews the evolution of the latter Peruvian expression in the early [...]

This text is the second of three articles on the kitsch written by Hugo Salazar del Alcázar. In Salazar del Alcázar’s view, “the kitsch is the art of daily life, modern man’s frustrated ideal of joining art to daily life by means of a [...]

This is the first of three articles about kitsch written by Hugo Salazar. After analyzing the etymology of the German word Kitsch [verkitschen: to be conned or duped] and its relationship to expressions in other languages, he deduces its semantic [...]

In this essay the critic, theoretician, and art historian Wieland Schmied mentions the catalogue for Perú… Un sueño: Fragmentos de un Proyecto de Indagación Visual, the Grupo Chaclacayo’s exhibition at the Museo de Arte de Lima (November– [...]

The author describes his visit to the group’s studio in Chaclacayo (Lima) where he expected to find a group of artists working in the bright light of day, but found instead that the studio’s windows were covered with dark curtains that “ [...]

In this essay the author, Juan Acha describes the setting and diversity of the elements in the exhibition room where Gloria Gómez Sánchez mounted her installation Yllomomo. These include card boards, rubbish, unusable objects, objects that were [...]

In the introductory essay in the catalogue for the group exhibition Nuevas tendencias en la plástica peruana (1968), Juan Acha discusses the different views associated with the concepts of “universal” and “local” in developing countries. He [...]

This programmatic statement by the Grupo Arte Nuevo was included in the catalogue for their second exhibition, which ran from October to November 1966 at the MALI (Museo de Arte de Lima). Faced with “a world molded by the dramatic evolution of [...]

This article about the installation Mimuy (1965) appeared in Última Hora, a popular national newspaper. Published two days after the opening of the exhibition, the article notes the large number of comments received so far. It also mentions the [...]

This short article is about the second solo exhibition of Gloria Gómez Sánchez at the Cultura y Libertad gallery in Lima (May–June 1967). The anonymous author underscores the female content of the material on display: “woman [...]

In his review of the exhibition of works by the Arte Nuevo group at MALI (Museo de Arte de Lima) in November 1966, Juan Acha states that the first thing a visitor becomes aware of is “the presence of a spirit of renewal.” But he clarifies that he [...]

These are comments by Edgardo Pérez Luna on the first “happenings” staged in Lima. He thinks these “strident visual art procedures that these days are staged as part of exhibitions” have been given their “baptismal party” in Lima. He is [...]

In this newspaper article, “Juan Gris” (the pseudonym used by the journalist Mario Belaúnde Guinassi) reviews the first exhibition of works by the members of the Grupo Arte Nuevo. The group organized the exhibition to protest the fact that they [...]

This newspaper article is about the first Festival Americano de Pintura, organized by the IAC (Instituto de Arte Contemporáneo) and the Asociación Cultural Jueves as part of the Festivales de Lima. The article quotes the Argentinean critic and [...]

Journalistic note appeared the day after the first exhibition of the Arte Nuevo group was inaugurated at the Galería El Ombligo de Adán, an art space located in the center of Lima. The editor considers the members of the collective as “ [...]

This short newspaper article discusses the results of the first Festival Americano de Pintura, held in October to November (Lima, 1966). The Chilean painter Roberto Matta won the First Grand Prize (three thousand dollars) for his work Grande decoraci [...]

The renowned art critic Jorge Romero Brest, formed part of the jury of the first Festival Americano de Pintura together with the Venezuelan art critic and collector Inocente Palacios and the Peruvian architect Luis Miró Quesada Garland. In this [...]

This document is a letter by Felipe Buendía to the Lima magazine Caretas in response to the commentary on a previous letter of his. The writer and journalist states that he was branded as “resentful of society” based on his previous letter. He [...]

This is a letter by Felipe Buendía to the editor of Caretas, a magazine published in Lima, regarding the inauguration of the IAC (Instituto de Arte Contemporáneo) new building. The writer and journalist complains that the institution closed its [...]

In this essay, the author—Luis Antonio Meza—states that the prize for the Festival Americano de Pintura was three thousand dollars and that the jury was composed by the Argentinean critic Jorge Romero Brest, the Venezuelan collector Inocente [...]

