The First Central American Biennial of Painting and the Presence of Marta Traba in the Costa Rican and Guatemalan Press, 1970-1979

Abstract

The article analyzes the reactions caused by the jury’s decision on the First Central American Painting Biennial in 1971, in both the Costa Rican and Guatemalan press. In the first section, Marta Traba’s position on Central American art is contextualized. Subsequently, in the second section a corpus of news articles compiled on the event is examined, to determine why the reactions were different in the two countries. In methodological terms, a hemerographic analysis was carried out on the following Costa Rican newspapers: Excelsior, La Nación, La República, La Prensa Libre, Diario Uno, Semanario Universidad, and The Tico Times. Press reviewed for Guatemala: El Gráfico, La Hora, El Imparcial, El Impacto, El Diario de Centroamérica and La Prensa Libre. In addition, documents referring to Latin American and Central American Art were reviewed in the archive of ICAA documents of the Houston Museum.