Other important events in those years were the Hispanic-American art biennials, organized and officially run by the Spanish government and open to Iberian-American countries. In Spain, these exhibitions stimulated change and innovation in the government’s arts policy, leading to a greater acknowledgement of the new ideas and concerns of the avant-garde art community. But beyond Spanish borders the biennials were rejected outright by artists in the Americas, including Spanish exiles, who argued that the de facto government of General Francisco Franco (1939-75) had no authority or moral standing that entitled them to meddle in cultural affairs by organizing an artistic competition of this magnitude.
In addition to the group outrage, there were also individual protests such as the one expressed by Rufino Tamayo (1899-1991) when an item published in Excélsior confirmed that he would take part in the first biennial. Tamayo wrote to the Editor of the newspaper, Rodrigo de Llano, to deny his involvement in the competition. During the third biennials—which featured works by Diego Rivera, David Alfaro Siqueiros, and several exiled painters—Tamayo felt obliged to send this open letter to the press as a reiteration of his anti-Franco position, and criticized those who “seem to have forgotten all their formidable libertarian programs and, motivated purely by the lure of juicy prizes, appear to be quaffing deeply from the trough, licking the hand that until yesterday was apparently the object of all their loathing.”
For more information on these biennials and their scope, see J.M. Cabañas Bravo: La primera Bienal Hispanoamericana de Arte: arte, política y polémica en un certamen internacional de los años cincuenta [The First Hispanic-American Art Biennial: Art, Politics, and Controversy at an International Competition in the 1950s] (Madrid: Editorial Universidad Complutense, 1992). And, by the same author, Artistas contra Franco [Artists Against Franco] (Mexico City: UNAM, Instituto de Investigaciones Estéticas, 1996).