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 “ [...]

Alfonso Castrillón defends the decision to recognize López Antay by granting him the Premio Nacional de Cultura [award], asserting that his work “is more authentic than the work of many so-called high artists, who have spent their whole lives [...]

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 [...]

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, [...]

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 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 [...]

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 [...]

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 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 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 interview the painter Milner Cajahuaringa expresses his profound disagreement with the decision to award the 1975 National Culture Prize for art to the Andean altarpiece artist Joaquín López Antay. Quoting from the dictionary of the Real [...]

This caricature published in the Lima-based newspaper La Prensa on January 10, 1976, formed part of the polemic around the Premio Nacional de Cultura [award] granted to altarpiece maker Joaquín López Antay as opposed to an “erudite” artist. In [...]

Gustavo Buntinx interviews Mirko Lauer on his social perspectives on the analysis of visual arts when applied to “the cultural structural order” currently in Peru. Lauer, commencing from a theoretical point of view, discusses the situation of the [...]

Francisco Moncloa applauds the decision to honor Joaquín López Antay, the Andean altarpiece artist who was awarded the National Culture Prize in the art category in 1975. Moncloa responds to critics who value “cultured art” above “handcrafts [...]

This essay presents the basis and verdict of the Premio Nacional de Cultura [National Culture Prize] for art, awarded in 1975 to the Andean altarpiece artist Joaquín López Antay. It is said that in Peru two types of art coexist: one is the so- [...]

In this newspaper article Félix Álvarez, the Spanish historian who lived in Peru, discusses the divide between popular and elite culture from the perspective of Marxist social theory. He explains that this dichotomy is not a capitalist invention, [...]

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. There is a [...]

Writer Luis Freire responds to the press release issued by the Asociación Peruana de Artistas Plásticos (ASPAP) protesting the decision to grant the Premio Nacional de Cultura to Andean altarpiece maker Joaquín López Antay. Freire considers the [...]

In this article the artist Félix Oliva reviews the debate sparked by 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 latter’s [...]

For the second time, the writer and journalist Luis Freire weighs in on the debate sparked by 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. In [...]

This is the founding statute, filed in Lima, Peru, of SUTAP (Sindicato Único de Trabajadores en las Artes Plásticas) [Sole Visual Arts Workers Union], an organization devoted to the recognition of the social function of art. The document states [...]

In this interview the painter Leslie Lee discusses the reasons behind the founding of SUTAP (Sindicato Único de Trabajadores en las Artes Plásticas) [Sole Visual Arts Workers Union], explaining the group’s disagreements and subsequent break with [...]

This is a report on the visit of the Andean altarpiece artist Joaquín López Antay—the winner of the 1975 National Culture Prize in the art category—to the INC (Instituto Nacional de Cultura). The report includes his statements as well as those [...]

This article, published in the newspaper La Crónica (Lima, 27 December 1975), quotes the opinions expressed by a group of artists shortly after the announcement that Joaquín López Antay, the altarpiece artist from the Andean region of Peru, had [...]

This article was published in the Peruvian newspaper La Crónica the day after the winners of the Premios Nacionales de Cultura for 1973/74 were announced. Significantly, the prize in the art category was given, the article reports, to Andean [...]

This newspaper article discusses the opposing points of view expressed by Peruvian artists in the debate over the 1975 National Culture Prize. Speaking in favor of the decision, Ciro Palacios states that the award acknowledges “an urgent need to re [...]

On the occasion of the decision to grant the 1975 Premio Nacional de Cultura [award] to Andean altarpiece maker Joaquín López Antay (1897–1981), journalist José B. Adolph reviews the categories of “high art” and “folk art.” While Adolph [...]

In this text, Mirko Lauer (under the pseudonym “N. O. Sengai”) points out that only artists and intellectuals, not artisans, have participated in the debate around granting the Premio Nacional [award] to López Antay. He argues that that is due [...]

In this article the intellectual and writer Guillermo Rouillón notes the post-mortem influence exerted by the work of the Indigenist painter José Sabogal, an influence that can even be seen in the decision to award the 1975 National Culture Prize [...]