Documents of Latin American and Latino Art

This text by journalist Mario Castro Arenas comments on the controversy surrounding the work Motociclista No. 3 by Luis Zevallos Hetzel, first prize winner at the painting competition organized by the Festivales de Ancón. The debate had widened [...]

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 artist Emilio Hernández Saavedra adds his ironic comments to the discussion about Motociclista No. 3, the controversial painting by Luis Zevallos Hetzel that won first prize at the competition organized by the Festivales de Ancón (1969). [...]

Juan Acha discusses the exhibition of Fernando de Szyszlo’s series of paintings inspired by the indigenous poem “Apu Inca Atawallpaman,” an event that was organized by the Instituto de Arte Contemporáneo (IAC) in Lima. Acha finds the [...]

This is a letter from a reader (“Alfredo Aguilar Ch.” is possibly a pseudonym) to Lima’s La Prensa newspaper, which denounces an alleged case of plagiarism by the Italian-Peruvian artist Hugo [Ugo] Camandona in a series of paintings exhibited [...]

This is an interview with Milner Cajahuaringa regarding his renouncement of being honorably mentioned by the Concurso Nacional de Pintura established in tribute to Túpac Amaru II after the main prize of the competition was voided. The Peruvian [...]

In his weekly column in the El Comercio newspaper, Luis Miró Quesada Garland discusses the relationship between ethics and art as part of the debate prompted by the survey about “classical” painting and “modern” painting that was sponsored [...]

The graphic designer Jesús Ruiz Durand replies to the five questions asked in the survey conducted by the Casa de la Cultura del Perú. The questions were about the attendance of the public in galleries, how to communicate with other viewers (such [...]

Although Juan Ríos recognizes in this open letter to El Comercio the right people have to give their opinion “on the work of any artist, living or dead,” he believes that “unless the painter requests otherwise, then the prologue of a catalogue [...]

José Sabogal—in homage to the work of Mario Urteaga—recalls his first trip to Mexico (1924), when the revolution had created a favorable environment for artistic creation. At that same time, in Peru, “we likewise undertook the difficult and [...]

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 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 [...]

This essay by the Peruvian businessman and politician Manuel Ulloa Elías appeared in the catalogue for El cubo abierto, the exhibition of paintings by Roberto Matta that the IAC (Instituto de Arte Contemporáneo) in Lima organized to celebrate its [...]

This text by essayist Carlos Rodríguez Saavedra is for the catalogue associated with Roberto Matta’s exhibition El cubo abierto, presented by the IAC (Instituto de Arte Contemporáneo) in Lima in September 1966, held to celebrate the anniversary [...]

In this article, the editor of the newspaper Noticias de Arequipa interviews José Sabogal on the occasion of the artist’s visit to Arequipa, and they talk about contemporary Peruvian painting and traditional art. On the former topic, Sabogal [...]

In September 1966 the IAC (Instituto de Arte Contemporáneo) in Lima celebrated its tenth anniversary with El cubo abierto, an exhibition of works by the Chilean painter Roberto Matta. Manuel Mujica Gallo, the founder and honorary president of the [...]

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 [...]

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 is the text of the entire talk delivered by Fernando de Szyszlo and part of the tribute organized by the IAC (Instituto de Arte Contemporáneo) in 1955 in honor of the painter Mario Urteaga. Szyszlo describes him as a highly idiosyncratic [...]

This newspaper article reports on the Arte Nuevo group exhibition at the improvised gallery El ombligo de Adán [Adam’s Navel], which was at that time housed under the “bourgeois roof” of the MALI (Museo de Arte de Lima). The anonymous [...]

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 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 text, Peruvian art critic Carlos Rodríguez Saavedra comments on a show of the series of painting by Fernando de Szyszlo based on Apu Inca Atawallpaman, a colonial-era Quechua poem translated into Spanish by writer and anthropologist José [...]

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 [...]

Javier Sologuren reviews the abstract oil paintings by Fernando de Szyszlo exhibited at the Instituto de Arte Contemporáneo (IAC) [Institute of Contemporary Art] in Lima. The author praises the quality of the works, whose values express “visual [...]

This document is the second letter sent by Juan Acha to Edgardo Pérez Luna, art critic for Lima-based El Comercio newspaper, where he defends the pertinence of his prologue to the catalogue to Exposición Homenaje, an exhibition in honor of painter [...]

Author Juan Ríos responds to the letter published by El Comercio wherein Juan Acha responded to the first letter Ríos had sent to protest Acha’s assessment in the prologue to the catalogue for the Exposición Homenaje for Sérvulo Gutiérrez, [...]

Author Juan Ríos continues his exchange of open letters by responding the publication of a letter in El Comercio (Lima, October 19, 1961), wherein Juan Acha defends himself against the accusation that he showed disrespect to Sérvulo Gutiérrez in [...]

The author, Juan Ríos, responds to the statement released by the IAC regarding the controversy generated by the opinions offered by critic Juan Acha in the catalogue for the Exposición Homenaje for Sérvulo Gutiérrez. Ríos believes it is “too [...]

This document is the first letter that Juan Acha sent to Edgardo Pérez Luna, art critic for Lima-based newspaper El Comercio. In it, Acha defends the text he wrote for the catalogue to the Sérvulo Gutiérrez retrospective, explaining that— [...]

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 [...]

Sarcastic praise offered by Juan Ríos for the IAC (Instituto de Arte Contemporáneo) given the institution’s defense of the prologue authored by critic Juan Acha for the catalogue for the Exposición Homenaje for painter Sérvulo Gutiérrez, [...]

Well-known writer Sebastián Salazar Bondy states that, as in the case of Sérvulo Gutiérrez, there are lives and works “that stimulate debate, that appear destined to be fought over even after they have come to an end.” Regardless of the [...]

In this text, Juan Acha recognizes the importance of Sérvulo Gutiérrez’s life and art for Peruvian painting, acknowledging that he is an integral part of “our national reality.” Notwithstanding, Acha clarifies, any attempt to go beyond those [...]

This article by Teodoro Núñez Ureta was written on the occasion of the death of painter Mario Urteaga. He recalls the tribute to Urteaga organized by the Instituto de Arte Contemporáneo (IAC) in Lima in 1955, and the need to classify the work of [...]

This is the catalogue for the exhibition of canvases and gouaches by Fernando de Szyszlo inspired by the series Apu Inca Atawallpaman, based on the colonial-era Quechua poem about the death of the Inca Atahualpa and the fall of the Tahuantinsuyo [...]

In his remarks on the series of paintings Apu Inca Atawallpaman inspired by the colonial-era Quechua poem of the same name, Sebastián Salazar Bondy rejects criticism that “sets out to speak FROM painting” and, thus, marginalizes theme. He argues [...]