Between October and November of 1966 the Festival Americano de Pintura was held in Lima. Its international jury awarded the first prize to the Chilean artist Roberto Matta, despite the voting going against the president of the jury, the Argentinean Jorge Romero Brest. This fact, as well as the fact of having excluded a group of young avant-garde artists from the award ceremony generated an immediate controversy. The following artists after previously being members of the group Grupo Señal collectively formed a new group called Arte Nuevo: Luis Arias Vera (b. 1931), Gloria Gómez-Sánchez (1921–2007), Teresa Burga (b. 1935), Jaime Dávila (b. 1937), Víctor Delfín (b. 1927), Emilio Hernández Saavedra (b. 1940), José Tang (1941–2006), Armando Varela (b. 1933) and Luis Zevallos Hetzel (b. 1933). Initially, they exhibited their works in an abandoned store that consisted of neon signs located in the historic center of Lima, just a few meters from the Plaza Mayor and from the Palacio de Gobierno, transforming it into an improvised gallery, El Ombligo de Adán, where they exhibited. This exhibition, with a larger display of Pop Art, Op and “thematic” was the key to the development of new artistic tendencies in Peru, especially in direct confrontation with the so-called “traditional” art. This event marked a generational rupture between the young avant-garde experimentalist artists and the consecrated great names and languages of Latin American modernism promoted locally by the Instituto de Arte Contemporáneo (IAC). During inaugural night, the writer and artist Felipe Buendía got dressed as the President of the Republic and offered an ironic speech before handing out popsicles and treats, becoming the protagonist of one of the first comportments referred to as “happenings” in the Peruvian artistic circles of the capital. [Please refer to the ICAA digital archive and the following texts regarding the group Arte Nuevo: “De cómo el Gral. Velasco reventó el ‘¡Pop! Art” by Luis Freire (1139323); “Espíritu renovador: exposición del Grupo “Arte Nuevo” by Juan Acha (1142771); “Exagerado sentido realista: Exposición de Luis Arias Vera” (no author) (1142510); “La nueva imagen del IAC” (1142594) and “La pintura se fue a la feria: Happening vs ‘bienal” (1142737) both Mario Belaúnde Guinassi who went by the pseudonym Juan Gris; “Mala noche de Buendía” by Felipe Buendía (1142628); (untitled) [“Nos encontramos en un mundo determinado...”] by the group Arte Nuevo (1142628); “Grupo Arte Nuevo” (no author) (1142834); “Op-Pop-Sex” (no author) (1142804); “Resentido social” by Felipe Buendía (1142644); “Treinta minutos de charla con la señora Gloria Benvenuto de Gómez Sánchez, nuevo valor de la Pintura Nacional” (no author) (1142413)].
