Changing Gender Roles and New Agencies in Contemporary Andean Peruvian Art: The Women Painters of Sarhua, Peru

The work of indigenous Sarhuino artist Venuca Evanán depict her own experiences and those of other Sarhuino women in Lima, the capital of Peru. The topics range from women collecting water from a trunk in the barriada where many Sarhuinos live, to her self-portrait in a contemporary art fair. Sarhua is a rural town in the highlands of Ayacucho; since the 1960s many Sarhuinos had to migrate to Lima. While in Sarhua, people used to produce rafters with paintings that referred to structural systems of social cohesion; in Lima, migrants continued to paint but adopted distinctly modern Western aesthetics to depict idyllic scenes of rural Sarhua (later more topics were added) intended for the urban public. Also, while in Sarhua paintings were produced by men, in Lima many women began to participate in this activity, and currently many have their own workshops and have developed their own style. Moreover, some have decided to focus on the experiences of migrant women and have found painting empowering.

By examining the paintings by Sarhuino women artists in Lima, this paper aims to unpack the ways in which diasporic identities are negotiated in a new cultural environment. Also, this paper analyzes the complex place of an artistic production that, coming from a traditional society, has been reframed as “fine art”, and the particular agency of Sarhuino women in this process. Ultimately, this paper demonstrates how Sarhuino women artists are also challenging the patriarchal social order and are contributing to re-shape Peruvian contemporary art.