Founded in 1947, the Galería de Lima, gave rise to the Instituto de Arte Contemporáneo (IAC) eight years later. After its inception, the IAC was key in revitalizing the local scene with international modernism through exhibitions by foreign and [...]

This newspaper article about the closing of the first premises occupied by the IAC (Instituto de Arte Contemporáneo) in Lima was written by Francisco Moncloa at the request of the director of the magazine Oiga. Moncloa lists a series of “anecdotes [...]

In this newspaper article, Edgardo Pérez Luna reviews an exhibition organized by the Grupo Señal at the IAC (Instituto de Arte Contemporáneo). According to the columnist, the young members of the group (Emilio Hernández, José Tang, Jaime Dávila [...]

This artistic critique was written by gallery owner and art critic Carlos Rodríguez Saavedra, on several exhibitions happening in November of 1965 in Lima. He calls attention to the exhibition Yllomomo presented by Gloria Gómez Sánchez—whom he [...]

This text is an article by Francisco Bendezú, a Peruvian poet, in which he critiques a series of exhibitions held in Lima (Peru) at the end of 1965. Among various shows in the Peruvian capital, the author emphasizes the ones by Luis Arias Vera and [...]

This is an anonymous review (which can be attributed to Juan Acha) of the second one-man show of paintings and an “installation” by Luis Arias Vera. Referring to an epigraph in the catalogue, the critic quotes Pierre Restany, who hopes to become [...]

This is Juan Acha’s review of Mimuy, the installation that was exhibited at the IAC (Instituto de Arte Contemporáneo) in Lima in late 1965. Acha mentions the incident that occurred before the exhibition opened. The complaint lodged by the Bolivian [...]

This is Luis Antonio Meza’s review of Mimuy, the installation created by Mario Acha, Miguel Malatesta, and Efraín Montero. The journalist and musician quotes the critic Juan Acha to explain the nature of an installation. Referring to the title of [...]

In this brief review, the critic and gallery owner Carlos Rodríguez Saavedra talks about Mimuy, the installation produced by Mario Acha, Miguel Malatesta, and Efraín Montero. In the author’s opinion, “it is not an exhibition, it is an [...]

The critic Juan Acha discusses the imminent opening of three exhibitions in Lima in late 1965—the installation Mimuy and the solo shows by Luis Arias Vera and Gloria Gómez Sánchez—which the critic describes as “very important.” Acha says [...]

In her art column, Carlota Carvallo reviews and discusses several exhibitions that opened in Lima in late 1965. She mentions the exhibitions of works by two sculptors, Alberto Guzmán and Marina Núñez del Prado, then goes on to talk about three [...]

In this interview the painter Gloria Benvenuto de Gómez Sánchez says: “Painting is in my soul. If I had been born at some other time I would have done the same thing: paint.” She states that art and her family are “her two great loves.” She [...]

This article, published in Caretas magazine, provides a sarcastic report on the works submitted to the Concurso Nacional de Pintura, the national painting competition sponsored by the Gobierno Revolucionario de las Fuerzas Armadas (in its first phase [...]

This document is the official version of the press conference given by the de facto president, General Juan Velasco Alvarado, at the Palacio de Gobierno in Peru on June 24, 1972. While the issues addressed revolve around international relations of [...]

In this text, Manuel Araníbar voices his opinion about the controversies surrounding the image of the indigenous forefather of Peruvian independence, José Gabriel Condorcanqui, Túpac Amaru II. In Araníbar’s view, the movement to uphold the [...]

This brief but eloquent article reports on the ceremony in which General Juan Velasco Alvarado, the president of the military junta in power from 1968 to 1975, unveils the portrait of Túpac Amaru II, the indigenous forefather of Peruvian [...]

This article from El Comercio, a Cuzco newspaper, refers to the competition organized to choose a sculpture to honor Túpac Amaru II to be placed in Cuzco’s Plaza de Armas, and reports that the winning design had been rejected. The correspondent [...]

This newspaper article reports on the forum that was organized by the Instituto de Cultura Andina y Lenguas Aborígenes (INCALA) [Institute for Andean Culture and Indigenous Languages] to discuss the idea of erecting the equestrian statue of Túpac [...]