High, Low, and Beyond: The Question of Popular Art in Peru

This essay traces the emergence and development of the category of ‘popular art’ in Peru between the 1920s and the 1970s, and the relationship of that category to the formations of both modern and postmodern artistic practices in that country. Taking the awarding of the 1975 national prize of art to the retablista Joaquín López Antay as its fulcrum, it argues that this key event, which has been traditionally regarded as a watershed in the history of Peruvian art, was indeed the logical consequence of how indigenist painters framed the field of artistic production in Peru. It also analyses the simultaneous emergence of an alternative view of popular art that did away with notions of cultural authenticity and national representation.