Documents of Latin American and Latino Art

In this article, journalist Rodolfo Gerschman responds to the questions raised in a press release against an award given to altarpiece maker Joaquín López Antay issued by the Asociación Profesional de Artistas Plásticos (ASPAP) that upholds a [...]

In this text, Alfonso Castrillón argues that the conflict between “high art” and “folk art” is a reflection of class division, where the dominant class sets limits for low art by means of notions such as “individual creation” and “ [...]

The author of this article, Francisco Abril de Vivero, claims that the decision to send arts and crafts instead of “fine arts” to represent Peru at the 1977 Bienal de São Paulo was an act of “infra-Marxist populism.” In his opinion it was a [...]

In this newspaper article Juan Gargurevich criticizes the negative opinions expressed by the painter Juan Manuel Ugarte Eléspuru, who opposed the decision to award the 1975 National Culture Prize for art to the Andean altarpiece artist Joaquín Ló [...]

This is an interview with Joaquín López Antay, the Andean altarpiece artist who was awarded the Peruvian National Culture Prize in 1975. He describes certain aspects of his life and work, and responds to the criticism prompted by the recognition of [...]

The synopsis and the annotations in English are coming soon. However, our bilingual readers can click on “Español” to access this information in Spanish [...]

The synopsis and the annotations in English are coming soon. However, our bilingual readers can click on “Español” to access this information in Spanish [...]

On the back cover of number 4/5 of the magazine U-tópicos: Entornoalovisual (Lima, 1984), a brief anonymous article discusses the iconographic scenes painted on truck mudguards. The writer points out that, despite being ignored “by [...]

This text was written by Félix Nakamura for the catalogue for the exhibition Los pintores de Sarhua, that took place at the Huamanqaqa Gallery in Lima in 1977. Nakamura provides an account of his visit to the workshop operated by the artists Víctor [...]

This document is the letter sent by eminent Peruvian intellectuals, writers, and artists to Benjamín Roca Muelle—president of the Corporación Nacional de Turismo—upon learning that the property that houses “Pacho Fierro,” a folk music venue [...]

In this essay Pablo Macera states that although various anthropologists had studied the social organization of Sarhua (in the Departamento de Ayacuco), nothing was known about the quelcas or painted boards produced in this region until a few years [...]

In this text, critic Jorge Bernuy points out that the decision to grant the Premio Nacional [award] to an altarpiece maker is unprecedented in Peru. He agrees that it is necessary to consider craftsmanship a cultural expression of the people, [...]

This is a letter written by art critic Élida Román, who at the time was the director of the Museo de Arte Italiano,an art gallery dependent on the Instituto Nacional de Cultura, addressed to the leadership of said institution. The letter advises [...]

This essay was written by Elvira de Gálvez on the artist Alicia Bustamente on occasion of her death. The author highlights above all Bustamante’s work in the promotion and defense of Peruvian Popular Art. The author states that Bustamente “found [...]

This is an article by José Sabogal on the civil architecture of the Peruvian city of Arequipa. He highlights one of the most original constructive solutions of the Spanish during the colonial era. Given the lack of wood in the environment, the [...]

The synopsis and the annotations in English are coming soon. However, our bilingual readers can click on “Español” to access this information in Spanish [...]

This article by José Sabogal is about the recent work produced by the Indigenist painter Camilo Blas. The author discusses Blas’ two scenes of Cajamarca that are to decorate the new Salón de Palacio, which opened in 1924 in celebration of the [...]

In this article the writer and journalist José Eulogio Garrido discusses the indigenist painting of José Sabogal. Garrido describes the painter as “a man with a voice and vision of his own who expresses that voice and vision in visible ways that [...]

This is a poster for the Peruvian Folk Art exhibition at the XIV Bienal Internacional de São Paulo in 1977. The design includes only the title of the exhibition and an enlarged detail photograph of a Pucará Bull [...]

Alfonso La Torre interviews the photographer Eva Lewitus, who shares her opinions on the Peruvian folk art exhibition that was presented at the XIV Bienal de São Paulo in 1977. She thinks the exhibit did not reflect the full scope of this kind [...]

In this article the visual artist Carlos Bernasconi discusses the meaning of the terms “art,” “traditional art,” and “handcrafts” based on the definitions agreed upon at the 1st World Congress of Craftsmen held in New York in 1964. Noting [...]

In this review “Juan Eye” (the pseudonym used by the writer Sebastián Salazar Bondy) discusses the José Sabogal exhibition at the SAP (Sociedad de Arquitectos del Perú, Lima). The author states that Sabogal deserves to be acknowledged in the [...]

In this article, José Sabogal discusses Peruvian traditional art, which in his opinion, is “the key point, in the Americas, where Hispanic America began. When indigenous cultural expressions were combined with the invasion of Mediterranean visual [...]

Though he does not mention a change as such in José Sabogal’s latest paintings, the author detects the presence or hint of certain nuances he had not noticed before. Carlos Raygada compares Procesión del Señor de los Milagros—painted in 1923, [...]

In this essay the artist and researcher Juan Manuel Ugarte Eléspuru discusses the differences between “handcrafts” and “art.” In his opinion, the former term refers to traditional community works that were produced in response to local needs [...]

This newspaper article includes the full text of the communiqué from the ASPAP (Asociación Peruana de Artistas Plásticos) [Peruvian Association of Visual Artists] in which the association’s board of directors expresses its “radical [...]

