The first Bienal Interamericana de Pintura y Grabado [Inter-American Biennial of Painting and Printmaking] was fraught with contradictions. Firstly, the event was carried out in a context of intense political and aesthetic debates. Moreover, various publications at the time were declaring that Mexican painting was going through a moment of crisis. (See Antonio Rodríguez, “Se hunde la pintura en el vacío de lo mediocre” [Painting Sinks into the Void of Mediocrity], Siempre! Mexico City, 1957; as well as Luis Cardoza y Aragón, “No hay crisis en la pintura, solo estancamiento” [There Is No Crisis in Painting, Just Stagnation], in the “México en la cultura”supplement of the newspaper Novedades, dated December 29, 1957). Some painters were extremely upset by the unfair selection of works at the biennial, which had overlooked new pictorial expressions in Mexico. For this reason many people believed that the organization of the event itself lacked honesty and rigor, most especially because of the interference of the Frente Nacional de Artes Plásticas. As Raúl Flores Guerrero pointed out, this group attempted to impose the exclusive participation of its painters as well as the involvement of critics who were identified with political convictions rather than any real aesthetic knowledge. (See Rosa Castro, “Juicios sobre la Bienal, los críticos, Antonio Rodríguez y Raúl Flores Guerrero” [Opinions on the Biennial, the Critics, Antonio Rodríguez and Raúl Flores Guerrero], in the “México en la cultura”supplement of Novedades, dated June 29, 1958). Juan O’Gorman (1905–1982) was very angry because he had simply been fulfilling a commission and in return he was assaulted with criticism; as a result he had had to withdraw from participating in the biennial.