Highland fiesta

While his work is not devoid of irony, Camilo Blas was committed to placing Indigenous peoples at the heart of the national imagination. One example of this tendency is Juerga indígena [“Indigenous revelry”], painted in 1939 and based on a series of drawings made by the artist in Sicuani (Cusco), twelve years earlier.
Blas depicts a mountainous Andean landscape, but his main focus is a detailed description of the lives of the region’s people. The scene appears to be taking place in a closed and “pure” cultural world, isolated from modernity. The canvas displays a great variety of individuals and actions: two men play long flutes, while other people dance, chew coca leaves, or chat. One of them has left the group to vomit in a corner, suggesting that alcohol is responsible for the celebratory atmosphere. The painter highlights the facial features of his characters, creating highly stylized and expressive figures, clearly of Indigenous heritage. However, at the same time this emphasis on “race” also serves to introduce a negative component bordering on caricature.