The author, Natalia Majluf, states that these works, created using the techniques of the “minutemen” photographers that work in provincial city plazas, could initially be thought as ethnographic or touristic photography. Nevertheless, when [...]

López Merino begins his article by remarking on the success of Sabogal’s exhibition in Buenos Aires, “where the most discerning critics acknowledged the respect he enjoys in Latin America.” The writer describes the exhibition of prints as a [...]

Franklin Urteaga conducted this lengthy interview with Julia Codesido on the occasion of her recent exhibitions overseas. Referring to the first of these, at the recently inaugurated Palacio de Bellas Artes (Mexico City, 1935), Urteaga notes the [...]

In this opinion column the writers and critics Mirko Lauer and Abelardo Oquendo, writing under the pseudonym “Pedro Rojas,” challenge the arguments made by the ASPAP (Asociación Peruana de Artistas Plásticos) [Peruvian Association of Visual [...]

In this article about the 1975 Premio Nacional de Cultura [National Culture Prize], the painter Teodoro Núñez Ureta recognizes the legitimacy of the award and praises the winning altarpiece artist, but also deplores the controversy sparked by the [...]

This review, which appeared in the Lima magazine Oiga (February 27, 1976), discusses the different positions adopted by ASPAP (Asociación Peruana de Artistas Plásticos) [Peruvian Association of Visual Artists] and SUTAP (Sindicato Único de [...]

This critical review suggests that “art” is not an expression of the human spirit—as philosophical idealism would have us believe—but something created by culture and class; it is therefore a historically determined phenomenon that is [...]

The visual artist Gastón Garreaud weighs in on the debate over the decision to award the 1975 National Culture Prize for art to the Andean altarpiece artist Joaquín López Antay. Garreaud points to parallels he sees between this decision and Pablo [...]

This text written in the early 1920s by Emilio Delboy, signed with the pseudonym “Yobeld,” asserts that “a healthy spirit of aesthetic culture” is taking shape in Lima thanks to young artists. The origin of this movement lies in the founding [...]

In his critical review of Alicia Bustamante’s 1944 exhibition, Fuentes Ibáñez explains that the artist manages to harness “emotional and harmonious moods” to express “the feelings inspired by her surroundings.” He explains that Bustamante [...]

Óscar Fritz compares José Sabogal’s influence on the Peruvian visual arts to Martin Luther’s impact during the Reformation: a process that “sought to return to an earlier simplicity, to embrace a form of evangelical speech that mimicked the [...]

Reviewer Jorge C. Muelle confesses that he was wary before seeing the Mario Urteaga show at the Sociedad Filarmónica (Lima, 1937)—after all, “praise of spontaneous painters almost always leads them to ‘improve’ their resources, to copy [...]

The Peruvian intellectual Jorge Falcón interviews José Sabogal about the painter’s visit to Mexico in 1942, mentioning that on his arrival in the country, the Mexican government—via the director of the Instituto Nacional de Bellas Artes y de [...]

This editorial was published in number 4/5 (1984) of U-tópicos. Entornoalovisual, the Peruvian magazine. In the text, Gustavo Buntinx states that, while the Marxist proposal has yet to be carried out, Marxism itself tends to be distorted and reduced [...]

This is the journalist Juan Gargurevich’s second article about the debate sparked by the decision to award the 1975 National Culture Prize for art to Joaquín López Antay, the altarpiece artist from the Andean region of Peru. Gargurevich supports [...]

In his interview with Carlos Raygada, Héctor Velarde explains that his work “has consisted of coordinating and realizing the original concept” for the Basílica de Santa Rosa de Lima, while abstaining as much as possible from any alteration of [...]

Carmen Saco, the Peruvian sculptress and essayist, believes that the roots of Julia Codesido’s painting can be found in “blocks of stone that have been overwhelmed and penetrated by life and pain.” She believes that Codesido’s art expresses [...]

Luis Alberto Sánchez wrote this article on the occasion of the closing of José Sabogal’s exhibition at the Universidad Nacional Mayor de San Marcos (Lima, 1931). According to Sánchez, “Sabogal is a painter who represents all of Peru,” and [...]

In 1937, Ricardo Peña wrote about José Sabogal’s work on the occasion of his exhibition at the Sociedad Filarmónica, suggesting that the paintings on display could be classified, in terms of “his ethical and artistic approach,” into three [...]

In this article the art historian Alfonso Castrillón looks back at the debate over the jury’s decision to award the 1975 National Culture Prize for art to Joaquín López Antay, the altarpiece artist from the Andean region of Peru. Following the [...]

In this sarcastic article the ethnohistorian José Felipe Valencia-Arenas replies to the arguments expressed by the members of the ASPAP (Asociación Peruana de Artistas Plásticos) [Peruvian Association of Visual Artists], who disagreed with the [...]

In this article, the essayist and art critic Mercedes Gallagher de Parks discusses the pottery produced in the Amazon region of Peru, noting the wide variety of pieces and their surprising aesthetic. Very little is known about this pottery other than [...]

This article by Alberto Gerchunoff, a Russian writer and journalist based in Buenos Aires, criticizes “los predicadores del americanismo, (…) a la vez nacionalistas y continentalistas” [the preachers of Latin Americanism, (…) who are both [...]

This review considers Julia Codesido’s work within the context of art and literature produced by women, noting that this genre “is uniquely attuned to feeling and expression.” Though historically recognized solely in terms of family or social [...]