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 decoración. The Acquisition Prize (one thousand dollars) was awarded to Gerardo Chávez López for La otra cara de la noche. Honorable mentions went to the Argentinean artists Eduardo Rodríguez and Dalila Puzzovio, the Peruvian Jesús Ruiz Durand, and the Colombian Bernardo Salcedo. One hundred thirteen paintings from seven countries were exhibited, which were valued at a total of two hundred thousand dollars.    

In an interview, the Chilean painter Guillermo Núñez said that he had known from the very beginning that his colleague Matta or Fernando de Szsyzlo would the most serious contenders for the grand prize. The members of the jury were the Argentinean critic Jorge Romero Brest, the Venezuelan collector Inocente Palacios, and the Peruvian architect Luis Miró Quesada Garland.   

Also known as the first Bienal de Lima or Bienal de la Feria del Pacífico (because the prior event had been held there), the Festival Americano de Pintura took place in October and November 1966. The jury was presided over by the Argentinean critic Jorge Romero Brest (1905–1989); the other members were the Venezuelan collector Inocente Palacios and the Peruvian architect Luis Miró Quesada Garland (1914–1994). Despite the former’s dissenting vote, the Grand Prize was awarded to the Chilean painter Roberto Matta (1911–2002). The festival organization and results were very controversial and came in for some harsh criticism, mainly from a group of young artists who had not been invited: the Arte Nuevo group. This conflict formed the basis of a generational break between the young experimental avant-garde and the hallowed language of the great names in Latin American modernism, fostered at a local level by the IAC (Instituto de Arte Contemporáneo).